Sencer Vardarman

Sencer Vardarman’s works are comprised of series produced as outcomes
of long-term researches. In his artistic research he focused on the
non-economic functions of money. He also worked on an etymological
dictionary of words referring to monetary units and conducted a
“market research” on weapons industry and presented these in forms
of pseudo-scientific paintings. The latest works of the artist, who is
currently working on a photo series of art-related news, may be viewed
as a collection of scenes from natural disasters, documentaries and news
bulletins, which are are partly aesthetical and partly disturbing.
As stated by Ali Akay in the catalogue text for the “Virtual News”
exhibition, held in art ON in Istanbul in April 2012, “…Sencer Vardarman
is bi-cultured (Turkish and German) artist, who is experiencing the depth
of having a dual identity. Following the course of the world, the artist
is designing his photos attempting to add new strata to our stratifying
worlds. After graduating from the Department of Photography at
Academy of Fine Arts, he lived worked and studies in Berlin for 14
years. Then he returned to Istanbul, where he views the world from the
aforesaid perspective. As practices of positing the perspective on a surface,
in his works, he has been producing in the last few years, Vardarman
is recreating the world and new centers turning into megalopolises, by
mixing their strata. In the scope of his stratifying project, in his own
way, he is artistically questioning the adjacency of the illusive elements
generated by the perspectivist standpoint of photography and by the
urbanization projects of heterogeneous cultures. Aware of the risks
involved, he is attempting to build a technical structure, sometimes
deliberately falling in and sometimes trying to stay away from the traps of
romantic aesthetics found in the nature of the technique.

…

We can view Vardarman’s photographical works, which stand out as a
reorganization of the space, tackled with instinctively, in correlation with
the mathematical space conception set forth in Riemann hypothesis. We
can also argue that this could be forwarded to the mentioned viewpoint. A
stratifying space concept, where the location is viewed merely as a special
lieu and where the magnitudes multiply concentrate and blend different
coordinates with new unifications, and bring them together in the same
space. In this context, the space gets diversified. This creates the effect
of another space, owing to the delusion created by the heterogeneous of
the strata. In his photographic series, megalopolises, volcanos, political
demonstrations or volcanic eruptions always stand as an outcome of
the aesthetical arrangement created by stratifications. In each work,
time and space get intertwined, juxtaposed or overlapped. Each time
a “time and space” are laid on a surface, the photograph reflected to us
on a single image, presents itself as a bizarre and baroque scene. From
this standpoint, Vardarman lays the globalizing similarities on the
contemporary geography on the same surface. Through this, he draws
attention to a mondial problem and builds his aesthetical viewpoint on a
reflexive order.”

In Vardarman’s works titled “Car Park” (2010) and “Rain” (2011), we
once more face the aesthetics of a scene from a catastrophe. Viewing
the “urbanization policies” from a different standpoint and exposed to
a “romantic aesthetics”, we are first given a happy end and then left
disturbed. Non-existing spaces and states bring themselves into existence
on a peculiar level, in Sencer Vardarman’s photo-collages.

Brief Biography
Born in 1970, Sencer Vardarman lives and works in Istanbul and Berlin.
After graduating from Department of Photography at Mimar Sinan
University in 1997, he received his master’s degree in 2003 at Prof. K.
Sieverding Workshop in the Department of Fine Arts at University of
Arts in Berlin. In 2006, he completed his studies in the Institute for
Art in Context at the same university. Vardarman participated in many
exhibitions in Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Turkey, Italy and Greece.
Among the other organizations, the artist took part, are: The exhibition
titled “Taswir” at Berlin- Martin Gropious Bau (2009); II.Thessaloniki
Biennial (2009); II. Photofestival titled “Reality Crossings” in Mannheim
(2007); his first solo exhibition, “Virtual News, held in art ON the Gallery
(2012).

The works of Vardarman, whose works are included in national and
international collections, are usually comprised of series produced as
a result of long-term and meticulous research. In his artistic studies,
Vardarman focused on money’s non-economic functions. He also showed
interest in the etymology of words used to refer to monetary units. He
also conducted a “market research” on weapons industry. He presented
the outcomes of these studies on pseudo-scientific paintings. Currently,
Vardarman is working on his photograph series concentrating on artrelated
news and on his photo-collages, he compiles from a rich photo
archive, created and collected through years for his researches.