I Love My Ghetto Painting

Mehmet Dere was born in 1979 in İzmir. He graduated from Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting Department at Dokuz Eylül University. He completed his MA in the same faculty and now studying his PhD in Faculty of Arts and Design, Painting Department at Sakarya University. The language that the artist creates in his work exists in an area of many (sociological-psychological) layers that touch one another. The conceptual framework of Dere's early works exists in a political area and deals with the socio-political history of Turkey, its multi-culturalism, identity and creating multi-vocality in terms of belonging and cultural democratization. In terms of form, Dere's generally produce installations through which he can reach the whole from smaller parts. Dere use objects, photos, charcoal patterns and object installations in order to create a personal archive (narrative) in a sense. Also, he create objects based upon the social memory and senses and work on video. In his own words, Dere likes to collect "invisible stories" while creating his works. For the artist, a whole is travelling in time composed of small episodes. Dere constantly feeds his work in this way in their reckoning with and creating reality. Deriving from Turkey's cultural history, the exhibition consists of a series of ironic and upfront constructions, focusing on a research of local and social memory. While the artist builds his work with the retrieved images of the cultural memory, he poetically includes his own subjectivity to all these captivities. Issues of social injustice, resistance and politics of survival are raised not through the artist's observation as an outsider, but from close range; a perspective precisely constructed by the practices of life. This stance, at times tragicomic, and at times built upon the relationship of patience and suffering, is tackled to be presented to the audience time and again, uninterrupted, and almost prayer like. Looking at Turkey's cultural history, while focused on memory, individual and social identity research, the recent work shows an abstract trend towards poetic lyricism fed by internal reality. Dere's non-profit art space , located in İzmir ' Gürceşme', also hosts the contemporary art initiative 49A, of which he is the founder. This studio has been founded with the pursuit to create a space where contemporary art can exist in the rhythm of everyday life, open itself up to the world, and interact with its environment.