Labirent Sanat is pleased to announce the exhibition titled “Photograph of a Dream” by Gülfem Kessler and Nadide Akdeniz, taking place from December 27, 2025, to February 7, 2026.

Life is not a sum of static oppositions; it is the movement of forces continuously transforming one another. Existence is an uninterrupted flux: Chaos and cosmos, birth and death, day and night, consciousness and the unconscious are not fixed poles within this flow, but transitional states; they are simultaneous forces determining the rhythm, movement, and transformation of existence.

The dream is the threshold where these oppositions are visible in their starkest form. It is neither entirely conscious nor wholly unconscious. Time dissolves, space bends, and images are juxtaposed not by logic, but by association. “Photograph of a Dream” is the desire to fix this transitional state: an endeavor to make visible a moment within the flux, a cross-section from within the discontinuous.

The two artists in the exhibition approach the dualities that constitute life from different ends: they address image production through distinct cognitive and temporal layers. This difference stems not merely from aesthetic choices, but from an ontological approach regarding the production process. Although the production practices of both artists proceed from different poles, they intersect at a common question: When is the image formed?

While one extracts the image from within chaos, the other constructs it within order. Yet in both cases, the image is not a fixed result; it is the product of a continuous negotiation between consciousness and the unconscious, control and release, planning and intuition. In this exhibition, the production processes propose a gaze focused not only on results but on becoming itself.

Gülfem Kessler begins her painting with a state of ecstasy where control is suspended. The movement of pigment, ink, and charcoal on the canvas bears the direct trace of the unconscious. This initial stage is chaotic; form is yet unstable, images are indistinct. Subsequently, the artist returns to the surface by shifting to a more conscious state; she selects, emphasizes, and clarifies the emerging images. Thus, chaos produces a cosmos from within itself.

Nadide Akdeniz, on the other hand, approaches production by establishing a conscious structure from start to finish. She thinks before starting the painting; composition, rhythm, and form are pre-planned. However, this rational order is not a rigid control; it proposes a structure that carries within it the inevitable uncertainties of life. Here, order does not exclude chaos; it limits and directs it.

These two opposing modes of production complement each other, much like life itself. For transformation is possible only where opposites touch.

“Photograph of a Dream” opens a space that is neither solely dreamlike nor entirely real, neither purely internal nor wholly external. This exhibition reminds us that existence is established not between dualities, but through the movement of dualities.

You can visit Gülfem Kessler and Nadide Akdeniz’s duo exhibition, “Photograph of a Dream,” at Labirent Sanat between December 27, 2025, and February 7, 2026.