The Detour exhibition, due to visit Istanbul after stops in London, New York, Paris and Berlin, will exhibit a unique collection of Moleskine notebooks designed and personalized by internationally celebrated artists.
Detour is set to arrive in Istanbul on 22th May at santralistanbul. As its name suggests, Detour is a travelling group show dedicated to the nomadic and the winding route of contemporary creativity and imagination. During the event, art
lovers are invited to witness internationally renowned artists and designers from every corner of the world share their designs and creative processes through their personalized Moleskine notebooks. Detour displays an innovative artistic experience wherein art lovers can touch and feel in person the ever-active power of imagination in the pages of
Moleskine notebooks in the form of drafts, drawings, notes, keys, photographs or designs. Constantly on the move, Detour continues to attract new artists to the project, especially figures within the creative community who are particularly related to the cities where exhibitions take place.
Curated by Raffaella Guidobono and designed by Zetalab and previously held in design-oriented cities such as London (2006), New York (2007), Paris (Spring 2008) and Berlin (Fall 2008), the Detour exhibition resumes its voyage to Istanbul, with Tokyo to follow in late 2009.
Detour is due to arrive in Istanbul in May and will introduce to the inhabitants of Istanbul the notebooks of over 50 writers, artists, directors, graphic designers, architects and illustrators of international fame.
During the exhibition, visitors will have the opportunity to observe the Moleskine notebooks and witness the creative processes of renowned artists, designers and architects including Karim Rashid, Ron Arad, and Han Tümertekin... The visitors of the exhibition will enjoy a unique experience through this contemporary approach to design using notebooks
filled with spontaneous designs or the creation of notebooks as individual art objects.
The Artists
Amongst 50notebooks some works contain extensive stories; others are turned into pieces of contemporary art and design. All of them deliver an intimate insight into the artists' creative process.
Ross Lovegrove's oeuvre spans over furniture accessories, interiors and concepts for architectural space as well as printed matter. His contribution consists of bare but beautiful ink drawing, using no words just abstract images and pure
light evoking suggestive narratives that hover between cosmic rings and planets. Awarded for his important role in the Design History by main Institutions, he has been shown in Biennials and featured in Solo Exhibitions in various Museums worldwide. Ross was also represented in Istanbul by Galerist for his limited edition pieces.
Ron Arad decided to fill a pocket notebook with a delicate representation of daily life scenes inspired by the events of Milan Fashion Week. He appropriates a language of symbols and codes from consumerism and delves into issues related to environment, history and media with personal notes, and sketches imposed over a collage of fashion magazines and advertising. This commentary runs like a subtitle of a film; a line of script to describe the dream-like state of his work.
Karim Rashid is a true eclectic designer. Celebrated worldwide between solo Exhibitions and exhibits in main Institutions, his passion still lies in teaching in Design Schools. Paper a shared medium; his Moleskine is a tiny format featuring a thin delicate outline. The drawings form a detailed tableaux balancing the authenticity of the artistic gesture and the realm of the outside world. Portraits of women and new tolls, furniture sketches are shown in fluorescent marker throughout the entire notebook.
Born in 1981 in Diyarbakir,
Ahmet Öğüt now lives and works in Amsterdam. He ponders upon reality with the irony and humor of his special point of view. Mainly interested in gaps of social dreamers and imperfections in narrative
objects found by accident, the artist looks for simple anecdotes within a longer story. The Moleskine becomes a box for a piece of candy found in the pavement installation conceived by the artist Felix Gonzalez Torres, with the result of the piece being carved in the pages and wrapped again. He has participated in the Istanbul Biennial in 2006 and in 3 Biennials in 2008 in Berlin, Sidney and Santa Fe, as well as a solo show at the Basel Kunsthalle.
Marti Guixé likes to play seriously. For him, it's not unusual to play with socio-political issues side by side with the complexity of our everyday life. He uses collage as a form for a poetic meditation on the present with an eye towards the future. His works creep up on us gradually, transporting us to a dimension where the past and the future are invisible poles between which flickers a different perception of the present. They represent everyday scenes such a household interiors and individual stories as well as more abstract drawings and inserts, cut from newspapers or maps which he finds in his path.
Born in Capetown,
Nicholas Hlobo explores his own African traditions and its ancient myths through a series of embroideries, revealing a strong sense of identity and a signature style. He is represented by Maxwell Galerist, and has been featured in Biennials and Art Fairs all over the world. His work is focused here on the hard cover format, sewing the whole notebook with woven ribbons to let a rubber sculpture emerge from the pages. Working with long sewed fabrics, the artist plays with never-ending socio-political issues dealing with environmental and an awareness of the
complexities of Mother Earth.
