Öktem Aykut will present works by Selim Birsel and Samuel Laurence Cunnane at Liste Basel. Quietness can be a key word for Birsel and Cunnane's works, and behind this quietness, both practices contain subtle, persuasive and memorable tensions. For Cunnane, an Irish-French photographer, discovery is integral to his work. It is a deliberate approach as it is relational and fleeting, vantage points alter and change perpetually. None of these works are staged or planned, they are encountered as the artist wanders. Birsel, a founding member of contemporary art in Turkey, often recounts walking as a mode of thinking and an integral part of his practice. In these walks and wanderings he often collects found objects later to be transformed and used in his installations. In Birsel's works, personal sensitivities are intertwined with political expressions. Öktem Aykut aims to emphasize an alternative take on the subtle uncertainties in a contemporary global culture. Cunnane and Birsel's works point to both something that has happened and something that has yet to come. 
 

Selim Birsel (1963, TR) completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees at École des Beaux-Arts in Grenoble and Institut des Hautes Etudes en Arts Plastiques in Paris. He is a founding member of Turkish contemporary art scene and has been active since the 80’s. His work is diverse in it’s approach as he works in drawing, painting, installation, photography, video, performance and public interventions. He has been incorporating stamps in his works from early 90's on and developed a certain ownership of the material as a signature for his works. He uses other unconventional materials such as dust, spices and found objects. Birsel lives between Istanbul and Chios.

Samuel Laurence Cunnane (1989, IE) has been consistently making hand-printed photographic work for the last 10 years. His method of working involves an evolving dialogue with photography and its unfoldings. Cunnane's transitory way of living, be it in the west of Ireland, or a neighborhood of Istanbul or in the outskirts of Nagoya in Japan, has had a lasting effect in his very outlook and way of interacting with the perceived world. Cunnane's work deals with peripheries and transitions, both in physical terms and on a subconscious level. These states of becoming where a fixed point is absent and all is relational is a defining feature of his work.