ART UNLIMITED 40 MARCH 2017

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PUBLISHED BIMONTHLY, FREE OF CHARGE, MARCH APRIL 2017, ISSUE 40, YEAR 8, NERMIN ER, PHOTO: ELIF KAHVECI

Art

NERMIN ER Nazlı Pektaş visited Nermin Er’s homestudio for Unlimited Visits.

MICHAEL RAKOWITZ Evrim Altuğ’s special interview about the artist’s Fourth Plinth nomination and more.

NEW MUSEUMS Ümmühan Kazanç investigated recently opened and upcoming museums in Turkey.

TANBURI CEMIL BEY Sami Kısaoğlu wrote a dictionary essay on the centenary of the artist’s death.

MAÇKA ART GALLERY Özlem Altunok wrote about the farewell book that the gallery published recently.

ENGINEERED FOR MEN WHO LEAVE FOOTSTEPS IN THE SKY.

Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Spitfire. Ref. 3777: The history of aviation is packed with heroic pilots who, thanks to their acts of bravery, remain unforgotten to this day. Only a few aircraft however, have left a lasting stamp on the era. One of them is the legendary Supermarine Spitfire unveiled in the late 1930s, whose superior manoeuvrability ensured it of a place in history. It was not only the Spitfire’s dynamic response that enabled it to rule the skies but also its high degree of reliabilit y, breathtaking elegance and technical perfection. IWC took all of these attributes as guidelines for the development of a Pilot’s Watch series

launched in 2003 and named after the celebrated aircraft. The latest addition to the series, the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Spitfire, comes with the same impressive and extraordinary features, all clearly underscored by the slate-coloured sun pattern guilloche work on the dial, which causes incident light to wander in circles. The superb brushed and polished surfaces of the case enhance the watch’s quality feel and are reminiscent of the smooth surfaces of the Spitfire aircraft itself. In fact, the watch needs only one more thing to make it perfect: a dauntless pilot, who is inspired to achieve great things.

IWC . E N G I N E E R E D FO R M E N .

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AYŞE ERKMEN, SHIPPED SHIPS, 2001, FRANKFURT AM MAIN, COURTESY OF GALERIE BARBARA WEISS, BERLIN

Edito

I have been thinking about this work for a while, I don’t know why… Three passenger ferries with their complete respective crews shipped by freighter from Venice, Istanbul, and Japan to Frankfurt, and used as passenger ferries across the Main River for a period of one month.

I am always trying to take decisions that don’t involve momentary eagerness, comfort or selfish benefits. Therefore I cannot save my day here. It has been dark lately. I cannot get used to that. I don’t know whether it’s my age or my mind. I cannot understand how I ended up in this hollow.

In fact, I do; I had seen it in Ayşe Erkmen’s work. They were taking the ship Defterdar away.

Defterdar was relocated yet its context and meaning remained the same. I have been thinking whether this is possible. Can we take our own contexts away without losing our senses?

Let spring arrive with compassion, sacrifice, tenderness for all beings, but most importantly with justice.

Merve Akar Akgün

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The island to touch the invisible Özlem Altunok

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Contemporary exceptions to rules Evrim Altuğ

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Unlimited visits: Nermin Er Nazlı Pektaş

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New museums and their stories Ümmühan Kazanç

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Artist and...

Gözde Ulusoy

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An attempt to a dictionary of an exploerer of an acoustic geography: Tanburi Cemil Bey Sami Kısaoğlu

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Huo is asking Huo Rf

Year: 8, Issue: 40 Bimonthly published, 5 times a year.

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Design: Vahit Tuna Graphic application: Lara Patpat

Contributors: Evrim Altuğ, Nihan Bora, Ümmühan Kazanç, Sami Kısaoğlu, Sıtkı Kösemen, Hale Güngör Oppenheimer, Ümit Özdoğan, Nazlı Pektaş, Sılay Sıldır, Gözde Ulusoy, Translation: Çağdaş Acar, Hande Erbil, Caner Yılmaz Ezgi İnce, Merisa Şahin Ofice assistant: İdil Bayram

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The Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi stand at the Fifth Domestic Products Exposition in 1933.

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Beyond the future before the past: Sarkis Evrim Altuğ

Since 1871, Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi set the standard for quality and excellence, bringing delicious Turkish coffee to homes throughout Turkey and now is savored in over 50 countries around the world. Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi brings Turks’ gift to the world, Turkish coffee, to coffee lovers around the world helping them enjoy the same quality and pleasure in every sip. www.mehmetefendi.com

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Agenda Cappadox as a way out from the World

Tea Time at Galeri Nev Ali Kazma’s first synchronized and triptych work Tea time, will be on show at Galeri Nev Istanbul between 17 March-29 April. Focusing more and more on space itself in his recent works Ali Kazma reveals different manifestations of time in space by using the notion of rhytim in Tea Time. The artist, who shot the video at the Paşabahçe Glass Factory, where more than one millions pieces, including three hundred thousand tea glasses are produced daily, sections off parts of the video according to the number of revolutions per minute each machine operates at. He reconstructs time combining triptych images and their related rhythms.

Borrowing its title from Sami Baydar’s book Ways Out From The World from 1990, Cappadox 2017 will take place between 18-21 May in Cappadocia. “Only the children who are locked up in the rooms know the ways out from the world” writes Baydar pointing out to strict limitations of physical setting as something that opens up the imagination, which can go beyond and even transform the factual reality we are living in. Guided by this resolution, curator Fulya Erdemci and associate curator Kevser Güler prepared a program leading from the opinion that art can propose novel languages, creative forms, unorthodox methods, and practices, where works of20 international artists’ and participants’ works will be exhibited.

Additionally there will be film screenings, articulating literature and contemporary art through poetry readings, as well as talks and conversations with artists. Cappadox 2017’s contemporary art program will continue until June 11.

Caricatures of Yusuf Franko, an Ottoman bureaucrat Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) will be exhibiting the caricature album of Yusuf Franko Kusa Bey, the late 19th century Ottoman bureaucrat, Minister of Foreign Affairs, governer general, man of society, who also was a playful caricaturist.

Entitled The Characters of Yusuf Franko: An Ottoman Bureaucrat’s Caricatures, the exhibition not only displays for the first time the album and the caricatures of Yusuf Franko from Ömer M. Koç Collection, but it also features relevant photographs, documents, and publications from various other collections.

Compiled in an album between 1884-1896 by Yusuf Franko, the caricatures interacting with the European caricature tradition, introduce satirically charged portraits of wealthy capitalist, members of high society, Ottoman soldiers, Levantines, artists, and diplomats. Curated by Bahattin Öztuncay the exhibition will be open until 1 June 2017.

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Victor Vasarely retrospective at Tophane-i Amire One of modern art’s leading representatives, also founder of Op Art movement, Victor Vasarely’s retrospective exhibition will continue until 31 March at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Tophane-i Amire Culture and Arts Center. Hosted by Arkas Holding, the exhibition is curated by the artist’s grandson, also Vasarely Foundation’s director Pierre Vasarely.

