The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948, three years after the end of World War Il. According to the UN, it sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and has been translated in over 500 languages.

Banu Cennetoğlu's right? (2022) presents the articles of the UDHR in bouquets of gold letter balloons. As the bouquets deflate during the run of the show, they will leave viewers to question whether any rights can remain without the labor of protecting, extending, and upholding them.

In her cross-disciplinary practice, which includes photography, sculpture, and moving image, Cennetoğlu explores the impossibility of giving form to absence and how the process of attempting to do so deepens our understanding of loss. right? similarly asks if we can protect what is being undermined and never fully actualized as intended.

Given the parameters of the space and duration of the exhibition, not all 30 articles can be presented in the 58th Carnegie International. On view are the first 10 articles.

Text by The 58th Carnegie International - Carnegie Museum of Art