“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us...”
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Dickens looked at the final slice of the 1700s in his novel A Tale of Two Cities. He was depicting an era standing at a crossroads. It was a time in which contradictions intertwined, opposites coexisted, and great transformations stood on the threshold. Clearly, a rupture was impending. In such times of fracture, “the best” and “the worst” exist side by side; the “age of wisdom” challenges the “age of foolishness.” “Light” and “darkness” enter into a fierce struggle. Both a “spring of hope” and a “winter of despair” are experienced. In short, everything exists, and nothing exists.
History becomes sharper precisely in such moments. For contradictions display themselves in their most naked form, and sides become clear. Time does not proceed as it does in ordinary days, based on repetition, fluid, and predictable. Rupture and uncertainty prevail; time is almost bent. In this regard, these words do not merely outline one specific era but offer the anatomy of all periods experiencing such moments of fracture.
Today, we too stand on the verge of a similar junction; we are passing through a time that signals a looming great clash in which light and darkness are soon to confront one another. On one side lies the progressive accumulation of human history, the traces of thought, science, and the pursuit of equality and freedom. On the other side, we are witnessing a period in which dogma takes the place of reason, superstition replaces science, and myths of individual salvation are imposed in place of solidarity and social liberation.
We seem to be feeling the early tremors of a historical confrontation. Darkness grows heavier as it strives to obscure historical gains, dull hope, and erase our power to be subjects and to shape life.
Within the darkness, although still weak, fragmented, and scattered, a light carrying the immense accumulation of human history on its back is gathering strength and preparing for that moment when breaths will be held. Though it may appear powerful and dominant, this darkness becomes increasingly aggressive with the awareness that it is approaching its historical end. For it recognizes that the future does not belong to it.
At the entrance of the exhibition, we are greeted by “Birds”; birds flying within the darkness, bearing the heavy burdens born of responsibility upon their wings... In this historical bend shrouded in uncertainty, these birds, who do not lose their direction despite obstacles and exhaustion, remind us of those who strive to carry on, becoming symbols of both resistance and a memory woven with hope.
The series “Portraits,” reflecting the spirit of the time, focuses on gazes gathering the strength to tear apart the layered darkness seeking to cover us. They are neither wholly surrendered to darkness nor fully arrived at light. These faces, with stubborn hope, constitute both the witnesses and the subjects of this moment of transition.
“Unfading Flowers,” though outwardly fragile, wind-worn, and at times bruised or shaken, have nonetheless managed to remain standing; they emerge as symbols of the power to bloom anew, to reshape life from its depths, to reorganize existence. Seemingly pale, yet containing within them the stubborn seeds, buds, and sprouts of the future, these flowers embody the rooting of determination within silence.
This exhibition, titled “It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times,” situates itself at the heart of this historical turning point in which social contradictions intensify, right at the center of this duality. The works within the exhibition render visible the tension between these opposites, calling us to understand this period in which we have reached the edge of all possibilities.
