Cosa Mentale : Leylâ Gediz

Leylâ Gediz is an archaeologist of every day fragments excavating the emotions they emanate. These fragments are played out by random, found, mundane yet useful objects, humans close to her heart, light and shadow humans and objects cast on each other, their – sometimes awkward – volume in space, memories and stories they trigger. They come from different backgrounds, from different moments in time to be masterfully carved out of their literal and metaphorical backgrounds. How they build each other anew in relation within the particular space of still life painting is humble, precise and magical at the same time. They are too real to be unreal, hovering in that fragile zone between fiction and non-fiction. «Affected perspective» may be a useful term for the humble magic Leylâ Gediz enacts in her new series of paintings realised in her studio in Lisbon; where she relocated together with her family a few years ago. In this exhibition, the artist continues to explore her desire to create a new space for open constellations in her work, to take a serene and critical distance towards what she has produced in Istanbul in two decades and to surprise herself in the first place with new constellations of old and fresh fragments.