Rodeo is very pleased to announce the exhibition of favorite artists Anna Boghiguian (b. 1946, Cairo) and Cevdet Erek (b.1976, Istanbul) in the exhibition “Hand in Hand”.

Having been introduced to the local audience through the 11th Istanbul Biennial, Boghiguian’s work comes from her daily life in Cairo, her hometown, or her travels in India and elsewhere in the world. Using the canvas or the white paper as a diary, Anna records moments and memoirs from the streets and her travels. The lepers of India is a theme the artist often returns to. Socially expelled, since in India the illness is considered as divine intervention for the torment of past sins, people that suffer from it live within their own communities, marry each other and die slowly. A disease that deforms the skin, facial characteristics and gradually damages the limbs, legs and hands, leprosy is still affecting millions of people on earth. The Place Rotting Away is a series of the lepers in watercolors, pencils, pastels and wax with exquisite beauty and as if not interested in their monstrosity and misery looks through their skin and depicts their inner beauty.

Another fascination in Anna’s work is traces of tattoo drawings on human bodies. I sowed gardens in my soul, I drew gardens on my body, I had my nightmares engraved on my face, I cried and I laughed, I became part of humanity is a new series of drawings of hearts and sailor men, lizards and names inscribed forever on human skin in a similar way leprosy will leave eternal marks on the lepers; signs of love and devotion become one with Anna’s personal writings in wax and pencil.

A pair of the artist’s hands cast on the window of the gallery seen from both inside and outside plays with the role of the artist as an insider but also an outsider of the gallery’s space. “Two Double Sided Hands on Grille” plays with the idea of the gallery as an ambiguous space in an ambiguous neighborhood but also the gallery as a space to be secured in an area unfamiliar to the production of contemporary art.

The work of Cevdet Erek derives from a system in denial of order and open to the moment, and chance. Repetition, disinterest in any particular medium, quest of order in open structures and rhythm are the main elements in his work. An architect and musician, Cevdet presents Shore Scene Soundtrack, a set up for endless possible performances on a carpet coming from his daily life.

The intention behind this exhibition has been the need to travel from Istanbul through the sea to Egypt and revive stories that have been there forever; human suffering, man made signs, tactile elements, an artist’s work and language.