Quintessential Pirateness in the Age of Konijneneiland a.k.a. Coney Island Adventures
Ulufer Çelik & Cihad Caner

27.07.2019 – 08.09.2019

This presentation is the first phase of Ulufer Çelik‘s and Cihad Caner’s long-term research on piracy, modes of being, and navigation methodologies. The project departs from the motive of a sailboat relief found in Katendrechtse Lagedijk. This finding supports the project as artists collect learnings and connect historical themes, and references of Port of Salee (Morocco) and New Amsterdam, Pirate Wardiyya (Jack Ward a.k.a Jack Sparrow) and Murad Rais (Jan Janszoon van Haarlem).

Summer Lab 2019 has enabled the tools to deconstruct and scatter their ideas and thoughts to experiment during the process. The exhibition draft includes re-enactment of selected parts from the play A Christian turned Turk: Or, The Tragicall Lives and Deaths of the two Famous Pirates, Ward and Dansiker written by Robert Daborne in 1612, that addresses the notions of racism and colonial fantasies via conversion to Islam and re-presentation of ‘the other’. The spatial declaration of flag-making, in relation to ownership and material porosity and the reading of children’s poem, Bad Grandpa: Ballad of Murad the Captain by Jim Billiter (Murad Rais’ great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson) connect the his story with present time and Haarlem-Konijneneiland (Coney Island) and Rotterdam through depicted scenes in series of films.

Quintessential Pirateness
will complement and establish a conversation with the year-long programme De Fluyt en de Hoi, led by Paul Elliman. Çelik and Caner will share Rib’s space with a handcrafted boat that was built by artist Marie Lorenz in July for her project Tide and Current Taxi Rotterdam as a part of De Fluyt en de Hoi.

Flag making workshop
with Sanne Kabalt
02.08.2019

Studio visits

Starting from 17.08.2019
Every Friday and Saturday,
14:00–18:00 and by appointment

Opening
with lecture performance & screening
30.08.2019

Finissage

08.09.2019


The research was made possible with the generous support of Rib, STICHTING-NAC, and MyA.

Cihad Caner (1990, TR) is an artist living and working in Rotterdam and Istanbul, who works primarily with photography, video, CGI, and sculpture. Recent work focuses on image culture; portrayals of the “other”; the utilization of objects in daily life; and the ways people face circumstances such, resistance, immigration, and representation. Recently he has exhibited at V2_Lab for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam; Hong Kong Arts Center; Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts; Galerie BOHAI, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki; Corridor Project Space, Amsterdam; Blitz, Valetta; and EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam. Caner was recently in residence at ARCUS Project in Japan and received a Mondriaan Fonds Jong Talent grant in 2018. Caner holds a Masters in Media Design and Communication from Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam.

Ulufer Celik (1992, TR) is an artist who lives and works in the Netherlands. She completed her studies in the MA Art Praxis program at the Dutch Art Institute in 2018. She received a BArch from the Department of Architecture in Istanbul Bilgi University in 2014. Her work has been exhibited in several group exhibitions in MAXXI, VanAbbe Museum, Designhuis, Corridor Project Space, DEPO, Apartment Project, State of Concept in Athens, Yellow Brick Gallery in Athens, Litost Gallery in Prague, Institute for Provocation in Beijing, Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien , among others. Her work explores political potentialities of narrative and myth-making, supported with artistic research in the realm of archeology, history and spatial practices through film, performance and poetry.