2022, LImbo, Contemporary Istanbul FoundatIon

 Artist: Canan Tolon

Contemporary Istanbul Foundation is proud to host Canan Tolon's work called Limbo, which refers to the suspended common living spaces that arise from the meeting of artificial and natural materials with balance and gravity.

Tolon's site-specific installation, which bears the same name as her book published in 1997, is the subject of years of artistic production practice, with spaces that have been saved, used, and that have witnessed wars—spaces where there is no sense of belonging, and which contain struggle, resistance, and healing in their nature, such as being free, imprisoned, or exempted from it all. It is reinterpreted in the Fişekhane compound in light of these concepts.

Limbo has been created with the idea that life is a continuous and uninterrupted flow of ideas without comparing the present with the past, which enables us to focus on the cycle systems that include the opposites of existence, extinction, construction, and destruction. It is unique, like all the works in the artist's corpus. From the past tense installations Measure or Topographer, the viewer may think that she or he is encountering a situation of familiar material, entropy, or danger. However, the viewer will be wrong. The main thing in Limbo is the balance and process between the cycle of extinction and existence. Endeavoring to get out of the rhythmic volumetric and suspense state familiar to architectural culture through a dangerous game, thereby trying to forget…

Play and the State of Limbo

From times of innocence in visual memory: swings lined up like a battalion soldier, one after the other, which we will recognize from our childhood. Contrary to its destructive function in history, the military structure, which is the point of reference today, invites you to play in Fişekhane. If what needs to be done in this innocent but menacing game is to interact with the swing, save it from its static state, and perform the act of swinging freely, why does the artist prevent this action in Limbo? We are faced with an absurd situation, with a subtle point of view that tells the same story 99 different ways in Raymond Queneau's book Exercises in Style, a favorite of Tolon, who is a strong reader and archivist.

This rhythmic structure, in which the reference point, which we have difficulty in situating ourselves, begins to disappear completely, is similar to the patterns of repetition that the artist frequently constructs on the canvas. The past, the future, the sense of belonging, and reality are slowly disappearing. The rhythm created by repetition is a struggle and a natural outcome. According to Tolon, seeing something between layers of paint always requires attentiveness and participation. The situation is no different in Limbo. The struggle to participate in the game is to escape from being caught in the inevitable cycle of death and life.

It is similar to the expansionist policies in city planning. The metals on the ground, which look like ships that are accosting each other, becoming the central part of the exhibition space, rusted as a result of the corrosion caused by the contact with water. Just as the effect of water on metal destroys it, grass also dries up and dies from drought over time. At this moment, the work begins to realize itself.

In the recurring uncertain times of epidemics, wars, and economic crises, man is almost in limbo between death and life. We are more and more inactive day by day; just like in Limbo, we are in a suspended state of mind. Everything we choose to forget in our lives is entrapped in repetition. Canan Tolon presents it to us invitingly, as if it were a game. It reminds us once again that we should not forget the concepts of life and death, the gentle cycle of nature, in this place where we can distract ourselves.

Text by Ayca Okay