The Victor Vasarely retrospective will exhibit iconic works of the artist from the 1950’s and 1960’s, along with posters, three dimensional works, wall rugs, and architectural designs. While 13 Works from the Arkas Collection will be on show, other resources can be counted as the Aix en Provence based Victor Vasarely Foundation, Victor Vasarely Museum in Pécs, Budapest Fine Arts Museum, and the Renault Collection.

5th floor of MoMA In response to Trump’s travel ban from the seven Muslim countries to the USA, MoMA started to exhibit works of the artists from the seven banned countries from its collection. 5th floor of the museum where examples of Western modernism pre-1940 were exhibited, now displays works of Zaha Hadid, Ibrahim el-Salahi, Tala Madani, Parviz Tanavoli and Shirana Shahbazi instead of artists like Picasso, Matisse, Kokoscha, Ensor ve Boccioni. A statement next to each replaced work reads: “These artworks from the Museum’s collection are installed throughout the fifth-floor galleries to affirm the ideals of welcome and freedom as vital to this Museum, as they are to the United States. They are by artists from nations whose citizens are being denied entry into the United States, according to a presidential executive order issued on January 27, 2017.” Emphasizing that art museums are spaces where people from all over the world come together, Christophe Cherix, one of the museum’s curators, stated that works of artists from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somali, Sudan, and Yemen from the collection will be shown in the following months.

The Story of Selfie Saatchi gallery collaborates with Huawei to examine the now-boring selfie phenomenon’s history with the exhibition titled From Selfie to Self-Expression. Along with works of different periods of artists such as Kutluğ Ataman, Christopher Baker, Juno Calypso, Tracey Emin, Van Gogh, Mohau Modisakeng, Rembrandt, Cindy Sherman, Gavin Turk and Velazquez, selfies of Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump will also be on show. The exhibition where photographs of 10 young British photographers as well as those selected from the #SaatchiSelfie competition will take place will present “a deep look at the history and creative potential of selfie” as stated by Saatchi Gallery CEO Nigel Hurst.

PARK: A possibility

SALT published a remembrance book on the project titled Park: A Possibility that took place six years ago in Nişantaşı Cumhuriyet Park, curated by Can Altay, designed by Future Anectodes, and with the participations of Nils Norman, Ceren Oykut, and Sinek Sekiz. In the e-book that can be downloaded from SALT’s website, includes written, and visual files from the preparation period for the exhibition, and the exhibition catalogue in addition to two new interviews between Vasıf Kortun and Can Altay on public space, participatory events, and exhibition organizing.

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Pi Artworks turns into a ‘written room’ Pi Artworks Istanbul commissioned Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar living in Germany for a long while, to create a new version of her installation Written Room at the gallery. On show between 18 March-10 May, Written Room is one of Forouhar’s works that makes the Western gaze on the Oriental its central theme. In this installation, the artist ink the gallery’s white walls and floor with what appears to be sprawling Persian script. The disjointed text meanders around the space’s surfaces with no stable vertical or horizontal axis. Its legibility is further undermined by a collection of Ping-Pong balls, also inscribed with Persian script, that have been released onto the floor. Previous iterations of the work have been exhibited around the world at venues such as Pi Artworks London, Fondazione Merz Turin, Jewish Museum of Austria, Villa Massimo, Rome, Italy, and Museum of Fine Arts Gent.

Artists are raising the bar in protests against Trump Artists have been participating in different methods to protests against Trump rising ever since the presidential election results were announced in the US. Richard Prince, who announced on social media that he refuses his work that he had produced in 2014 for Ivanka Trump before Donald Trump came into office, recently shared a video of cars going over Trump’s poster. On the 20th of January, the day of Trump’s inauguration ceremony, Shia LeBeouf started the art project entitled He Will Not Divide Us that will last for four years. Arrested on the 6th day of his performance, LeBeouf was released the next day. The performance that involves anti-Trump protestors to repeat the phrase “He Will Not Divide Us” in front of a camera that LeBeouf installed on the wall of New York Museum of the Moving Image is broadcasted live for 24 hours. Christo raises the bar for anti-Trump protests by canceling his Over the River project that he has been planning for the past 20 years for which he spent 15 million dollars so far. Christo who was planning on covering up 68-km of Arkansas river with silver fabric panels, told that he didn’t want the project to benefit the landlords, and wanted to spend his energy for The Mastaba project in Abu Dhabi.

Semiha Berksoy: Catalogue raisonné Galerist prepared a book that contains the works of Semiha Berksoy, opera artist, primadonna, painter, poet, actress, and performance artist who live between 1910-2004. Edited by Derya Yücel, designed by Vahit Tuna, and enriched with texts from Zeliha Berksoy, Levent Çalıkoğlu, Ferit Edgü, Dikmen Gürün, Beral Madra, Rosa Martinez, Dieter Ronte, Robert Wilson and Derya Yücel, “Semiha Berksoy: Catalogue raisonné”is prepared as a catalogue including all of the works of the artist from her early childhood, to her death, from her drawings during the Fine Arts Academy years to her masterpieces.

L’Esprit Nouveau is now digital L’Esprit Nouveau published between 1920-1925 by Le Corbusier, Amedée Ozenfant and Paul Dermée, has been digitalized by Tre University in Rome.

Each one of the 28 published editions of the magazine can be downloaded in PDF format from the library’s website. Published after the purist movement’s manifesto Après le cubisme, the magazine comprised criticism and opinions from various disciplines including architecture and painting.

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Vahit Tuna: Psolo Exhibitiom Vahit Tuna’s exhibition entitled Psolo Exhibition will open its doors on March 7. The artist collectively rereads the differences between subjective time, and objective time, and the distance between memory/ loss and reason at the exhibition that takes place simultaneously at four different locations. While the four different locations encourage the viewer to re-read the notions of work/time/distance/memory simultaneously, it also aims to offer a new experience apart from the usual exhibitions. The exhibition can be seen at Alt Sanat, Galerist, Mars Istanbul and REM Art Space until April 8.

Women painters at Uffizi Gallery

Bilgi University Faculty of Communication Festival

There will now be more women artist’s works exhibited at Uffizi Gallery. The idea that was born by a joint effort between the director of the museum Eike Schmidt’s and the Guerilla Girls collective in 2015, will take life with the Suor Plautilla Nelli exhibition. Schmidt who states he is aware that it is already too late for such an initiative, also said that pre19th century women artist’s works in the Uffizi collection will also be on display in the following exhibitions. In addition, Pitti Palace, under Schmidt’s management, will also host a women artist, Maria Lassnig’s exhibition on 24 March.

Moving Atelier Artist Aslı Narin is undertaking an experimental art project entitled Moving Atelier. Inspired by journeys, walkabouts, and aimless walkabouts, searching and at the same time getting lost, the artist invites an artist to co-create at each journey. Doing her first collaboration with Gürkan Mıhçı, who mostly works with sound and video, the artists will go to Kars from Ankara with the Eastern Express, and will try to produce some works together during their 24 hours on the train.

