10 years Kasa Gallery Istanbul

Ödeşme / 20.05.2009 - 27.06.2009 Assaf Gruber, Lia Lapithi, Devrim Kadirbeyoğlu, Küratör: Işın Önol
[Pardon's] 'project' is not to wipe away memory. It is not forgetting. On the contrary, its project, which is to overlook... the debt, is incompatible with that of overlooking what is forgotten. Pardon is a kind of healing of memory, the end of mourning. Delivered from the weight of debt, memory is freed for great projects. Pardon gives memory a future.
Paul Ricoeur
Notes on the artist by the curator Işın Önol:
Videos and photographs by Lia Lapithi (Nicosia, 1963) emphasizes a more subjective approach as they support the political stance of the artist by slogans. She characterizes the series Do You Believe in Water? as a regional preoccupation which bears the burden of social, political, economic and ecologic issues. Both of the works exhibited here are part of this series. Videos are shot with a visual concern, which could be seen in food photography or cooking pro-grams on TV. The video from 2006 titled Recipe for Marinated Crushed Olives, tells the whole process of producing crushed olives, while a Greek newspaper that is used for covering the area of preparation catches the attention. The newspaper is not worn out perhaps, even not read, forms the backdrop of the image shot from above. As mentioned by the artist, this process of preparing olives comes down from Byzantine era. Lapithi ends her recipe with the words she defines as an ironical paradox: 'Cyprus split in 1974, salt has removed bitter-ness, has been marinated since'. However the real catchword is the undivided Cyprus on the flag she uses to cover the olive container.
Olives in Syrup from 2007 is an olive desert recipe but it starts with a quotation: 'On the peak of an occupied mountain the "visitor" comes across sweet olives. As soon as the olives melt in this mouth, something happens inside him that changes his life. It is called "the taste of sweet olives; he becomes softer, negotiable, hopeful”. The song by Abba from 1973 'Disillusion' seems to deny the story as in the following year the country is to be disunited. With the words embedded into the recipe “Note that: Declared objectives are often different from real intentions which remain shrouded in sugar-coated declarations" Lapithi conveys her tag line before she wraps the jar with an embroidered cover. Lapithi's political approach could be defined as a position against fuelled nationalism and militarism. Cyprus is considered as the most militarised area in the world with 19 soldiers per square kilometer and is the third most widely armed country with 89.100 guns per one million people. It hosts many armies from Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot, Turkish, Greek, UN and British forces. It is the only country in the world with a divided capital city. Lapithi produces installations, videos and photographs dealing with these issues and also concerning environmental problems. Although her starting point are local issues, her position is against nationalism and militarism in general.

History of the building:
The building with a round facade decorated with blue tiles and sculp-tural elements which looks on to Galata Bridge and Karaköy square, is thought to be commissioned by Bank of Athens to architect Basile Couremenos and built in years 1911-1913.
This elegant building with perfect proportions which housed many local and international financial firms since then, is truly missed by everyone who worked there during the set up period of the university. The idea of converting the historic vault that is discovered at the basement of Minerva Han, into an art gallery is raised by Erdağ Aksel and Selim Birsel who were appointed to start the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design program. With the approval and sup-port of Güler Sabancı and Tosun Terzioğlu the project gets under way in 1999. -

Since 2005, Ash cetinkaya has been working as the gallery manager.