Work in Progress articulates a selection from over three hundred works produced with Arter’s support within the scope of its exhibitions programme, which began in 2010 at its former building on Istiklâl Street and continues in Dolapdere since September 2019, alongside new works created specifically for this occasion. The exhibition which features 39 works by 27 artists in its first chapter – including some pieces that are part of the Arter Collection – reflects on fifteen years of the institution’s commitment to opening up space for creativity, engaging artistic production as a collaborative process, and bringing together artists from diverse disciplines, cultural practitioners and audiences under the same roof to learn, produce and share collectively.
Organised with the support of Koç Holding on the occasion of the Koç Group’s 100th anniversary, Work in Progress is conceived in two chapters to reflect the temporal, dynamic and multidimensional nature of artistic and intellectual processes. In the exhibition’s second stage, opening in October 2026, many of the works presented in the first chapter will give way to others, and new works realised within this context will also be incorporated into the exhibition.
Artists: Murat Akagündüz, Volkan Aslan, Can Aytekin, Fatma Bucak, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Nermin Er, Cevdet Erek, Ayşe Erkmen, İnci Furni, Babak Golkar, Deniz Gül, Eric Hattan, Emre Hüner, Gözde İlkin, Ahmet Doğu İpek, Šejla Kamerić, Esen Karol, Ali Kazma, Lucia Koch, Hans, Peter Kuhn, Nuri Kuzucan, Füsun Onur, Yasemin Özcan, Sarkis, Serkan Taycan, Canan, Tolon, VOID.
Fatma Bucak
Omne Vivum Ex Ovo – Nomologically possible, anyhow, 2013
13 HD videos (colour, sound)
ph Murat Germen
Omne Vivum Ex Ovo – Nomologically possible, anyhow addresses the themes of birth and hope – often present in Bucak’s practice through the motif of the egg – situating them in the context of urbanisation. The title of the work, set against a backdrop of concrete bricks piled up in a desolate landscape, refers to the Latin phrase “Omne vivum ex ovo”, meaning every living being is born from an egg. On the screens that form the installation, a woman dressed in white performs an action of uncertain beginning and end, placing the eggs she carries in her skirt into the cavities of the endless rows of bricks in a cyclical rhythm. Filmed in a constructed architectural setting, the work unfolds within a surreal geometry reminiscent of the imaginary ruins depicted in the engravings of the Italian artist Piranesi, known for his representations of ancient Roman ruins. Built from concrete blocks, one of the most common materials of the contemporary construction industry, the space evokes a prison whose cellular units proliferate endlessly, offering a critical reflection on current patterns of urbanisation.
The egg’s association with new life, wholeness, and protection is ultimately juxtaposed with doubt and unanswered questions, as the flawless placement of the eggs without breaking them proves 10impossible. The tension between potential and fragility reaches into the work’s implied promise of a beginning, which remains perpetually suspended, making the interplay of hope and impossibility the core of its aesthetic and political resonance. By immersing viewers in a spatial experience that is at once familiar and estranged, Omne Vivum Ex Ovo invites them to contemplate the debris of their own time.
