But a storm is blowing from paradise: contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa (2016), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Crystal & Flame (2010)
“Inspired by Italian author Italo Calvino’s unfinished book of lectures, Six Memos for the Next Millennium (1988), Ergin Çavuşoğlu weaves three seemingly unconnected but ultimately complimentary narratives into a dramatic meditation on social norms and moral codes. In one scenario, a man is seen cutting and polishing a diamond; in another, a group of actors rehearses The House with the Mezzanine, an 1896 play by Anton Chekov about a clash between peasants and city dwellers; and in a third, a group of friends discusses, over a Turkish meal, a proposed film about children forced to smuggle black-market goods across the treacherous Turkish-Syrian border. Where Calvino explores the application of ideas around polarity and regenerative force in a literary context, Çavuşoğlu makes them visual through the metaphorical opposition of images of crystal (the diamond) and flame (the restaurant’s grill).” (text from the Guggenheim Museum’s online collection catalogue)
Dust Breeding (2016)
“As its title suggests, Ergin Çavuşoğlu’s installation Dust Breeding makes reference to American photographer and painter Man Ray’s famous 1920 photograph Dust Breeding (Duchamp’s Large Glass with Dust Motes), which depicts the named artist’s iconic work in the studio having accumulated a year’s worth of environmental dirt. Çavuşoğlu’s reworking of this project also revolves around the documentation of ephemeral matter. The artist invites visitors to walk across a section of an anamorphic floor drawing based on a three-dimensional model of a cement factory in Turkey. Recording their actions with a closed-circuit television camera, he uses a monitor to relay the surreal-looking images, which seem to show visitors standing inside a sculpture.” (text from the Guggenheim Museum’s online collection catalogue)

Dust Breeding (2016) Guggenheim New York, installation stills
Installation views: But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa, April 29-October 5, 2016, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photos: David Heald©SRGF, NY and Will Ragozzino©SRGF, NY.
Courtesy the artist and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.