Frontispiece of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.

Dates: 4 October – 16 November 2013
Address: Galeri Manâ, Kemankeş Karamustafa Paşa Mh., Ali Paşa Değirmeni Sk No:16, Istanbul, Turkey

Galeri Manâ is delighted to present Bodies that Matter, a group exhibition in collaboration with Delfina Foundation and curated by Rebecca Heald, presenting works by Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Bashar Alhroub, Mustafa al Hallaj, Jeremy Hutchison, Jawad Al Malhi, and Olivia Plender.

The term “body politic” is a key metaphor in political thought and for centuries has been used it to liken the State to the human body. In visual terms, one of the most famous representations of this idea is the cover of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathanin which the sovereign’s body is made up of many individual people, a literal manifestation of his belief in absolutism and the ‘Authority of One man’. Hundreds of years later, in spite of many other possibilities, the idea, and ideal, of a nation as a single body made up of many persists.

The exhibition steals its title from Judith Butler’s 1993 classic book of the same name. It brings together artists absorbed in thinking about the body and structures of power in one of the most highly charged political laboratoires of our time: Palestine.

Bodies that Matter builds on independent research by curator Rebecca Heald and commissions stemming from Points of Departure, a year-long collaboration between Delfina Foundation, ArtSchool Palestine, ICA (The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London) and the British Council, which presented works by artists working in the UK and Palestine on urgent contemporary questions around identity, history and place.  The original commissions received additional support from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Galeri Manâ, located in the Tophane district of Istanbul, is a converted wheat mill that dates to the 19th century. Founded by Mehves Arıburnu in 2011, the gallery seeks to establish an inclusive and interdisciplinary dialogue through its artistic program, special events and publications. Galeri Manâ works with artists who stand on the edges of contemporary artistic practice by investigating the boundaries of their mediums and expanding their conceptual reach.

Several works in Bodies that Matter were originally commissioned by:

Exhibition Brochure

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