Artist: Zeyno Pekünlü

SANATORIUM presents Zeyno Pekünlü’s first solo show in the USA, titled “Perfect Loop," at DIANA NEW YORK. The exhibition centers on the video Perfect Loop, alongside a sound installation and works on paper.

Perfect Loop, which lends its title to the exhibition, is a video stuck in its beginning sequence, drawing from waiting interfaces with messages like "press any key to continue" and "loading..."—a form of non-content for media players. It underscores the emptiness of imposed narratives and the frustration of chasing an inaccessible video, mirroring our entrapment in an endless cycle of blue screens amid ongoing crises.

All Her Sighs, a four-channel sound installation, gathers sighs from renowned pop singer Sezen Aksu’s full discography, reflecting the social conditions within the space. Her sighs, deeply ingrained in the collective memory of Turkey, resurface unexpectedly and cut through the silence in the gallery space, hinting at emotions from cursing to despair, from longing to surprise.

The series Possibilities, Significances, and Connections consists of symbols—question marks, stars, arrows, and lines—taken from the notes the artist took during political meeting notes over the past 20 years. These marks, signifying collective effort, contrast with the stagnation seen elsewhere in the exhibition.

“Perfect Loop” examines the vicious cycles encountered in everyday life through various methods while pointing to the possibilities of collective efforts.

About the artist:

Zeyno Pekünlü (b. 1980, Izmir) is an artist whose artistic interventions mostly take the form of videos and installations. She previously ran the Istanbul Biennial’s Production and Research Program and the Istanbul Cell of Fellowship for Situated Practice organized by BAK Utrecht. Currently, she is working as an instructor at the Media and Visual Arts Department at Koç University. Together with Köken Ergun, she is co-founder of the KIRIK initiative. She is on the editorial board of Red Thread Journal and also a member of The Institute of Radical Imagination.

Her important shows include; 2024 All Her Sighs, Sanatorium, Istanbul, 2023 Pretty Furious Women, LUC Athens, 2022 The Real Show, CAC Brétigny, 2021 Once Upon a Time Inconceivable, Protocinema/ This Place, Yapı Kredi Arts and Culture/ 39th EVA International-Ireland's Biennial, 2020 Artists in Quarantine, The Museum confederation L’Internationale, 2016-2017 Institute for New Feeling, Artist Film International/White Chapel Gallery/Hammer Museum/MAAT/Istanbul Modern Museum, 2016 Zeyno Pekünlü, SALT Ulus, 2015 Istanbul: Passion, Joy, Fury, MAXXI Museum/ Salt Water, 14th Istanbul Biennial/ Neither Back Nor Forward: Acting in the Present, Jakarta Biennale/ Every Inclusion is an Exclusion of Other Possibilities, SALT Beyoglu/ Sights and Sounds: Turkey, Jewish Museum, New York.