offgrid art project invites audiences on a thought-provoking journey through identity, memory, and desire in its new exhibition “Invitation to Play”, featuring works by Ece Haskan and Nathalie Rey. Curated by Nilay Yerebasmaz and running from May 21 to June 28, 2025, the exhibition treats “play” not merely as a childhood activity, but as a subversive space where the repressed emerges and social norms are suspended.

Blending performative, staged, and subconscious-driven works, An Invitation to Play draws the viewer into an experience that is both whimsical and unsettling. For both artists, play is a refuge, a battlefield, and a transformative tool—crafting layered narratives that extend from childhood innocence to buried traumas.

 

Ece Haskan: Play as a Space of Identity and Confrontation

Ece Haskan draws inspiration from sociologist Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, focusing on the roles individuals assume and the way identity is performed in daily life. Blending personal experiences with collective imagery, Haskan examines the representation of the self through visual storytelling.

In the works presented at offgrid art project, Haskan questions the nature of play—its ability to both detach us from reality and mirror it. Her pieces prompt viewers to reflect on selfhood, perception, and the constructs of identity.

 

In her paintings and self-portraits, play becomes a stage within the psyche. In Dollhouse, Haskan constructs an intimate world where adult routines intertwine with childhood references, positioning the viewer between observer and participant. In Kutu Kutu Pense – My Friend Ece, the artist confronts childhood themes of exclusion and belonging through direct eye contact, forging an empathetic exchange. Her self-portrait installation Piñata traces the link between body and creative process, exploring transformation through pain and vulnerability.

 

Nathalie Rey: Layers of Solitude, Desire, and Memory

Nathalie Rey’s work navigates individual memory, urban life, and consumer culture, transforming play into a site of discovery. Her installation Le Solitaire, named after the classic board game, parallels the isolating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic—gradually removing each “piece” of our social fabric until only solitude remains. Rey casts a powerful light on the emotional disconnection caused by lockdowns, shaping invisible bonds into tangible expressions of collective memory.

 

At the gallery entrance, her Self-Portrait functions as a symbolic confrontation with buried childhood memories. The piece invites viewers to cross an emotional threshold and engage in a cathartic experience—an immersion into pain, a liberating gesture, and a process of creative rebuilding.

 

Rey’s Rabbits installation operates at the intersection of consumerism and the unconscious. Featuring plush rabbits, toy guns, and target boards, it playfully yet provocatively explores the contradictions of desire. Referencing David Lynch’s Inland Empire, Alice in Wonderland, and Plato’s Symposium, the work questions escapism, artificial worlds, and consumption as a substitute for connection and meaning.

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To watch the artist talk held as part of the exhibition: https://youtu.be/b-EB_ZrBw1U?feature=shared