Italy meets Turkey at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art with the solo exhibition by Ahmet Güneştekin, the first Turkish artist of Kurdish origin to exhibit his works alongside the masterpieces of the museum’s permanent collection. The sculptures, paintings and monumental installations of YOKTUNUZ (“you were absent” in Turkish) tell the story, myths and legends of the civilizations of Anatolia, the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia, from which Ahmet Güneştekin draws inspiration, evoking their pain and resilience.
With an expressive polyphonic language that combines formal rigour and social commitment, Güneştekin takes us on an exciting journey to discover iconography rooted in remote eras and cultures. A central element of his poetics is the concept of memory: the memory of the invisible, the excluded, the minorities who are often left out of the official accounts of history. From memory arises the need to investigate and interpret social and environmental issues, engaging the viewer on a visual, intellectual and emotional level.
The main installation that gives the exhibition its title has been set up in the neoclassical hall with Antonio Canova’s masterpiece Hercules and Lica. It consists of hundreds of everyday objects collected from the rubble of Diyarbakir, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the scene of clashes in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, and from the ruins of houses destroyed in the province of Hatay by the earthquake in 2023. The dark, deep black of the work contrasts with the clarity of the marble sculpted with masterful intensity by Canova and transcends into universal mourning.
Two of the works on display, “The Seven-Eyed Sun 2G” and “Sarcophagi of the Alphabet”, will become part of the museum’s permanent collection, further sealing the bond between Güneştekin and Italy, already home to the future headquarters of his foundation, which will open in 2026 at Palazzo Gradenigo in Venice.
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