Born in Berlin, the
Kuhen Malvezzi Studio is well-known for the re-design of Art Venues, as well as site-specific installation for Art-Fairs, Museum and Gallery Spaces including Documenta, Giò Marconi Gallery in Milan, and the
Frankfurt Art Fair. Avoiding symbols and codes from consumerism, they are instead inspired by rigor and minimalism, delving into issues related to environmental respect and the restoration of history. Their Moleskine is a representation of their conceptual process, similar to their evaluation of a new job or project. The notebook, sewed by its own elastic, is now sealed with all of the potential ideas are saved inside.
Giuseppe Amato was born in Palermo in 1970 and, since starting his own studio, he produces only limited edition pieces as a philosophy, balancing site-specific interior design commissions with the new series of Unexpected Homes, including the latest Nautoscopio project. In this Detour project, he chooses to follow the transient nature of a new architecture concept from the very first intuition to the scale model stage, just one step before the go. An open memopocket fixed as an austere container of thoughts in progress freezes the timing of procedure, filled with drawings
in progress, early sketches and a hyperlight wooden maquette meant to be fold.
Karim Said is a true prodigy, and a revelation. Everything he does, it's got to have the music involved. Extraordinary both as Composer and Pianist, he is constantly focused on his own rehearsals and concerts. Since he was 5th years old he was followed by and being filmed during 15 years of the earliest career, now featured in the docufilm Karim's Journey. He dedicates his Moleskine to the public who will have the chance to listen him playing, or even teaching at Purcell School in Cambridge. In the notebook he left traces of what is pervading his soul so deeply, after the gift of a Moleskine in Palermo gave by the curator in Summer 2008.
Images of the artists' notebooks can be downloaded at:
www.moleskine.com/journalist
If you are not a Moleskine Journalist member, login and join us.
Detour: Exhibition location
santralistanbul, Istanbul
May 22 - June 21, 2009
Every day, except Mondays, from 10.00AM to 8.00PM.
Press preview
May 21, 2009 at 6.30 PM.
Opening
May 21, 2009 at 7.30 PM.
Info: pointistanbul Public Relations
Pinar Taskiran
pinartaskiran@pointistanbul.com
(212) 240 33 73 (T)
(549) 717 26 06 (M)
myDetour: showcasing young talent
myDetour is the event that accompanies Detour on its journey with the notebooks of
internationally celebrated artists. Dedicated to everybody who loves to paint, draw, take
photographs, write, and create freely, myDetour exhibits the notebooks of promising
young talent, and future artists alongside the selected notebooks of Moleskine fans.
Often, myDetour and Detour exhibitions share a common location.
The myDetour exhibition in Istanbul will host 30 notebooks designed by the students of Bilgi University and Domus Academy Milan-Rome alongside notebooks by the winners of the Berlin edition of myDetour.
Istanbul Bilgi University, which brought a new perspective to the university education and famed Italian design and fashion school Domus Academy, are the partners of the Detour and myDetour Exhibitions to be held at santralistanbul: home to contemporary artworks.
10 notebooks from Domus Academy Milano
5 notebooks from Domus Academy Roma
5 notebooks from Bilgi University Istanbul
10 notebooks from myDetour Berlin
The notebooks exhibited during the previous Detour and myDetour events are on permanent display at
www.moleskine.com/events. The website also holds a single post with photographs of the works and a short biography of the artists.
"Rising creative energy in Istanbul..."
Moleskine executives talk very enthusiastically of the Istanbul Detour show, as Istanbul represents the most creative city in the Mediterranean region where art and design are on the rise.
When asked "Why Istanbul?", Maria Sebregondi - the executive of Moleskine notebooks and the creator of the exhibition that has previously visited the most popular cities in the world - has this to say:
"Creativity is the main element in the Moleskine Detour exhibition. We observe a very strong rise here, especially in design and fashion. Maybe locals are unaware of it, but there is an ever-growing creative energy in the city. In my opinion, Istanbul is the most breathtaking city of the Med... Therefore, the Moleskine brand with its cultural body and the value it attributes to creativity, the simple and elite characteristics it represents, will experience a great meeting with Istanbul."
Moleskine organizes Detour exhibitions, and all the participating artists support lettera27, a non-profit foundation whose mission is to defend the right to literacy, education, and access to knowledge and information all over the world, Artists donate their participation and their notebooks to lettera27. Moleskine contributes yearly to the support of lettera27.
