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Iz Öztat, Declaration of Women's Gang, 1925/2013, print

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Oliver Ressler, The Visible and The Invisible,2014, filmstill, 20 mins

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Declan Clarke, Mine Are of Trouble, videostill, 2006

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“Bread and Roses”,Declan Clarke, Iz Öztat, Oliver Ressler

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The Agency is pleased to present Declan Clarke (Ireland), Iz Öztat (Turkey) and Oliver Ressler (Austria) in the curated exhibition ‘ Bread and Roses’, which examines the artist as a political being. The positions presented here are taken from the authentic working processes of each artist, rather than produced especially for the show and juxtapose three very different approaches to the duality of expression and agency.
Mine Are of Trouble, 2006, a video by Declan Clarke connects documentary fact about Rosa Luxemburg to autobiographical fragments of his own life in Berlin. Luxemburg’s remarkable actions, which culminated in her assassination in 1919, are set in poignant contrast to Clarke’s failed attempts to transfer her political legacy to his own romantic life. The personal and the political are inextricably linked, which is also the case for Rosa Luxemburg’s influential actions as well as many revolutionary causes. Another female activist in the US, Rose Schneiderman, used the expression ‘Bread and Roses’ during a textile strike in 1912. The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too. Aside from economic demands for equality, the dignity of the worker became an imperative. The first can be measured- the second remains immeasurable.

The immeasurable element of reality carries some of the potential for change and can be the driver for moral agency. Oliver Ressler’s film deals with contemporary realities of commodity trading in Switzerland, based on factual research. Obfuscated by location and shrouded in discretion the true dimension of the trade is not a matter of public knowledge, while it can impact on entire global workforces and the environment not just now, but for future generations. Ressler adheres to a documentary structure but makes uses of artistic methods to visualise the ‘ smokescreen’ used by corporations to veil the nature and volume of their transactions. With Iz Öztat’s work The Course of Historical Evolution (Part II) we come full circle to Rosa Luxemburg and the identity of the political other both as an inspiration and catalyst for artistic/political activism. While Ressler chooses a form of distantly observant and frequently collaborative filmmaking to retain some detachment from the activist groups he befriends, follows and supports, Clarke and Öztat both choose a personal engagement with their political self. Öztat makes a link between Luxemburg and the anarcha-feminist collective Women’s Gang, which carried out guerilla actions in Istanbul around 1925. *1

The connectivity is not straightforward, it occurs via invented and real personae, narratives and instructions. Öztat also uses collaborative processes in some of her works with Zisan (1894-1970) as a regular conspirator and alter ego. The collaboration here does not serve a greater observational distance but a denser and more fragmented examination of feminism, social unrest and revolutionary activism. Despite speaking from very different cultural and historical contexts the artists all encourage a political self-reflexivity as well as uncovering an inherent desire for activism in themselves and raising the spirit in their audience.

Declan Clarke (*1974) lives and works in Berlin. Forthcoming and recent solo exhibitions include: Torrence Art Museum, Los Angeles; Farbvision, Berlin; Belfast Exposed, Belfast; and Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, all forthcoming in 2016; The Hopeless End of a Great Dream, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (on going), Geist Trilogie, Tromsø Kunstforening, Norway, 2016; Wreckage in May, Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane, 2015; Group Portrait with Explosives, Mother's Tankstation, Dublin, 2014. In 2015, Clarke's film Group Portrait with Explosives won the Jury Prize at the 31st Biennale of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Iz Öztat (*1981) lives and works in Istanbul. Her selected exhibitions include Land without Land I Heidelberger Kunstverein , ( 2016)14th Istanbul Biennial (2015); ‘Conducted in depth and projected at length’, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany (2014); ‘Rendez-vous 13’, Institut d’art Contemporain, Lyon, France (2013); ‘Here Together Now’, Matadero Madrid (2013); ‘I am not dealing with triangle, square and circle’, Maçka Sanat Galerisi, Istanbul (2012); ‘Underconstruction’, Apartment Project Berlin (2012); ‘Second Exhibition’, ARTER, Istanbul (2010).

Oliver Ressler (* 1970) lives and works in Vienna. Ressler is and artist and filmmaker focussing specifically on issues sucha s economics, democracy, global worming forms of resistance and social alternatives. He has just been awarded the 1st Prix Thun for Art and Ethics Award. He has shown widely internationally since the late Nineties. Recent solo-exhibtions include Occupy, Resist, Produce at the Centre of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2016), Everything falls Apart, the gallery Apart Rome ( 2016), Leave it in the Ground, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein ( 2015), The Visible and the Invisible , Shedhalle Zurich( 2014). A retrospective of his films was presented at the Centre d’ Art Contemporain Geneve (2013). He is currently participating in the exhibition Hors Pistes in the Centre George Pompidou in Paris and he will complete a solo project with SALT Galata, Istanbul later this year.

* 1 Under the leadership of Nezihe Muhiddin, a group of women attempted to establish Women’s Public Party in 1923, which was not allowed because women did not have the right to vote. As a result, they organized under the name of Turkish Woman Union and published Turkish Women’s Path periodical between the dates July 16th, 1925 – August 1st, 1927. This pamphlet was found inside the fourth issue of Women’s Path from August 6th, 1925. It is predicted that pamphlets were inserted into the periodicals by Çete-i Nisvan (Women’s Gang), to criticize the journal’s attitude that is supportive of statism, nationalism, militarism and conservative moralism. Although this pamphlet does not exist in copies available at libraries, its presence in two copies of the periodical purchased at an ephemere auction supports this claim. The document is ground breaking for the historiography of Ottoman feminism. More documents of Çete-i Nisvan are found in Zisan’s archive and will shed light on the anarcha-feminist movement.