Visibility Commission

Photo credit: Nazlı Erdemirel, Installation view from Coulisse, Mixer, Istanbul, 2022

Betül AksuVisibility Commission
2021
Installation, variable dimensions

Visibility Commission explores how visibility operates as a form of currency in the art world. Through fictional contracts and institutional language, the work draws on the artist’s experiences in Turkey to reveal how artists are often expected to give unpaid labor in exchange for recognition, and how they are classified or excluded based on narrow definitions of success.

The installation takes inspiration from Audre Lorde’s essay The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, borrowing the words “bottle,” “machine,” and “dust” to express the ways artists are silenced and made invisible. These metaphors become tools to question the systems that control who is seen, who is valued, and on what terms.

Exhibition 2022 Coulisse, Mixer, curated by Eda Öztürk, Istanbul, Türkiye