Lehmann Maupin would like to announce an exhibition of Kutlug Ataman's new video installation, Stefan's Room. This will be Ataman's fourth solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin.
Stefan's Room is a five screen video installation that centers on Stefan Naumann's obsession with tropical moths. With more than 30,000 tropical moths in his small Berlin apartment, Stefan's dedication is all consuming. Here, Ataman's portrait of Stefan Naumann illustrates the imprisonment of obsession.
The installation will form a dynamic structure suggesting Stefan's psyche and transformation. There will be projections on multiple gossamer surfaces of the room. The five projections will be on opalescent screens and the ceiling. One screen will tell Stefan's story while others will depict images of the vivid tropical moths. Ataman sees the playful and eerie installation as a metaphor for the complexity of Stefan's obsession and the transformation he wants to undertake. The viewer becomes confined within the broken and tilted installation, as if walking into a man\'s head and thoughts.
Kutlug Ataman was born in Istanbul, received his MFA in Film from UCLA and now lives in London and Istanbul. Kutlug Ataman was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2004 and his video work has been included in the Venice Biennale, the Bienal de São Paulo, and Documenta 11. The Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center in Copenhagen, the BAWAG Foundation in Vienna and the Serpentine Gallery in London recently held survey exhibitions of his work. Upcoming exhibitions include participation in the Carnegie International, the Turner Prize exhibition at the Tate and a retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Also a filmmaker, Ataman's films, such as Lola + Bilidikid, have won numerous awards at international film festivals.