Hussein Chalayan

Galerist, Istanbul 

Venice, 51th International Venice Biennale, Turkey Pavilion, Absent Presence, 2005 (film version exhibited) 
Mardin, Mardin Biennial, Kasimiye Medrasah, Zinciriye Medrasah,Tokmakcilar Konak, 2010 (another version exhibited)

The avant-garde artist and fashion designer, Hussein Chalayan, has fast become an agent for cross-border exchange of cultural and historical discourse via his varied oeuvre of works. By fusing architecture, technology and music with fashion, arts and cultural studies, Chalayan acts as an interpreter offering a visual platform for burgeoning contemporary concerns such as; immigration, multiculturalism, displacement and hybridity amongst diverse cultural identities.

The Absent Presence, represented Turkey at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2006. The enigmatic short film references themes of the self, geography, heredities, biology and anthropology. Proposing and discussing nationalities that are predisposed to adapt to new environments, Chalayan generated a research based narration for his widely acclaimed cross-disciplined video installation via sculptures and cinematic stills such as the present work.

Staged from the perspective of the master-narrative, the plot of The Absent Presence illustrates paranoia and the logic, or lack of; substantiating the heavy security precautions implemented in developed countries, in the aftermath of the World Trade Centre attacks. The experiment is narrated by a British biologist, played by Tilda Swinton. She embarks on this project by collecting DNA samples from pieces of hair and skin found on the clothing of foreign female students to research the similarities between their appearances and social characteristics. These anonymous individuals essentially share the common denominator of holding immigrant status. The film illustrates the vast miscalculations of the experiment and it closes with Swinton beginning to question her own identity as she is slowly overcome with self-doubt over her status in the world. The present diptych partly shows the moment when Swinton’s racial preconceptions are shattered. Clinically depicted in an isolated and sterile atmosphere, acting as the biologist, she attempts but fails to silence the revelations emphasised throughout this piece.

Via his enigmatic work, Chalayan challenges the deterrence towards migration created by developed countries who attempt to provide “solutions” against the “threat” of unwanted asylum seekers. His design palette often examines the social and cultural landscape surrounding us, which unwittingly influence and shape our social preconceptions and bias.