Clinical psychologist Yeliz Şık Çifçi transforms the indescribable unconscious state that remains after therapy sessions into a visual language in the exhibition “51st Minute.” This inner journey, spanning from the birth of love to its separation, leaves the viewer alone with their own silence at DG Art Project.
It was an evening when winter couldn’t quite bring itself to arrive, and autumn stubbornly clung to the city. In Piyalepaşa, one of Beyoğlu’s old neighborhoods, we find ourselves in Polat’s commercial complex, accompanied by the tranquility of the historic Piyale Paşa Mosque, a Mimar Sinan structure rising directly opposite us. The DG Art Gallery in this complex is hosting a completely different kind of artistic event in its newly opened hall. This venue, which has hosted various artists for years, was presenting Clinical Psychologist Yeliz Şık Çifçi’s first solo exhibition, “51st Minute,” to viewers under the guidance of curator Dr. Zeynep Öztürk.
The “51st Minute” exhibition translates the deep, indescribable unconscious state that settles in after a therapist’s sessions into a visual language. The traces left by love stories heard over the years take on a new form through Çifçi’s canvases and objects. A broad emotional map unfolds before us, spanning from the birth of love to separation, from the search for healing to the reconstruction of the self. This entire narrative filters through the artist’s inner world and spreads throughout the space.
Some of the works speak from a place that is both familiar and unsettling, in the artist’s own words. Alongside the excitement felt in the first spark of love, the fractures echoing in the cold silence of separation also find their place in these images. The session room, constructed in a corner of the space, invites the viewer into the therapist’s imagination; even though the session is over, we are wandering in a space filled with an inner voice that continues to speak.
The layered narratives constructed with collages sometimes combine with the sharpness of nails placed on the keys of a typewriter. Some keys of this typewriter, carrying the pain of writing or never being able to write, have been left blank. As you get closer, you notice: with the keys left blank, only “you” and “me” can be written on this tired machine. Like a symbol of the unsaid, the things left in between, the things left behind.
The blackboard immediately behind it is the exhibition’s most inviting play area. The chalk invites the viewer; everyone can leave their own sentence, their own mark. This small invitation deepens the relationship with the work; it’s as if each visitor adds their own breath to the exhibition’s silently continuing dialogues.
After a while, the place gradually fills up; artist friends and art-loving acquaintances trickle into the hall one by one. Each of us stands before the works, leaning inward, sometimes smiling at those old feelings of love, sometimes slightly cringing at the shadow left inside by lovelessness. Each painting, each object, seems to know something about us but resists telling us.
Then, with his modest demeanor, we make eye contact with Adnan Polat. First we talk about the works; then the conversation suddenly extends to the Balkans, to the Gülbaba Tekke, to places where roads and stories intersect. His pleasant conversation creates a small circle around him; over time, the circle widens, the voices multiply. We look up and see that the conversation no longer fits within the walls; we find ourselves outside, mixing the warm voices left behind by the exhibition into the air.
This first solo exhibition by artist Yeliz Şık Çifçi will undoubtedly mark a new beginning. For it is certain that she will continue to create with words filtered through the wounds of love and images seeping from beneath an introverted silence. It is not difficult to foresee that this conceptual selection, in which we all catch a glimpse of our own past, will reappear in new solo exhibitions exploring other themes.
For the full article: https://www.forbes.com.tr/forbes-life/dg-art-project-te-yeliz-sik-cifci-ile-51-dakika-sergisi
