I Dreamed A Dream The Other Night

This exhibition was born from a simple curiosity: how do people in different periods of time connect with nature when faced with a feeling of ephemerality, either as a result of the profound changes surrounding them or due to an idiosyncratic questioning of the relationship between loss and time? The beauty embedded in nature rests on her simple yet powerful harmony that persists despite all the disasters with which she is faced. Bombs fall, loved ones pass away and yet rivers continue to flow and flowers to blossom with every breaking day, as if nothing has happened. Much like a resilient hero always capable of moving forward with their adventures, nature reminds us of the urge to stand still even if the world falls apart. Maurice Blanchot started his book ‘The Writing of the Disaster’ (1980) with these words: ‘The disaster ruins everything, all the while leaving everything intact. It does not touch anyone in particular; ‘I’ am not threatened by it, but spared, left aside. (…) We are on the edge of disaster without being able to situate it in the future: it is rather always already past, and yet we are on the edge or under the threat, all formulations which would imply the future…’ I Dreamed A Dream The Other Night invites its visitors to contemplate on the ideas of ‘timelessness’ and ‘disasters’ while reinterpreting nature as a shelter for vulnerable souls in a moment where past dissolves into future and future dissolves into today.

The exhibition begins with a series of landscape drawings, a painting and an etching produced by artists who were born into a transition period when humanity in the West witnessed dramatic changes. The rise of industrial machines, the extoling of science and consequent questioning of religion, as well as the determined belief in constant progress, trapped the souls of ordinary people in a hopeless stillness. The artists featured in the exhibition were wandering in nature, haunted by the destruction of world wars as their brushstrokes depicted flourishing green life. Despite the storms in their souls, they walked on lands and sought for hope in green hills, colourful flowers, dark trees and snowy mountains. Presented on the walls surrounding the exhibition space, these beautiful works create an invisible shield inviting visitors to re-consider landscape as a response to materialism and to contemplate how these artists turned to nature for solace and inspiration in a moment of mass destruction and social transformation. This section includes the works by Vanessa Bell, David Muirhead Bone, Eveleen Buckton, Charles Cheston, Duncan Grant, Wilfred Fairclough, Paul Nash, Gwendolen Raverat, Philip Wilson Steer and Alfred Thornton.

Richard Long’s sculptural installations indicate a significant exploration which brings a new interpretation to the relationship between land and nature in his artistic practice that now spans almost half a century. His works represent the basic forms of nature with collected materials during his walking routes and gives a glimpse of his relationship between time and place. With ‘Spring Circle’ (1992), Long marks a walk through north Cornwall by arranging chunks of greenish-blue slate in a circle on the floor. His physical traces on land are destined to disappear in a short period of time, however an aura derived from his knowledge and memories infuses his sculptures and wall drawings. Long’s act of walking as a graceful gesture seeks a harmony with the universe; walking as a meditative, personal and un-recordable exercise in the slowness of time finds an embodiment in the exhibition space through his inimitable style.

For her sculpture in sound ‘Lowlands’ (2008), Susan Philipsz recorded three versions of ‘Lowlands Away’ – a Scottish lament about a man drowned at sea who returns to tell his lover of his death. As if it were a spirit on a journey from 5 centuries ago, this work fills the exhibition space; it creates invisible bonds between the other works and attempts to drag the visitors into a dreamy land where impossible becomes possible and all disasters eventually disappear. Philipsz’s untrained and unaccompanied voice creates an intimacy while the lyrics give a powerful feeling of nostalgia. ‘Lowlands’ becomes the essence of this exhibition which hopes to create a constellation of different souls who are troubled with the same questions about nature.

Elif Kamışlı is the exhibition manager of the Istanbul Biennial. She studied political science, cultural studies and psychoanalysis. She was a teaching assistant at the Cultural Management Department at Istanbul Bilgi University from 2004 to 2008. Kamışlı worked at the 53rd Venice Biennial in 2009 and acted as the assistant curator for the opening exhibition of MAXXI, Rome in 2010. She has worked for Galeri Mana and Egeran Galeri in Istanbul from 2011 to 2014 as artist liaison and associate director, and organised solo exhibitions with Mel Bochner, Douglas Gordon, Ivan Navarro and Nasan Tur among others. Kamışlı has also worked as curatorial assistant at the 14th Istanbul Biennial in 2015 and was the co-curator of Colori together with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Beccaria and Elena Volpato, a group exhibition that will be opened on 13 March 2017 at Castello di Rivoli and GAM-Torino, Italy. She was the art editor of XOXO magazine from 2013 to 2014.

Alfred Thornton, Early Dawn Near Gibraltar, not dated, Watercolour on paper, 21.3 x 27.6 cm

Charles Cheston, Dorset Landscape With Quarry, 1918, Ink and pencil on paper,

24.5 x 37.5 cm, © The Artist's Estate

Charles Cheston, Norton Malrewood, 1923, Ink and wash on paper, 25 x 37 cm © The Artist's Estate

Duncan Grant, Mount Caburn, 1948, Oil on panel, 41 x 59 cm © Estate of Duncan Grant. All rights reserved, DACS 2017

David Muirhead Bone, River in Castile, not dated, Watercolour and crayon, 27.94 x 45.4 cm, © Estate of Sir Muirhead Bone. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2017

Eveleen Buckton, Nant Gwynant, 1943, Aquatint, 33 x 21.5 cm, © The Artist's Estate

Eveleen Buckton, Near Bala, North Wales, 1940, Watercolour, 16.5 x 25.5 cm, © The Artist's Estate

Eveleen Buckton, Tyinsholmen, Norway, 1946, Watercolour and ink of paper, 26.6 x 35.5 cm © The Artist's Estate

Gwendolen Raverat, Winter Morning, not dated, Colour wood cut, 14.8 x 19 cm © Estate of Gwen Raverat. All rights reserved, DACS 2017

Paul Nash, Stone Cliff, 1921, Watercolour on paper, 38 x 55 cm

Philip Wilson Steer, Low Tide, Mill Beach, 1933, Watercolour on paper, 23 x 31 cm

Philip Wilson Steer, Morning Landscape, with Trees, 1924, Watercolour on paper, 22 x 32 cm

Philip Wilson Steer, Sky Study at Greenhithe, 1932, Watercolour on paper, 21.5 x 28.5 cm

Philip Wilson Steer, Stormy Sky, Whitstable, 1931, Watercolour on paper, 23 x 31 cm

Richard Long, Spring Circle, 1992, Delabole slate 300 cm diameter. The work was digitally modelled for this project with the artist’s permission.

Susan Philipsz, Lowlands, 2008, Three-channel sound installation, 8 minutes, 30 seconds. The work was digitally installed for this project with the artist’s permission.

Vanessa Bell, Flowers in the Window, 1934, Watercolour on paper, 51 x 31.6 cm © 1961 Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy Henrietta Garnett

Wilfred Fairclough, Mountains Near Innsbruck, 1937, Pencil, ink and watercolour on paper, 21.9 x 28.5 cm © The Artist's Estate

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