#Rodin100 The centenary of French sculptor Rodin’s death is celebrated with exhibitions and events. Spreading all over the world, the events are gathered under the hashtag #Rodin100. Metropolitan Art Museum celebrates the historical relationship between the museum and Rodin with the Rodin at The Met exhibition. To be opened in September 2017 at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Gallery, the gallery will display over 60 of Rodin’s marble, bronze, plaster, and terracotta sculptures including the iconic works The Thinker and the Hands of God. Along with The Tempest that has not been exhibited for a long while, works of the artist’s good friends and contemporaries Claude Monet and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes will also be on show. Emphasizing on the richness of the Rodin collection at the Met, the Roding on Paper Focus exhibition will display the artist’s drawings, prints, letters and illustrations along with Edward Steichen’s photographs.

Organized by Istanbul Bilgi University’s Faculty of Communication Culture and Art Program students, the third edition of Project, investigates the concept of communication leading from anthropologist Kim Hill’s resolution that “what makes humankind special is not the size of its brain. We do not build spaceships thanks to this – no individual can.

We have spaceships because 10 thousand individuals collaborated to produce this knowledge.” Structured around questions like “How has communication changed over time? What does it mean for communication to be qualified. What is the d ifference between communication and expression?” Project’03 aims for Faculty of Communication students to get to know, research, and understand different communication channels through various projects.

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İstanbul Modern is moving Turkey’s first modern art museum, Istanbul Modern will be re-constructed as part of Galataport, and the new museum building is planned to be open in 2019. We spoke to Istanbul Modern Chairman of the Executive Board Oya Eczacıbaşı about this transitory phase when the museum will be temporarily transferred to the Package Post Office in Karaköy until the new buildings construction will be completed as part of the Galataport project. Ümmühan Kazanç

“Our main mission

is to make museum visiting a habit, and to sustain the interest while increasing the awareness for modern and contemporary art. ”

ISTANBUL MODERN MUSEUM NIGHT VİEW, COURTESY OF ISTANBUL MODERN

You are one of the first names that come to mind when we speak of private museums in Turkey. You are a member of the Executive Board of IKSV since 2002, and Chairman of the Executive Board of Istanbul Modern since its foundation in 2004. You are also in MoMA’s International Council. In 2011, the Republic of France gave you Légion d’Honneur.

Istanbul Modern was awarded European Museum Forum Special Award in 2009. If we go back to the period before the opening of Istanbul Modern, did you think you would be this successful in 12 years?

I think we need to go back to 20 years before our opening. The idea to establish a modern art museum in Istanbul first came up during the International Istanbul Biennale in 1987. The need of the city for a modern museum was felt back then. Many art lovers led by the then Chairman of IKSV Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı, had started to take action in that period to account for this need.

Following a challenging process, in 2003, the idea of transforming the warehouse Antrepo 4, which was the location for the 8th Istanbul Biennale, into a modern museum was on the agenda. The process from the idea stage to making it a reality took a challenging 17 years, and in 2004 Istanbul Modern opened its doors. 12 years went by since then. Our greatest happiness really is the 6,5 million visitors who have not left us alone during this timeline.

Numerous art museums have opened up lately, or are about to be opened. Seen the success of Istanbul Modern, what do you think are the keys to success in sustainable museology?

It is inevitable for museums to become spaces that create added value. They need to become places that not only preserve social memory and history, but also make visitors under their focal point. Our main mission

is to make museum visiting a habit, and to sustain the interest while increasing the awareness for modern and contemporary art. Looking at examples abroad like Tate, MoMA, Centre Georges Pompidou, we observe that despite their differences, they are all living spaces.

We aimed for this since the beginning with Istanbul Modern. We became a living and moving space with our collection that got stronger with purchases, and donations, our periodic contemporary exhibitions, training programs for all ages, our cinema, library, activities program, design shop, and restaurant.

What are your favorite museums abroad?

Tate Modern, MoMa and Centre Pompidou would be on top of the list. We get together with these museums in different mediums and make collaborations. We have been collaborating on a training program with Centre Pompidou in Paris for nine years. Centre Pompidou shares their creative programs prepared especially for school-age children and their families twice yearly with us. Under Young Istanbul Modern, we carry out workshops aimed for children and youth. In addition, we support young and rising architects with our YAP (Young Architects Program) Istanbul Modern: New Architecture program started in collaboration with MoMa and MoMa PS1 since 2012.

We know that Istanbul Modern will be open at the Package Post Office in Karaköy and will be back with a world standard design museum in 2019. How do you dream the new Istanbul Modern to be?

With the completion of the new building, Istanbul will be home of a globally astounding museum. We are still in discussion for the architecture project. For now I can tell you that it will be in alignment with Istanbul Modern’s mission and vision as well as the tissue of the district and the city. All plans will be made for Istanbul

İSTANBUL MODERN CHAIRMAN OF THE THE BOARD OYA ECZACIBAŞI

Modern to host exhibitions as well as interdisciplinary events just like today. We are planning to bring to life a visitor-focused structure where viewers will feel much more comfortable.

Istanbul Modern is an institution that adopts production of new projects a principle. In this context, what will be your surprises in the neat future?

We will have two new exhibitions in 2017. Istanbul Modern Photography Gallery is hosting Roger Ballen, who depicts men, animals and objects in a world stuck between the reality and the fiction, where reason lost its authority. We also had exciting news from abroad. In 2017, Fahrelnisa Zeid’s works that are part of Istanbul Modern’s collection will be exhibited in three important museums in Europe. One of Zeid’s masterpieces that was donated by her family, My Hell will be exhibited at Münih Haus der Kunst until 26th of March, as part of Okwu Envezor’s exhibition entitled Post War: Art Between Pacific and Atlantic, 1945-1965. Therefore Zeid’s most iconic work will travel outside the limits of the museum for the first time. The second station of Zeid’s works will be GAM Torino and Castello di Rivoli Museum. Four of the artists’ works will be exhibited at the exhibition entitled Colori from the 7th of March until the 18th of June. In addition, 10 pieces were selected from Istanbul Modern’s collection for Tate Modern’s Fahrelnisa Zeid retrospective that will take place between the 6th of June and the 15th of October.

The second exhibition in the recently opened new building of Tate Modern will be Zeid’s retrospective and the main setup will be based on our museum’s collection. Furthermore, our new museum building will be our biggest excitement for the coming period.

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To comprehend the conceptual Unlike a landscape painting, conceptual art never had the purpose to give peace to the viewer. We investigated the turbulent relationship built between the viewer and conceptual art, also closely interested in the unsettled nature of language.

Sılay Sıldır

ILLUSTRATION: CANER YILMAZ

It would be rare to find a linguistics book in Norwegian, and would that book have something so strange to say? It said: “Meanings are cognitive concepts.” For example, the meaning of the word “ball”, was a cognitive idea about the ball, the state of being a ball, and the balls around were not the meaning of the concept, but physical things they gave reference to. The meaning was something else, while the fact that the word had a physical reference, a correspondent in the world outside was another thing. For example, the word ‘ev’ (home) in Turkish could be found in 84 different forms. In Chinese however, the word for ‘home’ only had a single form; there was no ‘my home’, nor ‘your home’, and nor even ‘homeless’. Language is a surprising thought system, both for the user, and the exterior examiner.

