The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948, three years after the end of World War II. According to the UN, it sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected, and has been translated in over 500 languages.
Banu Cennetoğlu’s right? (2022 – ) presents the articles of the UDHR in bouquets of gold letter balloons. As the bouquets deflate during the run of the show, they will leave viewers to question whether any rights can remain without the labour of protecting, extending, and upholding them. It will be on display at Void Art Centre from 2 September – 1 November 2023.
Given the parameters of the work, space and duration of the exhibition, articles 11 and 12 will be on view. The first 10 articles of the UDHR were on view at Carnegie Museum of Art for the 58th Carnegie International in 2022-2023. A short video is displayed below which shows the work which was on display.
Video: Max Cianci, courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Art
In her cross-disciplinary practice, which includes photography, sculpture, and moving image, Cennetoğlu explores the impossibility of giving form to absence and how the process of attempting to do so deepens our understanding of loss. right? similarly asks if we can protect what is being undermined and never fully actualised as intended.
Banu Cennetoğlu biography
Banu Cennetoğlu is an Istanbul-based artist engaged in a wide range of cross-disciplinary practices. Her practice incorporates methods of archiving in order to question and challenge the politics of memory, as well as the production, distribution and consumption of information.
Cennetoğlu has had solo exhibitions at institutions including K21 Ständehaus, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Sculpture Center, New York; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Bonner Kunstverein; Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest; Kunsthalle Basel. She has participated in the Berlin, Istanbul, Liverpool, Gwangju, Athens and Venice Bienniale, as well as Manifesta 8 and documenta14. She is the founder of BAS, an artist-run space in Istanbul dedicated to artists’ books and printed matter. Banu Cennetoğlu is currently an advisor at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam.
Acknowledgements
Void Gallery is supported using public funding from Arts Council Northern Ireland, Arts Council National Lottery Fund, All Island Fund, Austin and Hope Pilkington Foundation, Arnold Clarke Foundation, Bank of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund, Community Foundation Ireland, Derry City and Strabane District Council, Enkalon Foundation, National Lottery Community Fund, The Ireland Funds, Ragdoll Foundation.
