Witnesses of Time, as Ahmet Güneştekin’s first solo exhibition opened at the gallery in Rome following the group exhibition held under the auspices of 21 Art, carries the artist’s visual language developed along the axis of history, mythology, and collective memory into a new conceptual framework.
Presented to the audience at 21 Art Gallery’s new venue in Rome, which operates in Padua, Treviso, Rome, and Monte Carlo, the exhibition marks a strong beginning within the gallery’s international program.
Güneştekin’s practice is shaped through a multilayered relationship with the historical and cultural strata of different geographies. While this exhibition represents a new phase in the artist’s long standing memory-oriented productions, it also questions how historical narratives are constructed and remembered.
The exhibition aims to make visible the layers of memory embedded in stones, images, and myths, going beyond written history. Images inspired by ancient mythologies and imperial narratives are reconsidered as archetypes of collective memory, while ceramic skulls embody the tension between death, absence, and remembrance.
In the oil paintings on wood, the inclusion of thousands of years old doors from Anatolia within the compositions brings the physical traces of the past into dialogue with the language of the present. The work composed of metal and glass, on the other hand, carries the quality of a “world atlas” through its written and visual layers.
The relationship established with Rome’s layered memory deepens the meaning of the exhibition. The geometric and circular forms that stand out in the works evoke the idea that time exists not in a linear progression but within a cyclical flow.
Witnesses of Time proposes not so much to retell the past as to render it visible through the lens of the present, inviting the viewer on an intellectual journey across the layers of time.
Pre-opening: April 29, 2026
Exhibition Dates: April 30 – September 15, 2026
Venue: Rome, 21 Art Gallery