Nil Yalter
Until Dec, 9; 11am-1pm, 2.30-7pm (excl. Sun, Mon), extended until December 23rd
Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès,
14, rue de Seine, 6e, 01 43 26 53 09,
photosaintgermain.com.
Free entry.
As part of PhotoSaintGermain festival.
The news came out on the beginning of November : the Franco-Turkish artist Nil Yalter, born in Cairo in 1938 (hence her first name), will receive the Golden Lion for her lifetime achivement at the Venice Biennale in 2024, a prestigious award that makes us want to go and see (or see again) some of her committed, feminist creations, which speak of exile and are exhibited at the Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès.
In the center of the room, a screen, shows one of Nil Yalter's landmark works, The headlesswoman or the belly dance, created in 1974. Only the artist's stomach appears, undulating. She wrote concentrically on it, in black ink, a text by the poet and philosopher René Nelli (1906-1982) about sexuality and the clitoris.
On one of the gallery walls, a series of portraits of Turkish immigrant women; faces that she cuts out, deconstructs, in geometric strips, erasing the features of these "invisible" women.
A strong gesture of protest !
Nil Yalter, Istanbul's slum, 1980, vintage silver photograph, handwritten text in graphite and collage, 70 x 60 cm
©Nil Yalter
Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès