SANATORIUM is hosting Berkay Tuncay's solo exhibition titled CLICKTRANCE from September 20 to November 2, 2024. The title of the exhibition CLICKTRANCE combines the words ‘click’ and ‘trance’, referring to the hypnotic state prompted by digital culture.
Inspired by the similarities between the exhausting ways of navigating between pages and platforms on the internet and his artistic practice, Berkay Tuncay constructs the exhibition around a 5-channel video installation titled The Story of Writing ASMR. Produced in collaboration with a content creator who shares ASMR videos on Instagram and YouTube, the 5 videos focus on the constant movement of the hands on the keyboard, inducing a similar hypnotic state in the viewer. The videos follow a parallel narrative with the history of writing.
The gallery window hosts an installation titled Inbox, which abstracts linguistic elements such as words and letters. By turning text into stains, this installation transforms the window into a physical e-mail box. A publication titled Poems from Descriptive Noise accompanies the exhibition, compiling subtitles that describe the sounds and noises in the acclaimed series Mr. Robot. Tuncay experiments with poetry by editing together a series of words describing environmental noises on the screen.
Internet jargon such as ‘clicktrance’, ‘doomscrolling’, and ‘virtual fogginess’ is scattered on the walls in the shape of logo designs, hinting at the repetitive, cyclical, and overwhelming nature of the time spent on the internet. Bringing together Berkay Tuncay's recent works, CLICKTRANCE focuses on the artist's close relationship with text and materializes key elements of the digital.
About the artist:
Berkay Tuncay’s practice is based on investigating the effects of the internet on society and the human psyche. He examines the intersection points of internet culture, archaeology, psychology, and language. He transforms images, texts, and memes that are circulating online into prints, videos, poetry books, and installations. He has taken part in numerous international group exhibitions and presented his works on online culture in diverse forms. His selected solo exhibitions include: Just for the hell of it, DIANA Gallery, New York (2024), ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ [Fancy Text], KUUB.Space, Utrecht (2024); Human, how strange, so vulgar, such a masterpiece and yet so primitive, SANATORIUM, Istanbul (2020); Getting Away With It All Messed Up, Display, Berlin (2018); Life Is What Happens To You While You Are Busy Watching Cute Cat Videos, Gaia Gallery, Istanbul (2016); and I’M SORRY, BECAUSE I DANCE, De Kijkdoos, Amsterdam (2011). He has participated in several artist residency programs, including Jan van Eyck Academie, Delfina Foundation, Cité Internationale des Arts, and ArtCenterIstanbul.
Berkay Tuncay’s practice is based on investigating the effects of the internet on society and the human psyche. He examines the intersection points of internet culture, archaeology, psychology, and language. He transforms images, texts, and memes that are circulating online into prints, videos, poetry books, and installations. He has taken part in numerous international group exhibitions and presented his works on online culture in diverse forms. His selected solo exhibitions include: Just for the hell of it, DIANA Gallery, New York (2024), ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ [Fancy Text], KUUB.Space, Utrecht (2024); Human, how strange, so vulgar, such a masterpiece and yet so primitive, SANATORIUM, Istanbul (2020); Getting Away With It All Messed Up, Display, Berlin (2018); Life Is What Happens To You While You Are Busy Watching Cute Cat Videos, Gaia Gallery, Istanbul (2016); and I’M SORRY, BECAUSE I DANCE, De Kijkdoos, Amsterdam (2011). He has participated in several artist residency programs, including Jan van Eyck Academie, Delfina Foundation, Cité Internationale des Arts, and ArtCenterIstanbul.
