Hale Tenger (b.1960, Izmir, Turkey) is primarily known for her large scale installations based on an elaborate combination of unconventional use of materials, audio, and video. Her wide range of production is inspired by diverse historical, political and psychosocial references. Presence and experience is a key element in her installations whether they create meditative atmospheres or uncanny ones. State power and violence, oppression and repressed aspects of both society and self are questioned throughout her works that operate with the qualities of mood, sound, texture and affect. The audience inevitably oscillates between one visualized situation and another sensed one: between what we can see and what we can hear and feel. Audio is integrated into most of her works in various forms, either as an exclusive music, as a narrative or an arrangement of archival recordings.
Select solo exhibitions include: Where the Winds Rest, Galeri Nev Istanbul, Turkey (2019); Beirut, Rizzuto Gallery, Palermo, Italy (2018); We didn’t go outside; we were always on the outside/ We didn’t go inside; we were always on the inside, Protocinema, New York (2015); Perspectives: Beirut, Smithsonian Institute, Washington (2011); Balloons on the Sea, Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2011); Never Never Land, Mannheimer Kuntsverein, Mannheim (2001); and The Closet, ArtPace, San Antonio, Texas (1997).
Tenger has also participated in various biennials including the Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Russia (2021); Istanbul Biennial (1992, 1995, 2019); São Paulo Biennial (1994); Manifesta 1, Rotterdam (1996); 2nd Johannesburg Biennial (1998); Gwangju Biennial (2000); 8th Havana Biennial (2003); 1st Haifa Mediterranean Biennial (2010); and the 57th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (2017), curated by Christine Macel.
She lives and works in Istanbul.
Courtesy Green Art Gallery

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