Burcu Yavuz

The groups of people depicted in Burcu Yavuz's works are seen from a great distance. Viewed from a bird's-eye perspective, the depicted individuals lose their individuality due to a lack of naturalism and detail. For the artist, the protagonists become symbolic references to our energetic shell in which we live while on this planet. Although people's souls differ, when viewed from afar, they all resemble one another. The crowds in which they gather move towards the countless paths of our urban jungle. As her figures rush towards an unknown place beyond the frame of the painting, they lose their individuality and identities. These creatures, still recognizable as humans, transform into shadows floating above the surface. Yet, despite existing in groups, they appear lonely and isolated, detached from any kind of social cohesion. In Yavuz's artistic approach, the necessity of stopping, contemplation, and rethinking emerges. Her works emphasize that the present is not on a path leading somewhere, but at the exact point where you stand; the present is not elsewhere, but right where you are. As the viewer observes her works, they enter a state of concentration, which leads them to the precise moment where their perception exists right here, without a past or a future, with only the present of its immutable state.

(b. 1979, Karabük) Graduating from Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts in 2001, Burcu Yavuz has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions both in Turkey and abroad. Representing Turkey at the worldwide fair organized by the Paris Louvre Museum, at the inter-consular "Consul’Art" held in Marseille in 2018, at the "Cannes Art Fair", and at the New York Art Expo, two of the artist's works are exhibited at the Qatar Museum of Contemporary Art. Her works are included in numerous private collections both nationally and internationally, and the artist continues her life and work in Bodrum.