By Heidi Trautmann

Line is a body that connects things. It is continuous and leads somewhere or it is broken and you are lost, it will be stretched or breaking when under tension. It is a discipline in the arts. A line may be a border you are not supposed to cross, thus separating. In a metaphorical sense it may have many other meanings, for example how the curator of above exhibition, Başak Şenova, explains in the introduction of the art brochure:

“The fine line between the self and its surroundings has always been penetrated from both sides. Yet this line determines the position and the identity of the self. In the same vein the things the self desires to sink into oblivion are pushed to the other side of this line. Therefore, this very line also functions as a tool for unresponsiveness and blindness. The LINE exhibition noticeably presents diverse artistic approaches and positions with each work. Aptly, LINE inhabits artists and works from different geographies, while rendering and detecting comparable social, historical, psychological and political realities that surround the artists.”

The artists: Ali Cherri, Almagul Menlibayeva, Benji Boyadgian, Ceren Oykut, Maria Loizidou, Oya Silbery. Six works so different from each other that I cannot detect any tangents,  lines or fields of contact, they represent images of a concentrated individual view. The videos, photos and drawings are sending out touching, impressive messages with stories around identity, the other self, a call for a new memento mori. What is the human being in front of the great power of economy and consumerism, in front of exploitation, we feel left behind and all what is left is our dreams that one day things will change, that, for example,  the waters in Lake Aral will return.

Is this the line I was looking for? The small hope that one day things will change for the better?

The exhibition will remain open until 26 March 2015 at the ArtRooms from midday until midnight.