"The Luxembourg Effect" draws its name from the eponymous phenomenon in radio physics first documented by radio enthusiasts in the 1930’s.[1] This effect, also known as ionospheric cross-modulation, occurs when signals interact in the ionosphere, reflecting and refracting radio waves. Similarly, within the fractured landscape of contemporary existence notions and concepts are freely flying, and by confounding signals and meaning we tend to lose sight of what truly surrounds us. Amidst the noise, a process of meaningful comprehension becomes elusive, and a vast, incomprehensible network consisting of the so-called "hyperobjects" [2] emerges as a viable explanation for today’s experience. The effects and manifestations of those hyperobjects can be widely dispersed across different locations, making their entire form impossible to see or feel all at once, challenging the notion of individualism. Thus, individual experience fades into the fog of uncertainty, and we are oversaturated with messages, soon to find ourselves excluded, without ever knowing why it happens to us. Nowadays, artists grapple with concepts and phenomena that are vast, complex, and often exceed human scales of understanding. Confronted with the deeply interconnected phenomena shaping contemporary existence, a central question arises: How can art, and particularly painting reflect these complex issues?
In a remote part of the world, far away somewhere in Alaska lies a semi-secretive facility famous among the online conspiracy circles by its acronym HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program). A source for many conspiracy theories about its purpose, like the assumed ability to cause earthquakes and accelerate global warming, HAARP is a former military research and science site currently operated by the University of Alaska, aimed at studying the properties and behaviour of the ionosphere. By transmitting a sequence of tones and music using amplitude modulation (AM) on two different radio frequencies, HAARP scientists were able to reproduce and record a "Luxembourg Effect", and if you’re curious enough you can listen to those recordings. They are strangely beautiful and haunting. We hear a sound that has no identifiable connection to its sources—neither music nor a human voice. Instead, it manifests as a continuous, ambient noise on a planetary scale. The fundamental act of speaking and creating meaning is exposed and simplified; there is no artist or performer, and nothing takes place. In one sense, it’s an illusion, but an illusion so captivating that it becomes lyrical; it is music.
Djochkoun Sami and Sevket Sönmez, the artists featured in the exhibition "The Luxembourg Effect" are both intrigued by the theme of transformation of personal and collective experiences, becoming in itself a process of "sublimation". Sevket Sönmez‘s paintings, paravents, and assemblages creeping and stretching over the space are infused with personal reminiscences, offering a thought-provoking and enigmatic reflection on contemporary visual production and recycling of images and symbols. On the other end, Djochkoun Sami‘s ink drawings and paintings delve into the darker waters of regress and decay while maintaining a dialogue with the history of the medium. In a time where art often embraces dynamic mediums and performative platforms, both artists utilize more traditional tactics and reinterpretations as a medium for inquiries. For them, the canvas is a mirror for introspection, a swelling net of references regarding aspects of the process of "sublimation". This quest is an intricate dance of elements and ideas, challenging us to find balance within a complexity where rational thought comes to an end and we suddenly encounter something wholly and perturbingly 'other'. As if looking through a magnifying glass, Sami and Sönmez address themes like the ambivalence of visual perception, the growing insecurity of the individual, and a sense of trauma, loss, and uncertainty. Depriving their works of a thematic statement, the artists challenge the viewer’s perception: What does one expect to see?
"The Luxembourg Effect" invites you to get close, to hear all the doubts, imperfections and idiosyncratic qualities which both artists try to convey in an ambient mixture of styles, surfaces, themes and painterly spaces. If we assume that there are two types of painters: one who is embedded in a sense of place and one who records what he sees in passing, we can assert that Sami and Sönmez possess both qualities. Their seductive quality is the fluidity they give both to the colour and the painted alike, without trying to be too clever or cynical. Thus, it can be said that this exhibition is a process of broadcasting and a mixture of two different personalities, of two artists who employ and use their alchemy to highlight the fragile structure of images in relation to time, space and memory.
1. “The Luxembourg Effect” is a phenomenon in radio communications where a signal transmitted from a powerful station in one location is reflected back to Earth by the ionosphere and interferes with another signal on the same or a nearby frequency from a different location. This can cause an unusual blending of signals, creating a mix where elements of both transmissions can be heard simultaneously. The effect is named after observations made with the powerful radio transmissions from Radio Luxembourg in the mid-20th century, which could be heard interfering with other broadcasts across Europe.
2. “Hyperobjects“ is a term coined by philosopher Timothy Morton to describe objects that are so massively distributed in time and space that they transcend local manifestations. Morton introduced the concept in his 2013 book *Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World*. Hyperobjects include things like climate change, nuclear materials, and even the internet—entities so large and systemically distributed that they challenge conventional ways of thinking about what a thing is in the first place.
The relationship between wall and work has always been a problematic issue in art. Something hung on the wall automatically acquires a 'decorative' quality. Periodic crises in the experimental and intellectual fields of art highlight the power of the wall. The limiting structure of classical surfaces exacerbated these problems, leading Şevket Sönmez to work on screens. Screens do not need walls; they invite the viewer to a two-way observation, creating a cyclical experience. Diagonals in the form of triangles, incorporated into the vertical-horizontal opposition, become a natural part of the work. The double-meaning structure brought by the reflector materials that Şevket Sönmez frequently uses complements the screen form. This synergy makes the relationship between content and form open to multi-layered interpretations.
