The artist Mert Diner, who collaboratively navigates the exhibition process and its preparation with İMALAT-HANE director Bora Gürarda, will discuss their inquiries regarding the exhibition and Diner’s practice throughout the process. The conversation will delve into the formal dualities of Diner’s painterly practice and their reflections derived from everyday life, exploring the physical, spiritual, and political dimensions of this relationality from the perspectives of the artist, painting, and the viewer. The act of painting will be examined within the context of contemporary art’s understanding of the material workings of memory, with Diner’s exhibition layout serving as the primary reference point for the discussion.
Bio
Born in 1976 in İskenderun, Mert Diner constructs his painting practice upon the contradictory relationship between the visible and the invisible and the situational outcomes of the void belonging to the unknown. He draws from concepts of psychology, the unconscious, existence, nature, meaning, and emptiness, and questions the surface possibilities of these concepts among the temporal layers of memory. After completing his undergraduate education in Mechanical Engineering at Uludağ University, Diner worked for some time in international companies and had the opportunity to work with the painter İrfan Önürmen for 3 years during this period. He then received painting education at the New York Studio School in 2007. Continuing his work in Istanbul since 2009, some of Diner’s recent major solo exhibitions include “Uncanny States” (2023) and “Leave Us Alone” (2021).
