Towards the future in the past

50×30 cm (each work)

Property of the artist

Special Thanks to Beral Madra

The project “Towards the future in the past’ was planned by the author as

a rethinking of the Soviet past, which is also his personal experience, since

Bashir Borlakov was born and was educated in the USSR.

Here are sketches for a further series of photographs.

This is modern Russia, where the collapse of the Soviet Union

deindustrialization took place and the bulk of industrial facilities were

abandoned. Borlakov borrowed the title “Back to the Future” from Boris

Groys; in his book “The total art of Stalinism”, he speaks about the Soviet

Union as a project without the present, as a space that lived in the future.

But Borlakov’s modern Russia is more like the novel of the Strugatsky

brothers “Picnic on the Roadside.” As some kind of abandoned zone with

its artefacts and local people try to adapt to them, not knowing their true

purpose.

1977 BORN IN KARACHAEVSK / KARACHAY-CHERKESS

REPUBLIC / RUSSIA

LIVES AND WORKS IN ISTANBUL / TURKEY

AND LONDON / UNITED KINGDOM

AWARDS

2001 21ST EXHIBITION OF THE ISTANBUL CONTEMPORARY

ARTISTS, ISTANBUL / TURKEY

1999 POWER OF COMMUNICATION,

TURKSELL ART COMPETITION, ISTANBUL / TURKEY

1998 17TH EXHIBITION OF THE ISTANBUL

CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS, ISTANBUL / TURKEY

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011 DREAMS OF MEXICO, PILOT GALLERY, ISTANBUL / TURKEY

2009 TOWARDS THE FUTURE IN THE PAST, GALLERY NEV,

ISTANBUL / TURKEY

RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2017 TRANS-ID, SURP YERROTUTYUN CHURCH,

CURATOR SEYHAN MUSAOGLU AND ANNA

ZIZLSPERGER, ISTANBUL / TURKEY

2016 BIENNALE ARTE DOLAMITI, CIBIANA DI CODORE / ITALY

RARE WORK, GALERINEV, ANKARA / TURKEY

2015 “HISTORY OF MANIPULATION” THE BATUMI PHOTO

DAYS, BATUMI / GEORGIA

2013 TRANSCENDING CULTURES, ESSL ART AWARD CEE

2013, ESSL MUSEUM, VIENNA / AUSTRIA

ME & I, CERMODERN, ANKARA / TURKEY

RE-ORIENTATION, THE MEDITERRANEAN BIENNALE

2013, SAKHNIN / ISRAEL

2012 TURKISH ART NEW AND SUPERB, CURATOR:

RENE BLOK, TANAS, BERLIN / GERMANY

2011 IF THE NATURE IS HEAVEN, THE CITY IS HELL,

CERMODERN, ANKARA / TURKEY

2010 WHEN IDEAS BECOME CROME, CURATOR:

HALIL ALTINDERE, DEPO, ISTANBUL / TURKEY

ABOVE AND BEYOND, FORUM STADPARK, GRAZ / AUSTRIA

2009 ISTANBUL TRAVERSEE, CURATOR: CAROLINE

NAPHEGYI, PALAIS DES BEAUX-ARTS, LILLE / FRANCE

2008 LAST THINGS, CURATOR: VASIF KORTUN,

WESFALISCHER KUNTVERIEN, MUNSTER / GERMANY

I REFUSE TO BECOME WHAT YOU CALL NORMAL,

OUTLET, ISTANBUL / TURKEY