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'I’m So Happy Because' by Bora Akinciturk at Pilevneli Gallery, Istanbul

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“[...] In this age happiness, if not obsolete, is a test, an opportunity. "To be happy is to be able to become aware of oneself without being frightened." (1) We seem to be desperate for happiness, as bookshelves, counseling rooms, and talk shows promote endless recipes for contentment. But the well-worn, feel-good bromides from the likes of Oprah, Eckhart Tolle, and the Dalai Lama seem to work about as well as a Happy Meal, happy hour, or Coke's invitation to "Pour Happiness!”. (John Zerzan, “Happiness”, 2011)

In this precarious world happiness and fear are oddly joined. People are afraid. "They are afraid," Adorno claimed, that "they would lose everything, because the only happiness they know even in thought, is to be able to hold on to something. [...]"(2) (John Zerzan, “Happiness”, 2011)

The exhibition, taking its title from a message sent to a private WhatsApp chat group which almost turned into a meme, addresses issues like peer pressure, fear of missing out, failure and various modern social misery in an absurd and abstract way. The exhibition consists of an installation and a commissioned video for the exhibition produced collaboratively with Berk Çakmakçı. The installation is replicating the habitat of a somewhat privileged millennial who is trying to detach from the brutal expectations, disinformation and depression of the real world by creating his/her own facts and minimal conformism within a tiny cave.

“I’m so happy because I’m reaping the fruits of the things I’ve strived for, made great effort for, for a long time. The lack of success had sucked for a long time”. (Aforementioned WhatsApp message, 2018)

6.6.18 — 21.7.18

Pilevneli Gallery

'ABSINTHE', Group Show Curated by PLAGUE at Smena, Kazan

'Pupila' by Elizabeth Burmann Littin at Two seven two gallery, Toronto

'Auxiliary Lights' by Kai Philip Trausenegger at Bildraum 07, Vienna

'Inferno' by Matthew Tully Dugan at Lomex, New York

'Зamok', Off-Site Group Project at dentistry Dr. Blumkin, Moscow

'Dog, No Leash', Group Show at Spazio Orr, Brescia

'Syllables in Heart' by Thomas Bremerstent at Salgshallen, Oslo

'Out-of-place artifact', Off-Site Project by Artem Briukhov in Birsk Fortress, Bi

'Gardening' by Daniel Drabek at Toni Areal, Zurich

'HALF TRUTHS', Group Show at Hackney Road, E2 8ET, London

'Unknown Unknowns' by Christian Roncea at West End, The Hague

'Thinking About Things That Are Thinking' by Nicolás Lamas at Meessen De Clercq,

‘Funny / Sad’, Group Show by Ian Bruner, Don Elektro & Halo, curated by Rhizome P

'Don’t Die', Group Show at No Gallery, New York

'Almost Begin' by Bronson Smillie at Afternoon Projects, Vancouver

'I'll Carry Your Heart's Gray Wing with a Trembling Hand to My Old Age', Group Sh

'hapy like a fly' by Clément Courgeon at Colette Mariana, Barcelona

'Fear of the Dark' by Jack Evans at Soup, London

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