“Straight and In-Depth” Figen Aydintasbas Exhibition at Millî Reassurans Gallery in Istanbul

For her latest solo exhibition “Straight and in-Depth,” Figen Aydintasbas has recreated an Istanbul pastry shop inside the Millî Reassurans Gallery.

“Trianon Pastry Shop” by the famous Turkish writer Leyla Erbil, which is about longing for a time in the city’s life forever left behind, is the starting point to the exhibition. Aydintasbas was taken by the fact that the place exists today both connected and disconnected from its past as told in Mrs. Erbil’s story. She aimed to create yet a third iteration of the space with a similar connection/ disconnection relationship with the current reality and with that of the past.

The artist works almost as an archeologist in her new work, similar to the hero in Erbil’s story who is an amateur archeologist obsessed with finding the remnants of a baptistery under the walls of the bakery. The exhibition is an excavation of the locale through drawings, photos and writings. Photos provide the backdrop - the physical space as it exists now, complete with remnants of ancient walls, architectural elements that give away its past. Drawings hint at the assumed violence and destruction of the past.

Writings taken from parts of the story aim to question the version of the assumed truth.

The artist has been preoccupied with urban myths and metamorphosis for a large part of her career. Architectural details have always been a part of her past work whether in her paintings, collages, performance pieces or choices of exhibition spaces. Her last exhibit in 2007 examined the life of the first Turkish woman writer, Suat Dervis, in another site-specific piece at the Mavi Kum bookstore in Istanbul.