Galeri Nev starts its exhibitions with “Mogambo”. Selim Cebeci's exhibition takes its name from one of the everyday spaces painted by the artist. The Mogambo Casino at the Izmir Fair, the splendor of its perhaps the most unassuming form, the crowded emptiness just before the opening of a restaurant in Berlin, the never-ending night of the lights of an apartment in Athens, are exhibited together with some venues from the middle of the last century. The black and white privacy of memories of a vacation trip to Thessaloniki or Lugano, selected from family albums, is confronted with the mundane of today's colorful moments. Sometimes, colorful objects from today are added to these colorful moments. Thus, a pear that has just come out of a paper bag joins the story of a ferry sailing on a stormy sea. Selim Cebeci's works do not contain reminiscences or longings for the past. The artist only bears witness to the traces of time. While the audience sometimes shares this witness, sometimes they feel completely alien. In both experiences, the light determines the relationship between the works and the viewer. How the artist circulates artificial and natural light in a scene is compared by some critics of our time with the light dominance of the renaissance masters.