American artist John Baldessari draws attention to the fact that languages have rules we all are willing to abide by. Our agreements about art could have also been transferred, and accepted with no questions asked. While Baldessari was a painter known for his abstract compositions and landscape paintings, in 1970, he organized a funeral where he burnt down his paintings. His work dated 1971, was nothing but a repetition of the phrase ‘I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art’, just like a punishment. Later, he explained: “Most of my works are about questioning the information gathered via this transfer.” Baldessari wanted to resolve art, meaning, and the world, and language became the carrier of his art while questioning; he thus turned his steps towards conceptual art.

Conceptual art created hypothetical situations, complex verbal texts came in charge; it wanted to tamper with perception, and symbolic social positioning. In 1961 Robert Rauschenberg sent a telegram to an exhibition containing the words “This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so”, stating that it was the portrait the gallery commissioned him.

Rene Magritte’s The Two Mysteries (1966) shows the painting of a pipe, the painting of the painting of a pipe, and the words ‘This is not a pipe’. Just like the Norwegian linguistics book resonates and explains Saussure; the physical reference of the word was something else, its absolute was something else and the relationship within was that way just because it was agreed on that way; therefore ‘This was not a pipe’ and the representation could be done with a telegram instead of a portrait. Conceptual art was interested in the production, the transfer, and the deciphering of meaning. It looked at the work as it it’s a text, made an analogy with language therefore texts, subtexts, developed a conscious in the face of power relations. In the 70’s when art was explained via postmodern notions of criticism and was flirting with language, new conceptual subtypes went into the galleries; the rise of text works to an art status was not very well received.

Text works are objective reference systems where conceptual art treats the fact it conceptualizes – just like schemes, files, and statistics -. Just like each written text, semantic and syntactic forms were detached from their contexts, and then re-contextualized in the gallery – in the case of Baldessari in a museum, MoMA. Therefore the ‘what’ of text

works is a hesitant matter. Aesthetic issues like technique and handicraft, the knowledge of medium or taste had evolved into questions like ‘is this art now’ (ontological), and ‘how can we know it is art’ (epistemological).

According to Joseph Kosuth, art is an analytical proposition. We also read violent critical propositions in the growing sense. Duchamp’s Fountain urinal was explained with irony, while Manzoni’s Artist’s Breath and Artist’s Shit (1961) that he did with his own breath and feces was explained with parody and cynicism. Conceptual art used to directly speak with concepts belonging solely to linguistics from semiology to constructivism.

And really semiological possibilities like object, and language represented a rich resource after Duchamp. The work of art was no more a viewing object, but a text to be deciphered.

Then how could conceptual art be comprehended while text and meaning were slippery and mysterious at the same time? According to Roland Barthes, text is a structure that takes references from culture and language, includes references to culture, and traverses through therefore touches it; and intertextuality is what transfers the contextual associations outside the work of art into the text. The association comes from thought figures such as metaphors. By this means, Artist’s Shit was able to renew this proposal in conceptual art’s semantics suggesting that art ‘is not a meta that can be sold and bought, but a cognitive process”. It was able to criticize art and its world through metaphoric associations, and situation parody; and the viewers were able to resolve. Today, linguistics did not end up becoming a popular science, while conceptual art provoked, got reactions, the metaphors were found artificial, parody too easy, and irony was blamed for being too loud. Should we give an example from recent past in Turkey, Ali Elmacı’s highly conceptual work that was able to metaphorically speak I Can’t Reciprocate Your Feelings Osman II (2016), told the art collector ‘do not buy me’ with a proposition similar to Manzoni’s. This two-headed bikini-wearing female sculpture with the portrait of a sultan adorned with branches and roses, did not respond to the feelings of the art collector. The “Osmans” whose feelings were not responded to, who made the intra-textual contrast associations of the work, and who thought portrayable visual elements and unportrayable intertextual associations were addressing themselves, wanted the work to be removed from the fair.

Neriman Polat’s text work in Turkish, dated 2011, was one of the works resisting the dominant discourse’s voice with a single phrase. The phrase coming out of the mouth of a mother, whose child was crashed by mortar shell, was de-contextualized and then re-contextualized inside the gallery. When the visible state of language, the word, was put down on paper, the text work was becoming the voice of the unheard in this crowd of messages; “I carried the pieces of my daughter in my skirt”.

Conceptual art took dada’s opponent soul, is still trying to penetrate into contemporary conception in a time when societies’ critical capacity and art’s strategy to reveal and to create memory with the concepts of language are reformatted to sea levels.

ARMENIA Fractal - William Brand

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Framed films of

Paracanov

SERGEI PARAJANOV MUSEUM GENERAL VIEW, EREVAN, ARMENIA, COURTESY OF PARAJANOV MUSEUM

Sergei Parajanov Museum, in Yerevan, Armenia, is an accomplished and remarkable museum, which can be visited in order to get closely acquainted with the artist. In the museum, one comes across not just Parajanov’s films, but also each detail of his life-long production under all circumstances. We visited this special museum

by Hrant Dink Foundation’s Journalist Dialogue Program.

Nihan Bora across when you enter a narrow street, yet enlightens you once you get in. It was also home to Parajanov himself between 1988 until 1990. The state wanted to turn his house into a museum yet as he passed away in 1990, he could not get a chance to see the museum open its doors in 1991.

The two-stored museum built around a courtyard, houses more than a thousand works by the artist including drawings, sculptures, sketches, and photographs. All of the works in the museum, amongst which the collages are the most conspicuous, can be seen as stories Parajanov transferred into frames instead of filming them. In these stories, Parajanov often treats the concepts like tragedy, love and God. A never-ending production Parajanov directed numerous films throughout his life. He attains a place for himself with movies like Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964) compared to Battleship Potemkin, The Color of Pomegranates, and Ashik Kerib (Stange Lover), and wins many awards. Most of his films are censored or banned due to his attitude criticizing religion and political authority. Inevitably, he gets arrested twice in his lifetime once in Ukraine, and once in Tbilisi. During his conviction years, he is forced to work in Soviet camps. Years after, Parajanov states in an interview: “Life in prison was tough. Yet instead of breaking up, I left there stronger. I was richer as the writer of four scripts.”

At some point, he is banned from directing movies for 15 years. Yet during these years of obstacles, Parajanov never stops, he draws, or he writes scripts. This in fact opens up new doors for Parajanov and although he continues to work with films, he gets heavily involved with his collage works. “I was not allowed to make films, so I started making collages. Collage is the compressed form of film” he says and produces grand works where one can feel the inspiration he received from those tough times since the 70’s. Each frame, for him, becomes a small cinema screen.

The traces of his complicated life, and the deprivation he went through when producing his art are apparent in each of his works. Despite that, he astonishingly puts out how creative he can get with materials such as porcelain, bottle cork, hairpins, nails, etc. Like Tarkovsky stated, the rapidity, and the suddenness in his works are so profoundly felt that this spontaneity becomes remarkably fascinating. For instance, in a collage, we observe that he uses latches, key chains, medicines, pins, and teaspoons as accessories for a baby doll. All these items stand there in such harmony that you think there has been huge planning undergone yet now that you know him, you say to yourself Parajanov must have done this in five minutes, maybe in half hour as he grabbed the items one after the other.