Work: Şevket Sönmez, “Paravent V”, 2024, Mixed media, 180 x 90 cm (x3)
"BY Residence" portrays a modernist home warmly lit from within, set amidst lush vegetation. The serene, harmonious atmosphere of the painting, with its integration of contemporary architecture and nature conveys a sense of balance and sustainability. Work can be seen as echoing René Magritte's "Empire of Light," where contrasting elements of day and night create a surreal yet cohesive scene. Similarly, "BY Residence" juxtaposes the warmth of the illuminated residence with the cool, tranquil surroundings, blending them into a unified, peaceful composition.
Work: Djochkoun Sami, “BY Residence”, 2023, Oil on canvas, 130 x 97 cm
'Hot Injection' is the result of a process born from Şevket Sönmez's thoughts on the relationship between the object of desire and 'error.' The concept of sublimation is directly related to this process: an attempt to turn a bad experience into the nucleus of something positive. Objects, which become 'errors' in the need for standardization of industrial production, transform into various installations, assemblages, and paintings, representing a state of rebirth with a different identity and a personal healing effort. The closeness of amorphous images to the forms of the natural world adds another layer. PVC materials, which are the main symbol of the ecological crisis, paradoxically reference the ecological crisis of our period. The sharp contradiction between the chemical structure of these objects and the natural appearance of their forms is paradoxical. We are accustomed to loving everything in its clear, useful, and disposable form. For Şevket Sönmez, the theme of 'hot injection' reverses this process spontaneously. A mistake occurs, and an original, singular, and personalized object joins life, pushing us to question everything again. Working through the found object and its organization is an attempt to overcome a challenge. Conventional art practices have various inhibitory mechanisms. Şevket Sönmez experienced a serious health problem during a period when he was working on the meaning of materials such as metal and plastic and organizing exhibitions. Overcoming the problem was again possible by incorporating an industrial object made of metal and plastic into his body. In this respect, the "Hot Injection" series becomes a symbolic expression of Şevket Sönmez's personal history in its production.
Work: Şevket Sönmez, “Hot Injection” series, 2024, Mixed media, 103 х 87 х 35 cm
Nueva Germania is a settlement in Paraguay founded in 1887 in the San Pedro Department by a group of German immigrants led by Bernhard Förster, the brother-in-law of Friedrich Nietzsche. Förster was an anti-Semite and an advocate of Aryan supremacy, and he envisioned Nueva Germania as a utopian colony where a racially pure Aryan community could flourish. However, the venture faced numerous challenges, including harsh living conditions, disease, and conflicts with the local indigenous people. Förster himself faced financial difficulties and committed suicide in 1889. Despite the setbacks, the colony persisted, and some descendants of the original settlers still live in the area today. Over time, the community has integrated with the local population, and notions of racial purity have largely faded away. Today, Nueva Germania is known more for its historical significance than for any adherence to Förster's original ideals. In the painting, a trail of blood within a dark forest somewhere in Central Europe symbolizes the search for racial purity...
Work: Djochkoun Sami, “Nueva Germania”, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 97 cm
Thoughts of double meanings and reflex themes lead Şevket Sönmez to an experimental process with different materials. In an exhibition called 'Lazarus Reflex,' the last reflexes of dead bodies were depicted. These movements, which give the impression of vitality to the dead, are the result of an evolutionary need dating back to when we lived in trees: the involuntary need to cling and survive as you fall from the tree. This reflex kept us alive. In the works where he uses this method, Sönmez makes double meanings visible. The viewer is invited to take a flash photo, actively participating in the creation of the work. According to Sönmez, the 'real work' is the image that appears on the viewer's device. A colorful image can become monochrome, a neutral look in mid-tones can become contrasting with sharp contrasts, and anteroposterior relationships are reversed. A secondary image invisible to the naked eye may become active. The relationship between active and passive forms becomes dialectical with constant displacements. The works in this series exemplify Şevket Sönmez's experimental and open-ended use of material features.
Şevket Sönmez, “Paravent V”, 2024, Mixed media, 180 x 90 cm (x3)
The ”Nacht und Nebel" phrase (German for "Night and Fog") has a particularly ominous and historical significance. During World War II, it was used as a code name for a directive issued by Adolf Hitler in December 1941, which was designed to deal with any activities in occupied territories that were deemed hostile to the Nazi regime. Under the “Nacht und Nebel” decree, individuals in occupied countries who were suspected of resistance activities or acts against the German occupation were to be arrested and deported secretly. The key element of this policy was the complete disappearance of these individuals without a trace—hence the term "night and fog," indicating the victims were to vanish into thin air, creating a climate of fear and uncertainty. Also, "Nacht und Nebel" is the title of a 1956 French documentary film by Alain Resnais, notable for its haunting portrayal of the camps and has been widely recognized for its historical importance and impact on the memory and understanding of the Holocaust.
