Sezgin Boynik
area: Theory
Key Facts
nationality
Kosovoarea
Theoryresidence
Helsinkirecommending institution
frei_raum Q21 exhibition spacetime period
October 2016 - October 2016Sezgin Boynik (1977), lives and works in Helsinki. He has completed his Ph.D. in Jyväskylä University Social Science department on the topic of Cultural Politics of Black Wave in Yugoslavia from 1963 to 1972. He has been publishing on punk, relation between aesthetics and politics, on cultural nationalism, Situationist International, and Yugoslavian cinema. Co-edited reader "Nationalism and Contemporary Art" (with Minna L. Henriksson, Rhizoma & EXIT, Prishtina, 2007), and co-authored book on "History of Punk and Underground in Turkey, 1978-1999" (with Tolga Guldalli, BAS, Istanbul, 2008)
Apart from scholarly work he is also active as conceptual artist. Recent articles include "New Collectives" (Retracing Images, Brill, Boston & Leiden, 2011), "Cultural Policy of Dusan Makavejev" (Kino! Journal No. 15, Ljubljana, 2011), "Discontents with Theoretical Practices in Contemporary Art" (Journal of Visual Art Practice 10:2, London, 2011) "Art of Slogans - in two parts"(TKH no 19 and 20, Belgrade, 2012), "Social Surrealism: Historical-Materialist Theses on the Mystery of Art" (open space journal, Vienna, 2013), "Marxist-Leninist Roots of Zenitism" (Filmkollektiv, Frankfurt, 2013), "Counter-Godard: On Makavajev's Anti-Formalism" (Kino! Journal No. 15, Ljubljana, 2015) and "Between Privileges of Unlearning and Formlessness of Anti-Knowing: Ideologies of Artistic Education" (Inca Press, Forms of Education, Seattle, 2016).
Also he is author of artistic books "Counter-constructivist Model" (co-authored with M.L. Henriksson, Labyrinth Press, Stockholm, 2012),"Still Stealing Steel: Historical-Materialist Study of Zaum" (Rab-Rab Publication, Tbilisi, 2014) and "Noise After Babel: Language Unrestrained" (Spector Books, Leipzig, 2015).
He is editor of Rab-Rab: Journal for Political and Formal Inquiries in Art (<link http: www.rabrab.fi>www.rabrab.fi ).
In my recent work, I am interested in finding the dialectical convergences between formal-experimental artistic works and political collective subjectivities. By locating progressive artistic forms and practices in the field of non-objectivity and distinctive abstraction, I am looking for positions that emancipate from the given set of ideological and empirical constraints. Currently, in Helsinki, I am editing and publishing Rab-Rab: journal on political and formal inquiries in art, focusing on these positions and questions. During my stay in Vienna, I want to present the previous three issues of the journal and a special book on zaum-language that we published in last two years (<link http: www.rabrab.fi>www.rabrab.fi ). Also, I want to talk about future projects and try to establish further contacts with possible future collaborators from Austria to the journal. Parallel to this I want to conduct a survey on historical and actual art practices in Vienna dealing both with the political & formal inquiry.