art

Elmira Akarsu's solo exhibition "The Self Within Me" opens on Saturday, April 18, at 6:00 PM at Guga Contemporary. Centered on the intertwined concepts of knots, the body, and freedom, the exhibition invites viewers into a space of tension between the figure and the mind.

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Born in Tabriz, Iran, in 1987, Akarsu graduated from the Department of Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Tabriz Azad University, in 2011. Beginning her artistic career in Iran under the name Elmira Asl, she has participated in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Since 2022, she has been living and working in Istanbul.

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In Akarsu's practice, the human body, identity, and memory are reconstructed through intricately woven strands of hair and knot-like forms. Believing that every detail shapes the whole, the artist patiently builds her surfaces layer by layer. As delicate as a single strand of hair and as dense as a tightly tied knot, these structures sometimes envelop human or animal figures, transforming them into symbolic forms, while at other times they evolve into independent narratives of their own.

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Throughout the exhibition, the recurring image of the horse no longer functions as a symbol of freedom. Instead, it appears as a body folded onto itself, entangled and knotted. At this threshold, where identity and freedom are called into question, knots emerge not only as traces of captivity but also as manifestations of the mind's process of constructing itself. The longing for freedom and the unease it generates coexist simultaneously across these painted surfaces.

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Confronting these knots marks a moment in which the subject encounters its own limits and comes face to face with the very structures that both shape and restrain it. In this sense, Akarsu's paintings approach freedom not as a fixed condition, but as an unresolved tension—one that is continually deferred, reconstructed, and questioned.

Elmira Akarsu's solo exhibition "The Self Within Me" will be on view at Guga Contemporary from April 18 through May 2, 2026.