Additionaly, "Nacht und Nebel" has is a literary connection to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The phrase appears in Goethe’s play "Faust," in the first part of the tragic play, used in a scene where the character Mephistopheles speaks about his mystical, secretive, and shadowy domain, describing it as a realm of "night and fog”. This literary origin of the phrase is quite different from its later use by the Nazis. While Goethe used the phrase to evoke a sense of mystery and the supernatural, the Nazi regime repurposed it into a codename for a policy of forced disappearance and suppression. The transformation of the phrase from a poetic description to a symbol of terror is a stark example of how language can be manipulated for vastly different purposes, and how how cultural references can be appropriated in vastly different contexts. The ongoing war in Ukraine is a poignant example, where the echoes of the past are repeating itself in new and equally devastating forms.
Djochkoun Sami is an artist born in Bulgaria, currently working in Istanbul, Turkey. Sami‘s paintings often incorporate architectural and historical references, while maintaining an affinity for the templates of formalist painting. His limited colour palette supports his drawing-based process, making visible an effort towards achieving pictorial and formal values. Sami‘s paintings demonstrate a nuanced blend of stylistic elements, as he navigates the space between expression, figuration and semi-abstraction. He often incorporates architectural and historical references into his work, such as abandoned buildings from the recent past, stripped of their context and historical specificity, resulting in anonymous and depoliticized homogeneous spaces. His use of muted, earthy tones creates a sense of timelessness and universality, while his brushwork and mark-making imbue the works with a sense of immediacy and urgency. Sami‘s paintings often feature a horizontally-based perception of time, with objects, rocks, organic matter, and voids occupying the same space, with interplays between light and shadow.
His practice explores the power of memory and its potential to resurge or transfigure itself into new conglomerations and physical entities, and is fuelled by an interest in the collective traumas caused by war, displacement and totalitarian regimes, abiding by a certain strain of thought within European post-war painting. Through his attempts to engage with fading or vanquished historical memory, Sami investigates the contradictions that the modernist project in all its aspects has brought, exploring collective memory as a form of storytelling by employing references and motifs of modernity, progress, regress, and the grand narratives of the past and approaching memory as a phenomenon that is intangible and abstract. In some of his paintings, he illustrates how the political is reduced to its grotesque dimension, with power struggles, flag-waving, and the reselling of imaginary dreams. His work engages in a hauntology research of its own, exploring how the agendas of contemporary societies are shaped by ghosts of the past.
Solo Exhibitions
The work of Sevket Sönmez- also a Bulgarian artist living in Turkey- navigates a fluctuating space between the influences of past art periods and contemporary cultural phenomena. His compositions, anchored in the pictorial memory of art history and sometimes directly referencing well-known masterpieces, remain unmistakably modern due to the forms and figures populating them. While the compositions draw from the rich tapestry of art history, his iconography cycle is rooted in the present. Sönmez employs his archive as a foundation for constructing large, enigmatic, figurative, and semi-abstract compositions. The interplay between historical references and contemporary imagery generates a layered visual narrative that hints at both personal and collective memory.
Amid today‘s prevalent image culture, Sönmez consistently confronts the imposition of images shaped by certain „parallel“ structures. These structures, perceiving themselves as superior to individual identities, tend to encapsulate themselves, a phenomenon aptly described as a process of ‚fetishization.‘ The artist‘s body of work can be characterised as a resolute resistance against this process. Drawing inspiration from diverse sources such as mass media, history, personal archives, art, and daily life experiences, Sönmez endeavours to construct a personal perspective that embraces the contradictions between individual and collective interpretations of time and history. Throughout the creative process, events and characteristics of the 20th century hold particular significance. Presently, he seeks to amalgamate a spectrum of ideas by employing an experimental approach, weaving together different techniques and methods of presentation, recently turning to paravents and hung surfaces. This approach is akin to dismantling the uniformity inherent in the contemporary understanding of the pattern between individual and collective algorithms.
Central to Sönmez‘s practice is his emphasis on the process of painting itself. The semi-abstract nature of his compositions further blurs the lines between intention and accident, appearing to evolve organically, guided by an improvisational exploration and creating a dynamic interplay between control and spontaneity. In some of his works, molten plastics and byproducts of chemical processes imbue the canvas’ surface with a spontaneity and freshness that encourage viewers to diversify their expectations of a painting and engage with the ethical, physical and political dimensions of our relationship with mutually tangled processes of mass production and environmental pollution.
Intrigued by the theme of transformation of personal and collective experiences, he also explores this concept through a process of „sublimation.“ His archive becomes a sort of archaeological quest, revealing layers of both personal and collective memory as he delves into familiar motifs and reinterprets them. The transformation of these experiences into a visual form is, in itself, an act of sublimation, where memories and emotions are elevated into enigmatic compositions. This process allows the fusion of personal history with broader cultural references, offering viewers a glimpse into the artist‘s psyche. Although recognizable figures and shapes emerge, they are often semi-obscured or fragmented. This is further enhanced by reminiscences of personal history, which Sönmez weaves into the fabric of his paintings. By avoiding purely narrative scenes, the artist invites viewers to interpret the works through their own experiences and knowledge.
Solo Exhibitions
