Sensation and Boundaries

On February 8, 2025, the group exhibition of contemporary art titled “Sensation and Boundaries” opened at the Bademalti Sk, No 19, Istanbul. This exhibition, featuring works in various media (photography, painting, performance, music), brought together 10 artists from different countries around the world and was dedicated to exploring the limits of artistic perception. How free is the contemporary artist in their expression? How flexible are the boundaries of genres and mediums, and how susceptible are they to mutual penetration? Has contemporary art reached a deadlock? The exhibition “Sensation and Boundaries” aims to address these questions, specifically to conduct a revision of what it means to be a contemporary artist in the broadest sense. The realisation of this ambitious goal is reflected in the diverse works of the participating artists. We felt it was important to introduce you to three of the most interesting artists featured in this event.

For instance, Elena Timokhina’s unique literary performance “Crossing the Line” explores the highly relevant theme of the interaction between voice and memory, literature and contemporary art, author-writer and author-performer. Literary performance is a liminal border genre that places literature and gallery art side by side as comparative research objects. Timokhina’s project is, on one hand, a reenactment of a long-standing modernist utopia of the synthesis of arts, and on the other hand, it is a socio-critical experiment in which the audience is not only a co-author but also a co-creator of the catalogue of reality.

Yulia Rotkina’s painting, particularly her work “All I Own,” expands the boundaries of representational norms. For her, working with hyper-contemporary material realities and legitimising them is immensely important. Contemporary painting often veers towards stylisation or hermeneutics of the depicted objects and spaces. However, Rotkina’s painting is, to some extent, a bold mix of an apologia for the modern object and its art interpretation. It presents the complexity of establishing personal hierarchies of things and objects. Therefore, the dominant visual metaphor of the artist is a USB cable set against a post-expressionist backdrop.

Photographer Victoria Skutina explores the limits of what is permissible within a single genre or artistic technique. Finding passion in the repeated application of one approach over many years is the starting point of Victoria Skutina’s symbolic journey through flat interactions. “Crying Tree” is a breathtaking experiment in exploring the natural world, its theatricality, and its foundations. The artist considers flat relationships in her works as opportunities for collaging the flat images of reality.

The exhibition also features works by artists:
Burak Demir, George Whiffin, Ahmet Yılmaz, Sofia Bianchi, Chen Jie, Elif Kaya and Ananya Reddy.

The exhibition will be open from February 8 to 10, 2025. Be sure to visit!