Somebody Else's Car (2005) - Video Art at The Wembley Store in Valletta
The Wembley Store in collaboration with Blitz are proud to present a video art work by conceptual artist Ahmet Ögüt to the general pubic from our shop front window in Republic Street.
The artist (born 1981 in Diyarbakir, Turkey) works with performance, video, photography, installation, drawing and printed media. He has gained international attention for a practice that subtly references complex topics including religion, rural customs and the spectre of war, often charged with humour.
In Somebody Else’s Car Ahmet Öğüt transforms two random cars using ready made paper cut outs. Without requesting the owners’ permission he clads the first all in yellow and with the final addition of a boxed sign on the roof, the car adopts its new identity as a standard İstanbul taxi. On the flanks of the second car he applies graphics and on the roof a blue, white and red emergency siren and again, with remarkable dexterity and finesse, the originally plain white car is transformed into a police car.
Öğüt accomplishes each makeover as if performing an act of vandalism and yet his actions result in no more damage than the owners’ confusion and likely amazement on returning to their vehicles.
His video is as much a re-enactment of scenes he has heard about, as it is a performance of his mind racing forward to conjure a future situation on seeing the tell-tale white car, well known to contain such police in Eastern Turkey. In a similar way, his playful paper transformations subtly recall memories of a harsh political reality in the most humorous and whimsical of ways, as the white car adapted in Somebody Else’s Car becomes the police car he has always suspected it to be.
The video works speaks about an artistic transformation in the public space and is best experienced outdoor, hence our shop window. This work of art is an extension to the current exhibition at Blitz - USE FROM BELOW - a double solo show of artists Ahmet Öğüt and Adelita Husni-Bey curated by Sara Dolfi Agostino.
The video will be on display every evening until 30th November 2019.
Follow these links to learn more about Ahmet Öğüt, USE FROM BELOW and Blitz.
