ECILIC EXISTENCE

Solo exhibition at AKM, Istanbul

Sept. 23 - Oct. 7, 2005

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Exilic Existence explores the emotional and psychological condition of exile—not only as a political reality, but also as a state of mind. Drawing from his own experiences of displacement, migration, and alienation, Ali Cabbar reflects on the feeling of being suspended between places, identities, and memories. The works suggest that exile is not always geographical; it can also exist within everyday life, in solitude, disconnection, and the quiet distance between oneself and the world.​

Using minimalist figures, symbolic objects, and restrained compositions, Cabbar creates visual narratives of loneliness, waiting, and silent resistance. Boats, umbrellas, bridges, empty streets, and isolated human figures become metaphors for belonging and loss. His recurring self-referential characters appear as both witnesses and survivors—caught between departure and return, presence and absence.​

Rather than presenting exile as pure tragedy, Exilic Existence reveals it as a condition of endurance and self-confrontation. The exhibition asks how identity survives when familiar ground disappears, and how memory becomes a place of shelter. Positioned within the 9th International Istanbul Biennial in 2005, the project remains a poetic meditation on alienation, resilience, and the search for permanence in an unstable world.