{ "id": 1920, "date": "2025-05-09T10:30:51", "date_gmt": "2025-05-09T10:30:51", "guid": { "rendered": "https:\/\/artecontinua.org\/?post_type=artist&p=1920" }, "modified": "2025-07-21T15:35:33", "modified_gmt": "2025-07-21T15:35:33", "slug": "sarkis", "status": "publish", "type": "artist", "link": "https:\/\/artecontinua.org\/en\/artist\/sarkis\/", "title": { "rendered": "Sarkis" }, "content": { "rendered": "

Sarkis<\/strong> (born 1938 in Istanbul, Turkey) is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary artist known for his works that explore the relationship between memory, history, and spirituality. Working with a wide range of materials and techniques\u2014from installations to sculptures, videos to drawings\u2014Sarkis creates works with a powerful emotional impact that intertwine personal and universal elements.<\/p>\n

Nel 2008, Sarkis ha partecipato a Art to Art VIII<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, sviluppando per Poggibonsi l\u2019opera La Fontana degli Acquerelli<\/em>,<\/strong><\/a> una fontana pubblica che riflette la sua poetica del colore e della trasformazione. L\u2019opera, ancora oggi parte integrante della citt\u00e0, \u00e8 diventata un simbolo del dialogo tra arte contemporanea e spazio urbano.<\/p>\n

Sarkis has exhibited at prestigious institutions and international biennials, cementing his role as a central figure in the contemporary art scene. His work continues to inspire and engage audiences through profound reflections on the human condition and our connection to the past.<\/p>\n

Born in Istanbul in 1938, Sarkis studied French, painting, and interior design before moving to Paris in 1964. In 1967, he won the painting prize at the Paris Biennale and presented his work *Connaissez-vous Joseph Beuys?* at the Salon de Mai, in a reference to the man he considered the most important artist of the time. In 1969, he was invited by the critic and curator Harald Szeemann to take part in the now-legendary exhibition *When Attitudes Become Form*. Teaching and sharing experiences are central to this artist\u2019s practice. From 1980 to 1990, he served as director of the art department at the \u00c9cole des Arts D\u00e9coratifs in Strasbourg, and from 1988 to 1995, he taught a seminar at the Institut des Hautes \u00c9tudes en Arts Plastiques, founded by Pontus Hulten. Since the 1980s, Sarkis has participated in numerous international exhibitions (including Documenta and the Venice, Sydney, Istanbul, and Moscow Biennales) and has exhibited his works in major museums around the world.<\/p>\n

In the 2010 exhibition *Passages*<\/em> at the Centre Pompidou, Sarkis\u2019s works engaged in a dialogue with those of Kasimir Malevich,the wall of Andr\u00e9 Breton\u2019s studio<\/em>, and Joseph Beuys\u2019s *Plight*<\/em> \u2014one of Sarkis\u2019s sources of inspiration, along with Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, one of whose films he explored in the Brancusi studio. The \u201cpassages\u201d evoked both the constant back-and-forth between an artist\u2019s studio and the museum, and Walter Benjamin\u2019s great unfinished work on the arcades of Paris. The exhibition featured a series of recent works or pieces created specifically for the Centre Pompidou. These works, standing like the artist\u2019s KRIEGSSCHATZ (trophies), included found objects, works of art, and ethnographic artifacts from various civilizations.<\/p>\n

In 2011, the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Art Moderne et Contemporain in Geneva (MAMCO) dedicated a major retrospective to the artist, titled *H\u00f4tel Sarkis*. The four-floor exhibition brought together 200 works created between 1971 and 2011 and explored the artist\u2019s various media (video and sound installations, watercolors, photographs, and films), thereby amplifying the resonance of a body of work produced in response to other artists\u2014whether musicians, architects, writers, philosophers, painters, sculptors, or filmmakers.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Sarkis presented *Ballads*<\/em> in the 5,000-square-meter Underwater Hangars, at the invitation of the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and the Port of Rotterdam, as well as *Ailleurs, Ici* at the Chaumont-sur-Loire estate, commissioned by the Centre Regional Council. He also participated in the group exhibition *La Triennale \u2013 Intense Proximit\u00e9* at the Palais de Tokyo with his *Frise des Tr\u00e9sors de Guerre*<\/em>, presented at *N\u00e9on: Who\u2019s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue?*<\/em> at La Maison Rouge \u2013 Fondation Antoine de Galbert and Istanbul Modern at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Sarkis participated in the exhibition *When Attitudes Become Form<\/em>, Bern 1969 \/ Venice 2013* at the Prada Foundation as part of the 55th Venice Biennale. He also exhibited at \u201cPassages Crois\u00e9s\u201d<\/em> at the Ch\u00e2teau d\u2019Angers and was invited to present his \u201cFrise de Guerre\u201d<\/em> at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania as part of the exhibition \u201cThe Red Queen.\u201d<\/em> Sarkis also participated in the exhibition \u201cIci, Ailleurs\u201d<\/em> as part of the Marseille\u2013Provence European Capital of Culture program, and in the exhibition \u201cModernity? Perspectives from France and Turkey<\/em> at Istanbul Modern and in his solo exhibition titled *Sarkis \u2013 Cage \/ Ryoanji Interpretation*<\/em> at ARTER \u2013 Space for Art in Istanbul. In 2014, he exhibited his \u201cring portraits\u201d at the Huis Marseille Museum of Photography in Amsterdam, and his work was presented at three venues: the CIAC, the MNAC, and the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest. A solo exhibition dedicated to his work was held at the Mus\u00e9e du Ch\u00e2teau des Ducs de Wurtemberg in Montb\u00e9liard.<\/p>", "protected": false }, "template": "", "class_list": [ "post-1920", "artist", "type-artist", "status-publish", "hentry" ], "acf": [], "_links": { "self": [ { "href": "https:\/\/artecontinua.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist\/1920", "targetHints": { "allow": [ "GET" ] } } ], "collection": [ { "href": "https:\/\/artecontinua.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist" } ], "about": [ { "href": "https:\/\/artecontinua.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/artist" } ], "wp:attachment": [ { "href": "https:\/\/artecontinua.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1920" } ], "curies": [ { "name": "WP", "href": "https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}", "templated": true } ] } }