The National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome, presents the solo exhibition of Ahmet Güneştekin YOKTUNUZ (You Were Absent), curated by Sergio Risaliti and Paola Marino with the organizational direction of Angelo Bucarelli. From July 1 to September 28, 2025, sculptures, paintings, and monumental installations by the Turkish artist of Kurdish origin will be exhibited, telling the history, myths, and legends of Anatolian and Mediterranean civilizations that inspire him.

The curatorial project is built on a dialogue with the masterpieces of the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art and will offer an emotional journey to discover iconographies rooted in remote epochs and cultures, along with universal themes such as exodus, migrations, borders, the sense of community, and cultural and religious syncretism. Güneştekin's work embraces a committed cultural strategy that translates into a polyphonic and extremely formal rigorous expressive language.

Within the exhibition, the installation "YOKTUNUZ," which gives the title to the show, will be displayed in the large neoclassical hall of the museum where Antonio Canova's masterpiece "Hercules and Lichas" is located, in a dramatic relationship enhanced by the physical tension of the marble group.

Two of the works on display, the sculptures "The Sun with Seven Eyes" and "Sarcophagi of the Alphabet," will become part of the museum's permanent collection.