The Climate Crisis Stage:
“Staged” Exhibition Meets the Audience
Arkas Art Alacati welcomes the new season with a powerful exhibition that raises awareness about the climate crisis. The Staged exhibition, addressing humanity’s role as both the cause and the victim of the climate crisis, and its prevailing indifference, will present 86 works by 35 artists to art enthusiasts from May 29, 2025, to January 4, 2026.
Arkas Art Alacati opens this season with an interdisciplinary exhibition focused on one of humanity’s most concerning issues: the climate crisis. Curated by Billur Tansel, the exhibition titled Staged explores, through art, the existential dilemmas of humanity, which is disconnected from nature and seeking refuge in self-created artificial realities.
This comprehensive project offers a space for confrontation through art, inviting viewers not only to experience aesthetics but also to reflect, question, and take action.
Theatrical Copies That Have Replaced Nature
At the heart of the exhibition lies the reality that humanity is both the perpetrator and the victim of the climate crisis it has created. Despite years of warnings from scientists, humanity continues to behave like a passive spectator in the face of natural disasters.
The exhibition opens a philosophical discussion on the background of this indifference and how the perception of reality is manipulated. Arthur Schopenhauer’s reflections on the subjective nature of reality and Jean Baudrillard’s simulation theory provide the intellectual backbone of the exhibition.
In the Footsteps of Piero Gilardi: An Artistic Stand Against Artificial Nature
The exhibition draws inspiration from Piero Gilardi, a pioneer of the Arte Povera movement and an ecological activist. As early as the 1960s, Gilardi anticipated the destruction of nature and created works that served as warnings. He is best known for his Tappeto-Natura (Nature Carpets) series, made using materials such as polyurethane. Foreseeing a dystopian world where humanity would experience its longing for nature merely as a decorative element through artificial landscapes, the artist is featured in the exhibition with his work The Cherry Flower, made from polyurethane and sponge materials.
The exhibition also includes a documentary video entitled Gilardi: Tappeto-Natura, produced by Domenico Palma for Gilardi’s retrospective exhibition curated by Elena Re at the Magazzino Italian Art Museum in 2022. The video will take part in the exhibition “Staged” with the courtesy of Magazzino Italian Art Museum, Cold Spring NY, USA.
Different Layers of Reality Through the Power of Art
Arkas Art Alacati, with its unique architecture and natural landscape, provides an ideal stage for this multi-layered exhibition. Shaped by site-specific installations, the exhibition takes visitors on both a physical and mental journey.
In the exhibition, the curator shows artists from various cultures who address the theme of artificiality and make references to the climate crisis, using either humor or impactful statements. Using different materials and site-specific installations, the curator aims to create a magical narrative of natural phenomena, as if on a theater stage. Some artists offer different perspectives on the climate crisis, while others, inspired by the restorative power of nature, showcase works that propose models for a livable and sustainable world, suggesting that an alternative world is possible.
Collective Resilience and Visions of Alternative Futures
A special archive space has been created to help visitors engage more deeply with the exhibition’s themes. In addition to research materials, this area also features texts and books exploring topics found in the artworks, such as forest ecologist Dr. Suzanne Simard’s research on mycelium networks. Simard introduces this underground fungal network, allowing trees to communicate and share resources, as an inspiring example of collective solidarity for human society. Similarly, Dutch artist Willem de Haan’s performance video Motor Home documents his river journey using a boat shaped like a house roof, encouraging people to think about the consequences of rising sea levels and shifting living environments, and to take collective action on this matter.
A Gathering Space Enriched with Events
The exhibition is not limited to sculptures, paintings, photographs, site-specific installations, and newly produced works—it is also designed as an interactive space featuring books, articles, and documents related to the theme. Through conferences, artist talks, film screenings, and interactive workshops on waste transformation and regeneration, the exhibition offers a participatory experience.
The archive section encourages visitors to research and explore by presenting both historical and scientific materials aimed at reconstructing our connection with nature.
The Artists Featured in the Exhibition are as Follows:
Ahmet Dogu Ipek, Ali Borovali, Ali Kanal, Antonio Riello, Azade Koker, Bengu Karaduman, Berndnaut Smilde, Borga Kanturk, Burcak Bingol, Danielle Kwaaitaal, Ergin Cavusoglu and Konstantin Bojanov, Ferhat Ozgur, Gozde Mimiko Turkkan, Gul Ilgaz, Hayal Incedogan, Henri Ferdinand Bellan, Ilgin Seymen, Ismail Egler, Murat Germen, Murat Morova, Murat Yildiz, Nancy Atakan, Nazif Topcuoglu, Nermin Er, Ozgur Demirci, Paul Hodgson, Piero Gilardi, Rose Morant, Selcuk Demirel, Sibel Horada, Silva Bingaz, T. Melih Gorgun, Tufan Baltalar, Willem De Haan.