Seashells, laces, feathers….

Parajanov’s photograph where he tries to assimilate himself to Frida Kahlo raises a smile. It is evident that he likes to have fun and demolish the ordinary. Unibrow, a colorful hat adorned with flowers, earrings, and flower drawings on his shirt. Looking at the tag of the photograph, you read: Ara Güler. We learn that his close friend Ara Güler took the photograph in 1989 during a visit to the film festival in Istanbul, and we learn further details about their intimate relationship.

On the second floor is a section where one can find sections of Parajanov’s films.

The Sayat Nova movie poster is hung on the wall, and one of the most momentous scenes is played on the video. Still on this floor, we observe the details of his collage works. We see seashells, laces, spangles, feathers and playing cards among the details, as we get closer. Parajanov shows us a life where he adapted whatever he found in deficiency, to whatever crossed his mind.

All of the works seem as modern as if they were done today, yet they carry the power of memories within. In each frame, you can feel his desire to live that he had in his mind. I can say that this desire was the most present feeling when visiting the museum.

To witness an artist’s life in curiosity step after step, to experience what’s on his mind in such a realistic setting was a truly colossal experience.

www.tepta.com

(…) He makes collages, dolls, hats, drawings, or something that you may call ‘design’. There is much more to it, though: it is infinitely more talented and noble; it is real art. What is the secret of its beauty? The spontaneity. When an idea strikes him, he does not engage in planning, arranging, or estimating how to do it in the best possible way. There is no difference between an idea and its implementation; there is no time to lose anything between the cracks.

The emotion that triggered creation turns into something finite without a single drop spilled. It gets through in its original pureness, spontaneity, and naiveté.

Andrei Tarkovsky That person Tarkovsky fondly speaks of is no one but Sergei Parajanov, born in 1924 in Tbilisi, and trained in cinema at Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow.

Known for his film entitled Sayat Nova (1969) – later screened under the name The Color of Pomegranates- Parajanov is in fact more than just a film director. He is a true artist, who throughout his life has not stopped producing despite all obstacles. In an interview, he describes himself, as “I am a graphics designer and a director trying to shape visuals.” I had the chance to get closely acquainted with Sergei Parajanov thanks to an invite I received from Hrant Dink Foundation’s Journalist Dialogue Program. Sergei Parajanov Museum, in Yerevan, capital of Armenia, is an incognito building from the outside, that you come

Nispetiye Mah. Aytar Cad. No: 24 Kat: 1-2-3 1.Levent - İstanbul / 0212 279 29 03

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The island to touch the invisible Rabia Çapa put on a life style with her gallery just like the ‘artist’s dresses’ she put exclusively on for each exhibition opening. This small yet crowded ‘island’ that is the address for both innovation and consistency for over 40 years in Maçka was home to 204 exhibitions.

Bidding farewell to the art scene in Turkey, she left behind a comprehensive archive and a book entitled Looking at the Invisible telling the story of the gallery’s long journey.

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Özlem Altunok Maçka Art Gallery (MAG) was getting to an end while it was turning 40. This was a decision taken by Rabia Çapa. While Çapa was getting ready for the farewell with the special exhibitions she planned for during 2016, she devoted her last exhibition to Mehmet Konuralp who also designed the gallery space. Not even a single nail was pounded in this authentic space without asking Konuralp, therefore he was going to underline his style, and identity once more while the curtains were drawn.

When Rabia Çapa and her brother Varlık Yalman founded MAG in November 1976, they wanted to make a space in this little yet special gallery in Maçka, for conceptual and contemporary art, which was not on demand at the time. Maçka Sanat became a significant ‘shelter’ when we were going from the stagnant art scene of the 70’s towards the 80’s. It contributed to the polyphony of Turkey’s contemporary art by opening its doors to the artists who couldn’t attain themselves a place in the 80’s and the 90’s.

For 40 years, it exhibited works of significant names in modern and contemporary art in Turkey from Fahrelnissa Zeid to Füreya Koral, Kuzgun Acar to Mengü Ertel, Füsun Onur to Sarkis, Altan Gürman to Serhat Kiraz and Canan Tolon. Hosting a total of 204 exhibitions until today, the gallery’s authentic interior of bone colored ceramics has been an inspiration for many artists in order to beat the odds.

Even though MAG seems to have said farewell to the art scene in turkey with its last exhibition, it opened new doors for the future by donating a comprehensive archive including artists’ files, voice records, books, jewelries, artists’ dresses, and brochures to Koç Museum. Even though the gallery closed its doors at the end of 2016, the gallery’s now traditional New Year’s Tree was a book that summarized the long story of the 40 years.

The book entitled Looking at the Invisible, published with support from Ömer Koç and Vehbi Koç Foundation, hosts a crowded staff of writers, and a collective work in accordance with MAG’s sould and identity.

Looking at the Invisible starts with a quote from Demir Özlü’s journal entitled At Canal Cities – Berlin & Amsterdam that salutes the ‘existence’ of brother Varlık Yalman whom both Çapa and the gallery lost in 1988: “The secret to existence can of course not be resolved by trying to catch the secrets of dreams. In fact this secret is not the only one. Existence is floating above a mass of secrets. What’s reflected on dreams, are just the shadows of some of them. Shadows are also changed when reflected to this side. Hence we cannot see the reality of the other side. Merely some images can be caught.”

Necmi Sönmez who conveyed the conceptual frame of the book, states that for 40 years the gallery served as a ‘conceptual art institute’, was transformed

into an independent island and that when trying to draw the portrait of the gallery they made a great effort for the portrait to be an all-inclusive one.

Therefore, many names from the architect Konuralp to writer Sezer Duru who was a frequent of the gallery, from tens of artists who have been represented to curators of different generations and to art writers have contributed to the book.

For instance, architect Mehmet Konuralp tells us about how he worked on the architectural design of the gallery situated on the basement floor of a building in Maçka, starting with the front garden, and then to the gallery space passing through the courtyard. The part where Konuralp tells about the ceramics, now an authentic feature of the gallery, is especially striking: “Both the exterior and the interior floors and walls of the gallery are covered with 26011 unglazed 10x10 cm ceramics tiles produced in Bozüyük in order to lose the sense of scale. The aims is to rid the space of details in order to remove the plane references and at the same time to maintain the relationship of the interior and the exterior, limit it with simple tectonic-geometric elements that serve as a container, and that the created simple space does not compete with the everchanging content.”

In her article The Concept of “La Galerie Idéale” and Maçka Art Gallery, Károly Aliotti leads the way by mentioning not the form but the essence of the ‘ideal gallery’

that she defines as a state of mind, an attitude, and reaches out to the first gallery owners. She reminds us of names like Yaşar Kemal and Oruç Aruoba who are part of the inter-disciplinary comprehensiveness of MAG, considering the synergy that the little galleries created with the writers, the thinkers who have left a trace in art history around Vollard and Kahnweiler and also emphasizes that MAG is a space that leaves a mark in history with its recorded archive”.

