The works of Uğur Gallenkuş stage a direct confrontation between worlds that exist at the same time yet seem to belong to entirely different realities. Through powerful digital collages, the Turkish artist juxtaposes images drawn from photojournalism—wars, migrations, famines, and environmental disasters—with scenes of everyday life that appear calm and prosperous, shaped by comfort, consumerism, and normality. The result is a simultaneous vision of two parallel universes: that of the privileged and that of the oppressed.
The exhibition presents fifty works from the renowned series Parallel Universes, a project that over the years has established Gallenkuş as one of the most recognizable voices in contemporary digital art. In each image, two different photographs merge into a single composition: on one side the dramatic face of conflicts and humanitarian crises, on the other the peaceful everyday life of more fortunate societies. The transition between these two realities is often almost imperceptible, creating a visual continuity that makes the contrast even more striking.
Many of the collages originate from images taken by photojournalists working in some of the major conflict zones of our time—Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Ukraine, and Yemen—combined with photographs sourced from the web that depict life in wealthier societies. Through this juxtaposition, Gallenkuş constructs a visual language that is immediate and direct, capable of transforming global news into a broader reflection on the inequalities that shape our world.
Some works place humanitarian tragedies in dialogue with scenes of seemingly ordinary domestic life; others highlight the fragility of contemporary prosperity itself.
Gallenkuş’s works are not merely aesthetic exercises, but genuine devices of empathy. Through the immediate language of collage, the artist invites viewers to confront the contradictions of the contemporary world and the distance—often only apparent—that separates security from destruction, peace from war.
In this sense, Gallenkuş’s work resonates with a visual tradition that runs through twentieth-century art, from the iconological juxtapositions of Aby Warburg to the strategies of appropriating popular imagery developed by Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp.
Today, in the era of global imagery and social media, these compositions acquire a renewed urgency: they remind us that the tragedies depicted in war photography do not belong to a distant world, but coexist every day with our own reality.
Location:
INFO
Location: Museo del Paesaggio |
Via Chianti, 61 – Castelnuovo Berardenga (SI)
Period: October 10th – November 29th
Opening Time:
Friday: 03:00 pm-07:00 pm
Sat-Sun: 10am-07:00pm
Holidays: 10am-07:00pm
TICKET VALID FOR VISITING ALL THE EXHIBITIONS
Photographer Biography: Uğur Gallenkuş (born in Niğde, Turkey, in 1990) is a digital artist internationally recognized for his striking photo collages that bring together contrasting realities of the contemporary world. Raised in Istanbul, he graduated in Business Administration from Anadolu University in 2013 and initially pursued a career in the corporate sector. His artistic journey began unexpectedly in 2015, when the widely circulated photograph of Alan Kurdi—the Syrian child who died while attempting to reach Europe—deeply affected him and inspired him to use digital collage as a way to reflect on global inequalities. From this impulse emerged the project “Parallel Universes,” a series of works that juxtapose images of everyday life in privileged societies with photojournalistic scenes from contexts marked by war, migration, and poverty. Through these powerful visual contrasts, Gallenkuş reveals the stark divide between worlds that exist simultaneously yet rarely intersect.
A self-taught artist with no formal training in design at the beginning of his career, Gallenkuş found in social media a powerful platform to share his work, reaching a global audience with images that combine emotional impact and social commentary. His works have been widely published and exhibited internationally and have led to collaborations with organizations committed to human rights, refugee assistance, and global awareness campaigns.
Through the direct and universal language of collage, Gallenkuş uses art as a tool for reflection and advocacy, inviting viewers to confront the contradictions of the present and the profound inequalities that shape our world.
