In her solo exhibition titled "Hello Stranger!" Beyza Boynudelik creates a fictional universe about the relationships of the urban individual with oneself, the "other," and nature in today's world, a subject she has contemplated and produced works on in recent years. While the topic she approaches with an interdisciplinary attitude may contain futuristic elements, it is actually a manifestation of today, as the narratives she conveys to us through her artworks include snippets from our own small contemporary stories.
In this chaotic and fast-paced era, she attempts to focus on the state of this urban individual both in isolation and in society, as well as their existence and psychology within the community. She aims to narrate the experiences of this individual, who is highly communicative on social media but lonely within these crowds, defining oneself through the ideal identity created. This individual, who is so alienated that they can't recognize even the oldest living species and has such a short memory that they forget the greatest disasters instantly, and is apathetic enough not to understand the experience of the "other," tries to reconnect with both nature and their own nature ultimately. This individual, trying to re-establish contact with fauna and flora, may find themselves again through sincerity and self-reflection. Therefore, the issue of being a stranger to oneself and to the surroundings, the realities of observation and being observed that have become the truth of this era, and the concept of vague communication and contact form the conceptual infrastructure of the exhibition. Ironically, according to the artist, contact now passes through observing the "other" from the other side of an interface. The door peepholes used in the exhibition are read as a representation of this interface and as a material relevant to contemporary life. In addition to all these, the individual seeking its habitat, animals with damaged nature and genetics, the concrete generation, the so-called heroes of this era, and the impositions of power policies that have infiltrated all aspects of our lives are included in the works with both experimental and intuitive narratives.
The simultaneous existence of the concepts of "past" and "future" that she undertakes in the works allows her to address certain contradictions such as the contradiction between the "excessively familiar" and the "unknown," the relationship between the "natural" and the "artificial," and the relationship between the "real" and the "fictional." Therefore, including works produced at different times in the exhibition, the artist pursues a timeless understanding. Ultimately, the artist arrives at the following question: "Even when alone as a 'stranger,' how much can one remain a stranger to everything and everyone while redefining 'contact' through experiences and observations?"
