German Post-War Art Movement Exhibited İn Istanbul

Istanbul's Sakip Sabanci Museum is set to open an exhibition about Zero, one of the most important art movements of the mid-20th century.



"Zero. Countdown to the Future" which will open Sept. 2 and run until Jan. 10, assembles hundreds of works of art, boasting various materials and techniques, by the main founders of the movement, German artists Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Gunther Uecker as well as other artists.



The trio's motto was "abandon pessimism and start from zero", in the wake of the Second World War. Despite a life span of 10 years, the movement had considerable influence on the 20th-century European contemporary art, Sabanci Museum said.



Speaking at a press meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday, the director of Sakip Sabanci Museum, Nazan Olcer, said that the exhibition would take the visitors to the aftermath of the Second World War in Germany and central Europe.



Olcer also draw a correspondence between the post-war migration then and today's exodus from the war-hit regions in the world.



"This exhibition come to the fore again in a time when different types of stresses sweep [around the world]," she added. "Zero is going through an incredible comeback.Instilling the world with hope and the philosophy of building a bright future are reasons why Zero still maintains its relevance today."



Although Sabancı Museum said that Istanbul Zero exhibition was unique, other Zero exhibitions have already taken place in Berlin and in New York. Another exhibition in Amsterdam will run until November 2015.



"The [Istanbul] exhibition was designed specially for Sakip Sabancı Museum and focuses on the Zero movement, which was born as a response to the negative atmosphere in the heels of World War II in order to evoke new beginnings and rapidly became an international art movement," the museum said in a press release.



One of the highlights of the exhibition is German artist Mack's The Sky Over Nine Columns, which was displayed in the 2014 Venice Architecture Bienniale. The 7.5-meter-high and 1.3-ton work of art, covered with gold mosaics, stands in the museum's terrace.



Alongside the exhibition, conferences, film screenings and children workshops will take place. 



Dutch organizer of exhibitions Mattijs Visser and British historian Norman Rosenthal are the curators of the event. - İstanbul