alp klanten

(via Acilis/Opening: ALP/07.02.2012, Sohbet/Talk: Alp Klanten-Elmas Deniz/08.02.2012)

opening tomorrow…

ALP
February 7 – March 20, 2012
Opening: Tuesday, February 7, 17:00-20:00

Alp Klanten’s (1977, Bergisch Gladbach, DE) solo show ALP is opening on February 7^th. It is the fourth of BENGÜ BURAK VOLKAN ALP ELMAS İZ, a series of solo shows curated by Nazlı Gürlek for the 35th anniversary of Maçka Sanat Galerisi.

In his first solo show Alp Klanten presents a selection of photographs taken in Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Berlin and New York between 2010-2011. Among the seven photographs that are displayed without frames there are images of urban architecture that order their modern subjects, portraits of the artist’s friends as well as a scene showing a sculptor casting from between the legs of a naked model. The image depicting a young man dancing freestyle under a remote highway bridge communicates the standardization of urban architecture as well as the power of desire that brings people together and empowers individuals.

For the past 6 months Alp Klanten has been living in New York, pursuing his MFA in Advanced Photographic Studies at the ICP-Bard. Klanten’s former studies in social and political sciences constitute the background to his visual practice. In his present work, one can trace the cool and restrained conceptual imagery of the Düsseldorf school embodied by Thomas Struth; the diary-like and emotional American style associated with Nan Goldin and Ryan McGinley as well as that of Wolfgang Tillmans who was influenced by these two strands in documenting youth culture.

Klanten’s photographs address the ways in which people appropriate the built structures that make up the infrastructure of human society such as graffiti, and negotiate spaces for autonomy. These images are brought together with individual portraits of Klanten’s people. Declaring the personal political, and directing his queer gaze onto the ”political” bodies, Klanten’s art looks for each individual’s inherent strenght and their potential for defiance.

In the age of social media, when ordinary people feel compelled to expose themselves more than ever before, Klanten’s subjects speak about their private life, their environment, social and political identifications. They also bare traces of the zeitgeist and make visible today’s diverse forms of existence, styles and desires.