Burak Ata uses daily life scenes as the subject matter in his paintings to make them visible and to keep track of the passage of time. Bringing together works produced by the artist in the past three years, the exhibition proceeds in a setup that interweaves personal and social history. Witnessing out of date structures through different places and people, the artist paints subjects that he watches disappear in a consistent manner. The places he revisits change and transform over time. Devastation is replaced by monuments that have been collectively rebuilt.
"Light the fire, drink the sea" is a reference to the first sentence translated from the language of the Hittites, one of the oldest known civilizations to keep archives. It also depicts a scene from a personal story that is at the center of the exhibition. The historical multi-layeredness in the exhibition is conveyed on a parallel axis with the overlapping moments in the personal life of the artist: the pier whose destruction is witnessed over time, the church rebuilt by the locals, a figure drinking beer alone at nightfall, a gallery window illuminated by street lamps, or a fire lit on the beach. While keeping track of those who have changed, transformed, or disappeared due to the factors they have been exposed to, the exhibition also underlines how sensitive and fragile they are.
