DISPLACEMENT – Guido Casaretto
For the Words series, artist Guido Casaretto responded to the word displacement with a drawing and three reflections on its meaning; moving between theory, memory and his own practice.
When was the last time you used this word?
Recently, while reflecting on the exhibition process at YUNT, where the narrative of the Unicorn functions both as a set of undefined references adapting to different timelines and cultures and as the actual mold, incomplete and transitional.
Both states, taken from other contexts, lose almost all of their initial connotations while still holding true to their form.
What kind of feeling does this word evoke in you?
In theory, it evokes a sense of disorientation, both physical and emotional. Yet, subjectively, and perhaps due to the repetition of a certain form of “displacement,” it carries a kind of numbness. A removal from the ordinary but more a minor inconvenience than a rupture or dramatic change.
How is this word related to you and your work?
“Displacement of geographical or cultural information” is my go-to short statement whenever I am asked about my production.
In my pieces, both materially and conceptually, I often shift contexts, rearrange forms or reintroduce local cultural symbols in ways that feel non-pertinent yet familiar. For example, the casting molds I use in my latest project carry traces of a previous function, now reshaped into something very similar yet entirely irrelevant. Like a migrated body or object, they retain memory and remain in constant transition.
Displacement also reflects how I think of my work on a broader scale as something always evolving, never entirely fixed or finished.
Three words I would like to pass on are familiar, trace and weight.
Guido Casaretto (b. 1981, Turkey) is a contemporary artist based in Istanbul. He is one of the co‑founders of the Sanatorium art initiative. His work focuses on processes of geographical and cultural representation, often achieved through techniques of transfer and repetition and experimentation with materials. Casaretto’s solo exhibitions include Of Strays, Rhinos, and Misunderstandings (YUNT, Istanbul, 2025), Looking for the Graviton in Uneven Plates (Imalathane, Bursa, 2022), and The Ghosts of Matter (MOCAK, Kraków, 2019).His works are included in collections at MOCAK, Kraków and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