Barış Acar approaches MAG by looking at the history of art galleries in Turkey constructing public space. He starts with Maya Gallery as one of the first of the artistic productions spreading in public space with the tradition of criticism independent of the academy starting with the painters of the 1914 generation, and then moves on to Maçka Art Gallery; he points to the model where the gallery is dominant in the inclination towards the contemporary with the use of the gallery space by the artists. In this sense, Acar also states that it is possible to read the history of MAG with the evolution of contemporary art in Turkey in this sense.

Under the subtitle, Periods, Necmi Sönmez, Mahmut Nüvit, Burcu Pelvanoğlu, and Evrim Altuğ wrote about the gallery’s ten-year periods, the exhibitions and the trends in those periods. Necmi Sönmez examines the first ten years. Emphasizing that the gallery, which opened with the 5 Realist Turkish Painters exhibition, then went after a new pursuit with the

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BOOK

MERT DİNER ‘DİĞER TARAF | OTHER SIDE’

09.03 - 08.04.2017

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2

3

4

1. GÜRDAL DUYAR AND VARLIK YALMAN, BEFORE KUZGUN ACAR EXHIBITION,JANUARY 1977 2. RABİA ÇAPA, MEHMET KONURALP, MENGÜ ERTEL, NOVEMBER 1976 3. RABİA ÇAPA, SERHAT-SEBLA KİRAZ, ERDAL İNÖNÜ, ÜLFET-MENGÜ ERTEL, FÜREYA KORAL, SEVİNÇ İNÖNÜ SERHAT KİRAZ EXHIBITION OPENING, 14 FEBRUARY 1984 4. ADNAN ÇOKER EXHIBITON TALK, ON THE LEFT RABİA ÇAPA, ON THE RIGHT SABRİ BERKEL, 1986

participating artists – Altan Gürman, Kuzgun Acar, Aliye Berge – Sönmez says “Looking at the events in the first ten years, MAG appears to be the first gallery that doesn’t get involved with ‘antique’ art works (like the period of Osman Hamdi, 1914 generation), but instead puts the works of the period on the agenda with a certain program. In addition, he calls attention to the fact that another inclination of the gallery at the period were ‘artists living abroad’ based around Paris such as Komet, Mübin Orhon, Bilge Alkor, Sarkis, Ömer Uluç, Melike Abasıyanık Kurtiç. At this point, he emphasizes that MAG does not get interested in the positions of these artists in the art market in Istanbul but demonstrates a new attitude that could be called “new gallerist ethics”.

Mahmut Nüvit who examined the period between 1986-1996, states that in those years the gallery’s most notable feature is its tendency that accompanies the changing artistic language with the exhibitions of Füsun Onur, Ayşe Erkmen, Sarkis, Serhat Kiraz. He states: “In those years, MAG was very supportive of conceptual art unlike any other galleries or institutions”. He also reminds us of the Daniel Buren and François Morellet exhibitions, which played a key role in the gallery’s international relationships.

In her article titled Fragile Years, Burcu Pelvanoğlu states that the gallery gave birth to a new artist of a different generation in each ten-year period, and emphasizes that the period between 1996-2006 were the “youngest” ten-years of the gallery. Stating that the dynamics of contemporary art in Turkey during that period was transformed with leaps and fractures with

neoliberal politics stepping in, Pelvanoğlu adds that MAG “that defined itself by way of experience rather than self-proof, and moved on this line of experience, was able to represent four different generations of artists in Turkey because of this line.”

Specifying that with artists living abroad like Ayşe Erkmen, Gülsün Karamustafa, Işık Andreas Tüzüner, Doğan Firuzbay, and Lütfi Özkök have exhibited their latest works in that period in MAG, and she determines that the gallery was focused on strengthening the dialogue of the art scene in Turkey with the world outside by way of these artists.

Evrim Altuğ who analyzes the last ten year period from 2006 until and including 2016 when the gallery closed its doors, starts by saying, “It is enough to look at the gallery’s now ‘traditional’, thus ‘experimental’ New Year Tree initiative to examine how the gallery created and exposed a prospective inter-generation texture”. Altuğ who states that the artists list that we come across in this exhibition series –from Alaettin Aksoy yo Candeğer Furtun, Elif Çelebi to Koray Ariş, Yusuf Taktak to Şükran Moral, Mengü Ertel to Murteza Fidan- and in most of the gallery’s exhibitions in summary presents ‘a structure that is respectful of yesterday, and proud of being residence to the avant-garde’, takes out the inventory of the last tenyear period exhibitions’ diversity in this manner.

The book’s first guest under the Comments section is Ahu Antmen with her artile entitled Maçka’s Niche.

Approaching niche that is a space within a space as an architectural element as much as with its symbolic meanings, Antmen examines the different approaches

of the artists who crated their works by using MAG’s niche in their exhibitions. On the other hand, Sezer Duru tells us about how the gallery, which brought the litterateurs and the visual artists together in the still art environment of the founding years, filled up this gap. Özge Ersoy emphasizes Rabia Çapa’s attitude that affects the production of contemporary art, by reinterpreting collecting with the gallery’s collection exhibitions and her artists’ dresses specially designed for each opening. Özge Ersoy compiles the international events organized by the gallery, and gathers various examples of fair attendances together such as Sarkis’ Caylak Sokak exhibition opened in 1986, ‘moving’ to Centres Georges Pompidou with the gallery itself, and the From Bosphorus to Moine: Examples of Contemporary Art from Turkey in France exhibition at the Cholet Art and History Museum.

The last section where Nergis Abıyeva shows the portrait of the gallery as a ‘space of memory’ from the first event to the last exhibition, sometimes from the eyes of the artists, by way of photographs, the gallery’s famous exhibition brochures, and invitations, is titled Flowing Time Still Time. The responsibility that Rabia Çapa shared with young art historian Nergis Abıyeva who also undertook the archive work of the gallery gains a significant meaning in this last stop. After all time flies ‘invisibly’ and touches the later invisibly.

Açılış Opening 09 Mart March 2017 Perşembe Thursday 18:30

SERCAN APAYDIN ‘SAHİBİNDEN | BY OWNER’

13.04 - 13.05.2017

Açılış Opening 13 Nisan April 2017 Perşembe Thursday 18:30

Gazeteci Erol Dernek Sk. No.11/3 Hanif Han Beyoğlu İstanbul Türkiye www.versusartproject.com info@versusartproject.com

VERSUS ART PROJECT

26

Herman Miller Aeron çalışma koltuğu 1995’te Museum of Modern Arts kalıcı koleksiyonuna girdi.

INTERPRETATION

27

Beyond the future, before the past:

Sarkis

Ergonomi anlayışını değiştiren tasarım:

Evrim Altuğ

Aeron: Remastered

New York’taki MoMA’nın kalıcı koleksiyonunda yer alan Aeron, tasarım, ergonomi, teknoloji ve insan sağlığını aynı potada eriterek 20 yılı aşkın bir süredir sanat dünyasının merkezinde yer alıyor.

