Regular Gallery Hours: Fri, Sat, Sun 1pm-5pm

MinEastry of Postcollapse Art and Culture is pleased to present Hoşçakal, Portland, the PDX final exhibition by artist/scholar duo and MPAC cofounders, Ilknur Demirkoparan and Vuslat D. Katsanis.

We stay while leaving, regretfully yet with joy and endless gratitude. Hoşçakal, Portland. We see with beauty,  love endlessly, and commit only our sincerity. Hoşçakal, Portland. As we close our doors here, we thank you from the core of our hearts that we found a home expanding under your sky. Here we must now depart, knowing we are forever connected.

Hoşçakal is goodbye in Turkish. Hoşçakal is joy. It is pleasure.

Hoşçakal, Portland. Stay joyous. Stay wonderful. Stay true. 

This final exhibition brings together Demirkoparan’s body of paintings completed during her stay in Portland and Katsanis’ unpublished writing. Demirkoparan’s paintings in this exhibition are contemporary interpretations of the motifs found on Turkish kilims. This symbolic language has endured centuries of wars, migrations, and even the rise and fall of empires to communicate the joys and sorrows of humans in ways that transcend the boundaries of time and space. Demirkoparan takes direction from these motifs to mark the twists and turns of her own journey towards belonging. Katsanis’ writing meditates on the concept of hoş, a loan word from Farsi into Turkish that has deep philosophical roots in the cultures of the region, including in the poetry of Rumi. Katsanis expands on the cultural resonances of the word, which melds joy, pleasure, and ease with melancholy and sometimes even regret, and ponders its potential entry into the English language. 

MinEastry of Postcollapse Art and Culture is an artist-run space dedicated to exploring our global contemporary from the vantage of postcollapse art and theory. Our frames of reference begin with the human experiences from Eastern Europe and Western and Central Asia since the fall of the Berlin Wall but permeate to every corner of our diasporic world-presence. 

Hoşcakal, Portland opens on April 29th and runs until May 29, 2022. The MinEastry of Postcollapse Art and Culture is located at 2505 SE 11th Ave Suite 233, Portland OR 97202. For viewing hours or inquiries, contact hello[at]postcollapse.art.