The Motive is a philosophical short story written by the artist Ceylan Öztrük in conjunction with her exhibition Matter of non at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg. At its core, the notion of spacing, as transversal to architecture and text, generates a form directed towards the primacy of nothingness and absence. The book is a fictional, autotheoretical narrative that resonates with the artist’s exhibition without determining it. The characters in The Motive are driven by a desire to get out, to join the outside. They discuss the relationship between writing and sculpture, art and craft in ancient times, death and matter. The text is conceived as an allegory in which the questions of aesthetic production and contemporary art are informed in an existential rather than institutional manner.

Ceylan Öztrük, Matter of non, 3 October 2021–29 January 2022