January 12 – February 13, 2010

NON will be hosting Aslı Çavuşoğlu’s first solo exhibition How i traveled around the world between January 12 – February 13.

Çavuşoğlu examines the concepts of travelling, having been somewhere through Raymond Roussel’s writings. According to the artist the best way to be somewhere is not to be there. Çavuşoğlu, who has spent the last two years in Germany, Argentina and Mexico, exhibits her video and sound work as well as her artist’s books. Çavuşoğlu is recognized for her experimental narratives in varying media.

Author of Locus Solus, Raymond Roussel would stay in his hotel room during trips to various countries, reading books on the country that he is in. For example, on a trip to Egypt, he read a book on the Cairo Spice Market written a hundred years ago. He did not notice the substantially changed market, riding through it in a carriage and commented on the cliches in what he read: “Walking through the potent smell of spices, men wearing white turbans try do draw you in to their stores.” During the year that Roussel was there, all the stores were in renovation, having been seriously damaged during a large fire. Furthermore, the turbans worn around this time were off-white, tinted by yellow. In this case did Raymond Russell actually go to Egypt?

Gustave Flaubert was born and raised in Normandy and he took a trip to the East due to his deep hatred for Normandy. When he returned to his country, he finished Madame Bovary there, writing on Normandy instead of Egypt or Algeria. The best way to be somewhere is not to be there.

How i traveled the around the world reconsiders the notion of “having been somewhere”.