This writing is a cloud of çaylak* propositions regarding Sarkis’ latest productions in İstanbul (Dirimart, Ariel Sanat, İstanbul Modern, Galerist, Arter Projeleri, Galeri Manâ), Venice (Respiro Project), Rotterdam (Submarine Wharf - Ballads) and Paris (Centre Pompidou - Passages). The aesthetic identity of Sarkis’ production is processed with objects, sounds, and the humanity’s vast knowledge on silence; it is purified with soft light processing and assigned a brand new function; its evolution stands as a totality of diversity – right inside us (rather than in front of us) for exploration and reformulation.

An author picks words from inside and outside. Vision, silence, sympathy, and imagination assist the author in this effort. And Sarkis follows suit. He engages in culture and cultivation wherever he exhibits; he draws on the memory of time and space – their testament and eternalness.

The work of Sarkis presents a wide array, including contemporary and classical music, an understanding of stage-scene and cinema-photography, background

in architecture, interest in philosophy, sociology, archival works, artisanship, pedagogy, games, paying tribute, and a loyal respect towards what is worth remembering. Only to name a few to suggest the universality of the artist’s welldeveloped, giant, invigorating, very much alive, yet still delicate works…

Hope and optimism have a binding and soothing effect on the fruitful opposition between a solid/demarcated history and a soft/uncertain future in the works of Sarkis, who has been recently engaged in projects with children and who invited us 22 years ago to Istanbul Biennial for pilaf and discussion.

Traces of lipstick, fingerprints, warm shades of watercolour, voices of children, bird feathers, felt shoes, a vague and delicate architectural silhouette, plastic/ musical elements attached to edges… All these tools/instruments of conductivity between the artist and the world create different compositions each and every time.

Forbidding one element’s dominance over the other in his pluralistic compositions, Sarkis not only orchestrates his works, but also invites guest artists of international fame such as John Cage, Futuro, Edvard Munch, Great Architect Sinan, Joseph Beuys, Dimitri Shostakovitch, Sergei Eisenstein, Sergei Paradjanov, Paolo Uccello, Kazimir Malevitch, Andrei Tarkovski, and dear ‘Surp/Saint’ Hrant Dink. Imprinting different parts of history onto the mind’s palette in a harmony, Sarkis refers to audio recorders with clockwork motors, recordings, photographs, and a pervading colour of gold in his plastic narratives. Sarkis is a personality pursuing

the objectification and symbolization of the long-forgotten (now residing in the memory) transcendental; an almost blessing uniqueness, a sincere translatorship…

“Epic” and unique photographs, as well as the acoustic entities he treat as sculptures help the artist embark on a quest for “truth” (a truth long-awaited by metaphysical echoes, the other/platonic calls/representations); and he shares this experience with us just like a healer.

Sarkis holds art history in high esteem and treats it as a “treasure” since millions of lives have been sacrificed for it; this time he shows his virtue by referring to art history to test himself (and the larger humanity).

He engages in retrospection with great optimism and collects every image in his Noah’s-Ark-like memory-workshop.

Dealing with the humanity’s thousandfold narratives and faces in complete good faith, Sarkis assigns them new expressions and dimensions.

The acts of reflection, touch and confrontation underline his use of mirror – an object oft-used in his works. Yet he does not reduce deep rooted issues to today’s vicious culture industry alone, as in icons and iconoclasts; he does not distance himself from key issues such as the absence and presence of worth and the concepts of life and death.

Sarkis refers to multi-coloured neon lights for his selection of images and fragments of knowledge to invigorate them with electroshocks; and they seem to have replaced gilded frames of the past.

Neon lights pervade in Sarkis’ works in the forms of writing, audio, motion, colour and a statue of sense. Another fruitful tension assuming a central position in the

artist’s works is between the transcendental and the immanent.

Each of his work questions its own time and space, as well as its receiver using the past and the future. Transcending on different levels based on their potential to produce meaning and to transform, his works gain immanence and fragile confidentiality with the knowledge and awareness they trigger within receivers and spaces.

Thus a mutual transformation process between the work/object and the viewer/ subject gets started. The more the artwork opens up itself to the viewer and the venue/ the time, the more the viewer acquires a clear transcendental experience on the artwork. Standing as an already finished piece, the artwork reproduces itself with each viewer through articulation and reception.

Till both the work and the viewer share a common point of view with regard to the past and the future…

Just like a mystical expression cherishing a palindrome’s (a word or sentence that reads the same backward or forward) transparency. Sarkis shares with the past what he learns from the future: through a mirror hanging from the present’s eternity.

Then come and speak the silent notes of universal rainbows and utopias – what he and we all glimpse with our humanity. * Çaylak roughly means inexperienced, an adjective denoting a newbie or a rookie in a profession. The use here also refers to the street where the artist’s mother used to live, and the artist himself was born; the exhibition offers images from the house on this street (Translator’s note).

Henüz dünya kamuoyu, tasarım ve

MoMA’nın kalıcı koleksiyonuna dahil

malzemeler

kullanıcısını

Herman Miller, onları rahatsız etmek

mimariye günümüzdeki kadar önem

olduğunda sanat ve tasarım dünyası

havada süzülüyormuş gibi hissettiren

istemediği için Aeron’un şeklini ve

atfetmezken

müzesi

güzellik kavramının nasıl değişebildiğine

Aeron,

boyutunu değiştirmeme kararı alıyor.

denince akla gelen ilk kuruluşlardan

tanık oldu. Görüntü itibariyle bilim

geçen 23 yılda ilk defa yenilendi. ‘İki

New York’taki MoMA, 1932’de mimari

kurgu filmlerinde yer alabilecek ve

yıllık çalışmanın ve yirmi yılı aşkın bir

Antrofometri ve ergonominin birleşimi

ve tasarım özelinde bir departman

kullandığı üstün malzeme ve fiziksel

süredir kullanılan bilginin’ sonucu olarak

Don Chadwick ile birlikte çalışanlar,

kurarak

detaylarıyla

kullanıcılarının

mühendisler,

bir

modern

sanat

koleksiyon

oluşturmaya

konfor

sağlayan

Aeron,

lanse

sayesinde edilmesinin

karşısına

ardından

çıkan

Aeron

malzeme

uzmanları

birlikte

ve

başladı. Volkswagen Bettle’dan Apple

aynı Pedro Almodovar’ın filmleri ve

Remastered, birçoklarına pek değişik

araştırmacılarla

iPod Classic’e birçok ikonik tasarım bu

Frank O. Gehry’nin bazı binaları gibi

gelmeyebilir. İkonik tasarımın arkasındaki

Aeron’da

koleksiyonda yer aldı. Bunlar arasındaki

yüzyıllardır izleyicinin karşısına çıkarılan

isimlerden olan Chadwick bu konuyla

değişiklikleri 23 yıldır herkesi kendine

malzeme

ve

yenilenen teknoloji

en dikkat çekici tasarım hiç kuşkusuz

hayran bırakan tasarımı bir üst noktaya

milyonlarca insanın her gün kullandığı

çıkararak konfor, sağlık ve kolaylığı

Herman Miller Aeron ofis koltuğudur.

kimsenin ulaşamayacağı bir çıtaya çekti. İnsan vücudunun boyutları ile ilgilenen

Bu bir ilandır.

