“reading corner” 
 
[10.09.2009 - 17.10.2009]
 
Notable for its thematic exhibitions, Apel has in the past ten years of its history been home to frequent takes on bookart by certain artists. With this background Gallery Apel has launched a series of shows called “the reading corner,” which in 2007 was invited to the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Sienna Book Fair, in 2008 to the Frankfurt Book Fair (where Turkey was the guest country), and in 2009 to the bookart fair at the Hamburg Museum der Arbeit, the result being that thousands of book and art lovers have seen and enjoyed it.

Inspired by genuine Turkish culture, the artists have worked up interpretations of the contemporary book using materials as varied as soap, orange peels, pencils and light, as the exhibition each time has involved changes in terms of space and time, always offering a different set-up.

With the slogan “books are a person’s best friend” we wished to hold our “reading corner” exhibition at gallery apel simultaneously with and parallel to the 11th Istanbul Biennial, whose theme is “What keeps mankind alive?”. This show will bring together works from the earlier “reading corner” exhibitions, giving viewers a chance at a visual reading but also to actually taste some entries.

Nuran Terzioğlu