Intermissions: Özgür Kar

Özgür Kar creates installations that feature black-and-white animations as skeletal characters appear on their own towering screens. While each of his projects hints at different stories and explores new configurations in space, they often function like multi-part soundscapes and deconstructed theater pieces as isolated figures become performers in looping scenes that are at once austere and emotion-filled.

As part of the Intermissions series, Kar presents DAWN, a new work created for the Renaissance Society’s space, unfolding across two days as visitors are invited come and go. With echoes of early animated films, the existential monologues of Samuel Beckett, medieval danse macabre, and more, Kar’s new work at the Ren imagines an endless performance without human actors. The sun is coming.

Death’s voice and clarinet: Ivan Cheng
Death’s violin: Cleek Schrey

Curated by Karsten Lund

ÖZGÜR KAR (b. 1992 in Ankara, Turkey) lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is a graduate of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten. He has recently had solo exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Liebaert Projects, Kortrijk, Belgium; Emalin, London; and Édouard Montassut, Paris. His work is featured in the 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, and has been included in group exhibition and screenings at Jeu de Paume, Paris; Quinta do Quetzal, Vidigueira,  Portugal; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; CAC, Bretigny, France; Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem;  and the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale; as well as other museums and galleries. Kar received the Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize in 2020.

Intermissions launched in January 2017 as a new programming series devoted to performance and other inventive time-based works, staged in the Renaissance Society’s empty gallery in between exhibitions. This recurring platform presents two events every year, supporting a wide variety of live projects while pushing at the edges of with what this might entail.

Support for this presentation by Özgür Kar has been provided by SAHA – Supporting Contemporary Art from Turkey, www.saha.org.tr; and the Mondriaan Fund, the Dutch public cultural funding organization focusing on visual arts and cultural heritage. This program is also supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.