Jesus' Last Supper that he had with his Apostles before the capture by the Roman authorities has been the theme of innumerous representations in fine arts and literature. The Last Supper (L'Ultima Cena, 1498) that made by Leonardo da Vinci over the wall of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie was doubtlessly the most penetrative and significant work based on this theme. Leonardo's work that combines his genius with the geometric perfectionism of Renaissance could not be exceeded by subsequent artists, for example Jacopo Bassano's holding the same theme approximately half-century later (1542) remained quite unsophisticated and Tintoretto's interference a century later (1594) was highly shaded by the religious symbolism.  


Leonardo Da Vinci


Tintoretto

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code could be given as the most contemporary sample the reflections of the Last Supper in literature. Dan Brown analyzed the mural painting of The Last Supper as the totality of cryptologic codes, while illustrating Leonardo as a ring of the esoteric tradition that still continues today. According to Brown, the painting includes Mary Magdalene who symbolized by the "holy chalice"; the figure just near Jesus, on the left from our sight, resembles a woman. There is no female Apostle and hence Mary Magdalene is represented here, the carrier of the holy lineage.

As for Javier Sierras novel titled The Secret Supper, it considers Leonardo as a member of the Gnostic sect of Cathars which had been prosecuted by the Inquisition and claims that the person painted as Judas Iscariot (second from the right) is Leonardo himself. We know that it is alleged every now and then that Leonardo was locating himself into the paintings sometimes and Sierra's argument -if we express taking it off from his purpose-, that Leonardo located himself to the place of Judas Iscariot, i.e. to the place of the traitor, is meaningful. Why the artist is treacherous? Is representing the sacred or interfering to it betrayal? Was he expressing here his being a hidden Cathar, as Sierra asserting? These are "codes" that could not be solved easily.

We see a contemporary "betrayal" reminding the author's act himself regarding this work, one of the masterpieces of the human history, in the If I Were III exhibition takes place in the Artistanbul 2007. Betrayal appears here in the semiotic level, as a contemporary sample of the paradigm opened by the modern art, rather than esoteric ciphers and implied religious references. As it is well known, one of the techniques has been applied by Modernism in art for many years, was reinterpretation of the classic works of art in a reconstructive manner. Marcel Duchamp, with his Leonardo interpretation (Mona Lisa), was one of the outstanding artists proving that reconstructive repetitions could be the media of creating original works perfectly. I believe that If I Were III shelters an important potential thatcould enrich the art world of Turkey and construct relations with European civilization on a creative basis.



Doğan Paksoy

Altan Çelebi


Mahir Güven

Şahin Paksoy

If I Were III provides powerful samples of inspiring, ironic and fantastic reconstruction. Altan Çelem is embedding Jesus' existence to the center of a cinematic fiction, while Doğan Paksoy is problematizing the world of our domestic politics that is built up of the commitments flying away like balloons and politician who are mystified; we find a non-sectarian critique of the Christian foundations of the European Union project and Şahin Paksoy shows that today the perceptibility of even a Messiah passes by the media and in this sense he makes a pictorial construction deciphering the "spectacle societies". Each piece constituting the series deserves to be read separately and from this aspect, and as consider with the previous If I Were exhibitions together, reminds once again that the entire project worth to be the topic of a detailed research.

Original art works are produced in Turkey. The If I Were series are among the considerable thematic projects of our contemporary art scene. It would be appropriate to organize a general and independent exhibition that includes the whole project in the forthcoming years, maybe after completing the 5th of the series. I hope the related institutions and individuals could realize this suggestion and this concept which is the creation of a common labor and collective ingenuity coming from the years would be glorified highly with such an exhibition.

 

 

 

* The catalogue text of the "If I Were III" Exhibition, at the Artistanbul 2007 Art Days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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