Art & Recycling Kare Art Gallery, hosts the solo exhibition of Monika Piorkowska's "Art & Recycling" between April 11 - May 7, 2014.

The exhibition derives its name from artist's own experiences and performative interactions with "waste collectors" in Istanbul with references to her previous practice. Piorkowska establishes an alternative narrative and connection by involiving in the collection process herself with her digital photographs/films and reportages. Consequently she also becomes a collector; “collector of memories”. This process of collecting (both artistic and material) leads to questioning of value systems within the art market and society in general.
Value system (which could be divided into four parts as functional, exchange, symbolic and sign values) creates its own aura around the commodity. While the functional value appeals to needs, the sign value is more about desires. In this context, cultural commodities are also the part of this need-desire dichotomy. But when it comes to the concept of art(work) which has been sublimed since the Enlightenment, it creates an ambiguous atmosphere.
Starting from these ambiguities, Piorkowska traces the reflections of the value system in contemporaneity of the art world. She uses thrown away, old artworks (that is to say artworks that have no sign value anymore) as her raw material and alludes the idea of "I want it now! society". In the market; the new is prestigious and prestigious is something valuable and the key to sustain this vicious circle is to create a never ending cycle of desire.
Piorkowska is revaluating/reassuring/recycling their aesthetic quality within the art market by signing the works and placing them in the "white cube". Moreover she includes collected memories into the works with her own artistic technique which allows artist to carry past (of the objects, people, places that is layerd on each other) into present. The gesture also raises the question of possibility of avant-garde in the market and asks; Is this something that the gallery can sell? If gallery can sell; will it carry the same connotation if it is placed on an ordinary wall -i.e. none gallery wall-? Will it function as the same if it is placed on and other sanctuary of contemporary art (e.g. museum wall)? Is this something "valuable"? Is it an artwork or comment on art?
Monika Piorkowska's installation goes beyond the pure/naïve criticism of the art market and investigates the contemporary world and its discontents taking-off from the philosophical/ economical concept of "use and throw-away".

'The theory of reputation says that reputations are based on works. But, in fact, the reputations of artists, works, and the rest result from the collective activity of art worlds'
H. S. Becker
 Curated by : Mutlu Raşit and Ezgi Yıldız