Blending the traditional art of miniature and illumination with the contemporary form of production, Murat Palta focuses on how the entertainment sector and contemporary events are combined around the theme of entertainment in his third solo exhibition entitled “All Work and No Play” at x-ist.
Without a critical eye, the artist addresses the natural outcome of being in a world loaded with infinite options where the concept of entertainment amounts to killing time, while he transforms events and circumstances in the real world into a part of this world. “Toga virilis, namely,the virile toga in the Roman civilization indicated that a man entering the adulthood stage starts to wear the solid white toga, turns into an adult who assumes the responsibilities of a citizen, sets up his home, gets married and owns slaves. Even the degree of whiteness of the toga was the indication of a status and was directly proportional to the degree of its highness. Besides that, they used to dedicate to the gods the toys that they had until that age. However, the toys that were dedicated to the gods then have turned into gods themselves today. Yet, the whites worn by high status people are in a reverse situation: Now, people who have non-white-collar professions manage the world’s largest corporations,” says Murat Palta, and in his new exhibition, he makes room for contemporary topics with symbolic characters from popular culture in our living shaped between our habits and addictions regarding the concept of entertainment.
Always experimenting new forms and techniques, Murat Palta will exhibit his illuminations and sculptures in “All Work and No Play”, which can be visited as a parallel event to the 16th Istanbul Biennial between September 5 – October 19 at x-ist.