The Columns Held Us Up opened yesterday at Artists Space, a show done in partnership with the Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center of Istanbul. Offering itself as a kind of interim space, Artists Space is hosing Platform for the duration of July while its offices undergo a major structural and organizational transformation.

The exhibit showcases the work of artists who have helped Platform, as an institution, grow over the years. The show is “a confluence of intertwining relationships and shared interests, based on the strength of thoughts and ideas to uphold or pillar a situation in the absence of structural parameters.”

The work in the gallery is mostly mixed-media and video work. In conjunction with the exhibition, Krist Gruijthuijsen has curated a week-long series of events: the invited (cordially univited) that will take place in various locations. The series is based on the artist Chrisopher D’Arcangelo’s work done in 1978 in response to his rejection from a show at Rosa Esman Gallery entitled The Invitational, after initially having been invited to partake.

Other events associated with the show include a performance by Jeremiah Day on Saturday, July 11; Unprepared Storyteller’s Corner on Thursday, July 30th; and Independence Month, a presentation by Cevdet Erek on Saturday, August 1. These (along with lots and lots of other cool events!) are all on our calendar.

Two highlights include SSS (Shore Scene Soundtrack), a video of someone playing a rug with his hands in a recording studio, and Burt Barr’s video, “Self Portrait.” You can check out photos of these pieces as well as others from the opening on our flickr page.