Can Aytekin's exhibition titled "Now Playing" meets the audience at Versus Art Project between April 14 – May 21, 2022. Taking its inspiration from Yeşilçam (old Turkish film art and industry), especially posters, lobby photos and movie lanterns (large-sized movie posters), the exhibition focuses on ephemera material.
Aytekin, who included a fragment of "Now Playing" in the "Coming Attraction" exhibition that he opened in Riverrun in 2019, places the streets of Yeşilçam in the focus of the exhibition. Hanif Han, where Versus Art Project is located, and the street on which it is located (Gazeteci Erol Dernek Street) also take place in the works of the artist as an important meeting and production point for Yeşilçam. The Istanbul Cinema Museum seen from the bay window of the gallery, the streets of Sadri Alışık, Ayhan Işık, Fuat Özkınay, demolished small cinemas, Yeşilçam cafes, and the former use of the gallery space as a cinema poster, design and printing center bring the dialogue between memory and place to the exhibition.
The artist, who approaches Yeşilçam through memory rather than from a romantic perspective of nostalgia, also references the practice of keeping archives and recording. The exhibition, which is designed as a site-specific installation with imagery of the street and a foyer, transforms the gallery into a living environment. Aytekin carries the traces of the street into the gallery by establishing a relationship between the interior and the exterior.
Consisting of different layers, “Now Playing” refers to the concept of unfocused seeing in spatial organization. Fueled by bricolage production and figurative storytelling, the exhibition invites the audience to participate in this experience. While allowing the viewer to generate the film, the front and back of the screen blend into each other. The Turkish movies titled “Sevmek Zamanı” and “Ayrılsak da Beraberiz” create the storyline of the exhibition.
