discount aisle — denizkulaksizoglu

The exhibition "Discount Aisle" takes place in one of the first examples of a modernist building complex in Turkey called IMÇ, which was built in 1968 to be a center for shopping and manufacturing. The artist-run exhibition space 5533 (its name also refers to the designated number, as every store has one) is located in the 5th block, which is known for its clothing stores and repair shops for knitting machines.

Derived from the space, the exhibition "Discount Aisle" settles itself between those shops and aims to mimic them by becoming a fictional clothing store. Despite having the characteristic objects of a clothing store, the "Discount Aisle" reshapes and organizes them unexpectedly, thus failing its aim; it becomes somewhat of a broken, twisted, and semi- mutant clothing store. Instead of displaying clothes for sale, every object focuses on the notion of the body: either by resembling a body themselves or investigating bodily functions and their potential meanings. Therefore, the body is explored in two different ways: as restricted, blocked, limited, shaped, and formed, but also as a body that is liquid, disintegrated, fragmental, not singular and whole, but always multiple and expanding.