EXTRASTRUGGLE — ARTICLES

Cihat Duman ve Memed Erdener, We Are Bad Enough to Deserve Each Other – 2019

This text has no english translation.

Evrim Altuğ, An Elixir for Hangovers from Istanbul – 2019

Exhausted following a local election, the transportation of the airport and the onset of spring, Studio-X, accompanied by a poet and a visual artist, has made Istanbul a place open to discovery once more. Literary and plastic ‘phenomena’ collected…

Memed Erdener, I am We – 2017

I imagined that all the leaders that have ruled over Turkey and the Ottoman Empire were the one and the same person. Then, I wrote a short historical summary, as if I were that person. I did not observe chronological order. I conquered Europe, Asia and…

Lotte Laub, The Grotesque Truth – 2017

The painting Conclusion and Then Rationalization (2017) shows a bulldozer on a white background. It is shaped like a toy with headlights for eyes. There’s no driver but instead a book with leather straps buckled to the radiator bonnet. An over-sized arm…

Güler İnce, The Construction of a Dreamland – 2016

Extrastruggle began in 1997 as a project working on imaginary commissions, and with direct references to both the political and the popular, produced works that treated a critique of the culture of everyday life with a sharp and humorous tongue. The…

Yetkin Nural & Extrastruggle, Bantmag Interview – 2015

To prepare for this interview, I was of course going to see what the internet would come up with when I throw my net called “extrastruggle” into its depths. It's not original, but it's always effective. As I was strolling around amongst interviews,…

Ahmet Ergenç, Bringing Fuzûlî and Orwell Together – 2014

Extrastruggle first emerged in 1997 as a movement of culture jamming / artistic intervention, and until now, mostly produced extrovert works with highly distinct references and points of attack, works that could be deemed propagandist. As befits its name,…

Rumeysa Kiger, Extramücadele's Take on Hell at İstanbul's Non Gallery – 2014

Extramücadele (Extrastruggle) aka Memed Erdener is a versatile artist who is known for his pop art-influenced works that have direct references to the political atmosphere and history of the Turkish Republic. He has a particular style and humor in…

Rumeysa Kiger, Extramücadele's Take On Hell at İstanbul's Non Gallery – 2014

Extramücadele (Extrastruggle) aka Memed Erdener is a versatile artist who is known for his pop art-influenced works that have direct references to the political atmosphere and history of the Turkish Republic. He has a particular style and humor in…

Nilüfer Şaşmazer, In the Pursuit of “the Daily God” and “Mystical State” – 2014

Extrastruggle, created in 1997 as a project working on ‘imaginary demands from imaginary customers’, shows its new works in its solo show in Gallery NON. The show features works that accentuate the form and the search rather than the political content…

Akasya Asıltürkmen, Nothing New for Art But It’s New for Me – 2014

“There is no doubt that birds are one of the most suitable elements of narrative to transmit the sentiment of approaching, and in fact, reaching the divine ideal by shedding, departing from the material world and materiality, ascending and becoming…

Ali Şimşek, Extra Extra Düşünceler – 2014

This text has no english translation.

Memed Erdener, From Extrastruggle To Intrastruggle – 2013

(…) But then, when I failed to cut my ties with materiality and restricted time, I sadly understood: Any type of government based on the rule of human beings by human beings is bound to end in injustice, inequity and oppression. So it is necessary to…

Serhan Ada, Innocent Snakes – 2013

Same On The Inside And The Outside, Or Those Who Swallow The Things Of This World The work is complete; the author has finished his job for all to see. (Extrastruggle has 30 snakes, and a Rose Garden [Gülistan]; so he, too, has finished his job.) He has…

Memed Erdener, I Remember – 2012

1970 The doctor says, ‘this child is dead, let’s remove it’. My father doesn’t believe the doctor, he gets angry and shouts at him, and they go to another doctor with my mother, I am born at 10 months. 1975 I pile up the cushions in the living…

Elizabeth Wolfson, Text about the exhibition 'I Didn't Do This, You Did' – 2010

Extrastruggle is an enormous project which began in 1997. It works on imaginary demands from imaginary customers. Just like a graphic designer designing a logo for a client, it designs logos for all communities under social pressure. So begins the…

Memed Erdener, talks to Extrastruggle – 2010

ME: I would like to begin with football. The league has kicked off, as you well know. Have you realized that when the big teams lose, men, even from the lower classes, do not feel relieved, but get anxious. The defeat of the strong by the weak is…

Nazım Dikbaş, The Principle Of Hope – 2010

I ‘that strange crowd called everyone’ You choose your own country, not your geographical one of course, but your daydream nation, your dream world. You choose your own forefathers, your own comrades, and your own friends to accompany you in your head…

Memed Erdener, Dream – 2010

When you hear that word, a perspective comes to your mind. A route to follow. And a vehicle to take you of course. And a captain to nicely drive it. Let’s call this vehicle a ship then... And every ship has a captain at its helm. Our ship has one too. A…

Memed Erdener, Letter – 2009

Praising the writer of the letter, in other words the signature rather than the letter’s content. Or at least, let us put it this way: The signature is as important as the letter itself. The writer’s wish for not falling behind what’s written. To…

Nazım Dikbaş, Ex-tra-la-la – 2007

Where may it be, that new idea, that inspiration that will help us look at the graphic arts with unwithered eyes, that gushing spring which will reveal itself at once when we gently separate a few branches of the bushes we pass by every day... when first…

Levent Çalıkoğlu, Extra Extramücadele – 2007

Extrastruggle penetrates us with the historical sociology of visual and political culture, as if to draw blood from our eyes and our memory. Every single item of information circulated by the devices of ideology is a ghost it may borrow. It produces from…

Murat Turan, Atatürk's Eyes – 2007

If we are unable to read the word written in Arabic script in this work, then probably our first move will be to try to learn what it says under the image of Atatürk. And this is very natural, since we can perceive, at first sight, that the relationship…

Murat Turan, A Jungian Interpretation of ‘The Forest of Peace’ – 2007

The Girl wearing a carsaf (the black dress with a veil worn by some Turkish Muslim women) symbolizes the Anima of Extrastruggle, the forest the unconscious, and Ataturk Extrastruggle itself (the consciousness). The fact that the reconciled ones are from…

Vasıf Kortun, Multifaceted Project – 2005

Memed Erdener, an artist based in Istanbul, first began his multifaceted project, “Extrastruggle,” in 1997. As he writes in his manifesto, Extrastruggle is a fictional graphic design firm that creates “ logos for all communities under social…

Bedri Baykam, Sanatta Cehalet, Başarı ve Riyakarlık – 2005

This text has no english translation.