Incremental Change

NON is proud to present Incremental Change, a group exhibition bringing together works by Meriç Algün Ringborg, Olof Olsson, Pilvi Takala and Erdem Taşdelen. The works presented in the exhibition explore the notion of agency in the face of external social forces and constraints, probing the limits of willful self-change via different methodologies. Through their varying approaches to this central premise, these artists either fictionalize themselves through their works, or designate other fictitious characters as objects of scrutiny and present their investigations in a factual manner; ultimately pointing to the slippery relationship between truth and fiction.

The title of the exhibition gives a nod to popular self-help literature and suggests a preference for making sustained and consistent progress toward desired goals, where attention is directed more to process than end results. In their respective projects, the artists insist on laying bare the processes that they are undergoing, while straddling the line between humour and earnestness. It is evident in their works that their attempts involve a strong sense of self-discipline, although the results of their activities may in the end prove to be futile. This potentially paradoxical attitude may suggest a naïve optimism as well as a conscious refusal to capitulate to systems of power and dictated ways of being.