Sarkis’ latest exhibition titled Mirror was on display at Dirimart between January 18 and February 19.

We analysed the recent productions of the artist.

Popüler kültürün merkezinde

antrofometri ve ergonominin en güncel

Ergonomik ve konforlu olması için uzun

verilerini malzeme, üretim ve teknoloji

yıllar

sonrasında

konularında 20 yılı aşkın bir süredir elde

Donald T. Chadwick ve Bill Stumpf’ın

edilen deneyimle birleştiren Herman

tasarlayarak 1992’de lanse ettiği Aeron

Miller, oturan kişinin daha doğal hareket

ofis koltuğu, dünya gündemini etkiledi.

etmesini sağlayan ve vücutla bütünleşen

Öyle ki en uzun soluklu çizgi dizilerden

bir yapıya sahip olan yepyeni bir Aeron

The Simpsons’ın bir bölümünde sorunlu

geliştirdi. Güncellenen tilt mekanizması

baba figürü Homer Simpson’ı karşısına

sayesinde kullanıcının isteklerine daha

yaptıkları

inceleme

alan Tanrı, bir Aeron’a oturuyordu. Benzer

klasik güzellik anlayışını yıkarak, güzellik

ilgili, ‘Bu koltuk tamamen yeni, çok daha

hızlı adapte olan Aeron hakkında CEO

şekilde, James Bond’u hizaya getiren

anlayışına eleştirel bir gözle bakabilmeyi

iyi performans gösteriyor ve kullanıcıya

Brian Walker, ‘Tilt, bir otomobilin motoru

M’den Dr. House ve Big Bang Theory’nin

sağladı. İşte, Aeron böylelikle sanat ve

daha kolay adapte oluyor’ yorumunu

gibidir. Sonuçta 2016 yapımı bir motor,

nev-i şahsına münhasır karakteri Sheldon

tasarımın birleştiği noktada yer alarak,

yapıyor. Chadwick, ‘En büyük endişemiz,

1994’te yapılan bir motordan daha iyi

Cooper’a kadar birçok karakterin en

sanat camiasının merkezinde yer aldı ve

koltuğun ikonik tasarımını korumamızdı.

performans gösterir’ diyor.

büyük yardımcısı Aeron oldu.

almaya da devam ediyor.

O kadar kuvvetli bir görsel kişiliği var ki, onu çok değiştirmek istemedik’ diyor.

Almodovar, Gehry ve Aeron Böyle

bir

ilham

kaynağı

1995’te

Aeron Remastered: Havada süzülüyor

Sonuçta kullanıcıları değil de hayranları

Bünyesinde barındırdığı teknoloji ve

olan bir tasarımdan bahsediyoruz ve

Ayazma Yolu Sokak No: 5 Etiler İstanbul 0212 263 6406 / 0212 263 6409 info@bms.com.tr bms.com.tr

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INTERVIEW

Contemporary Exceptions to rules Evrim Altuğ

Michael Rakowitz, with his project The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist recreated from empty date syrup cans, thereby providing ‘a recycled reference’ the ancient Assyrian sculpture Lamassu destroyed by Isis, is one of the finalists for the Fourth Plinth Commission in London’s Trafalgar Square. In this special Art Unlimited interview given from Chicago, we talked with the Iraqi-American contemporary artist whom we are familiar with through his projects at the Istanbul Biennial and SALT, about topics ranging from the future of art in the U.S. to cultural imperialism, from the art scene in Turkey to President Trump’s policies and the other finalists of Fourth Plinth.

One of the shortlisted names of the now ‘traditionalized’ Fourth Plinth, a public space sculpture and installation competition organized by the London Municipality in Trafalgar Square since 1989, is the New York born, U.S. based, 43-year-old contemporary artist Michael Rakowitz, whose work was included in IKSV’s 14th Istanbul Biennial SALTWATER, curated by CarolynChristov Bakargiev. Currently based in Chicago and still represented by Rampa Istanbul along with New York’s Jane Lombard Gallery, Rakowitz, who was also invited to Istanbul in 2011 for the exhibition at SALT, Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire 1753-1914, is shortlisted for the London Municipality’s international program with his project The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist. The main medium for the Lamassu sculpture, which is shortlisted to be installed between 2018 and 2020 Fourth Plinth, is empty cans of date syrup – a symbol of culture and trade for Iraq and the Middle East. Rakowitz actually started this project 11 years ago in various modes of representation. The Fourth Plinth Commission provided a diverse outlook in shortlisting works by multi-cultural names such as Heather Phillipson, Damian Ortega, Huma Bhabha and Raqs Media Collective. An exhibition including the aforementioned artists can be visited until 26 March at The National Gallery. We took this opportunity to have a detailed interview with Michael Rakowitz that embraces a very contemporary narrative…

Evrim Altuğ: Michael, we would like to hear how this project came to being in the first place, would you mind telling us?

Michael Rakowitz: When examining the material they sent me during the preparations, I realized that the fourth plinth was almost exactly the same size with my 14ft long work Lamassu, a sculpture of an Assyrian protective deity that stood at the entrance to Nergal gate into the city of Nineveh and was destroyed by Isis in 2015. With the help of a team of assistants, I have been trying to create replicas of cultural objects that were stolen, destroyed or with status unknown in the aftermath of the looting of the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad in 2003. Still, allegedly there are nearly 15 thousand artifacts that were stolen

from the museum or lost after the U.S. invasion. So far, seven thousand of those artifacts are returned of found, whereas eight thousand of them are still missing.

My assistants and I are trying to reconstruct those artifacts based on the database in cooperation with the University of Chicago. We are also using the Red List from Interpol to determine the current conditions of the artifacts. We were able to access the whereabouts of 20 pieces on this list. Of course, our project has grown to include the lost, destroyed or stolen artifacts from the archeological sites and reservations in the area. This includes the Mosul Museum destroyed by Isis.

While my studio is focused on the reconstruction of these artifacts, it takes as its materials the MiddleEastern food packaging industry and the Arabic-English newspapers distributed for free in New York. It is not arbitrary that I was drawn to these materials. My mother’s family immigrated from Baghdad in 1946. The main idea lies in the materialization of our cultural visibility in the States, as well as to reuse these materials in an ‘invisible’ approach for more intensive purposes. Also I think by doing this I am disposed towards making not the pieces themselves, but their ghosts visible.

We know that throughout history there have been cultural artifacts that are looted and smuggled from the East to the West, and are now being exhibited in museums all over the world. And seeing where we are right now - theft, looting, vandalism and radicalism in the East, ironically we cannot help but think that these works have actually ‘survived.’ What do you have to say about that?

Yes, honestly, I don’t have an easy answer to that, it is a surreal scenario. As you know, I am against the idea of an ‘imperial museum’ and for instance, if I look at the things that happened in Turkey up until the late 1870s, I know that a lot of ruins and cultural heritage from various excavations held throughout, especially in the Ottoman Empire, were taken to the West.

Professor Edhem Eldem, an incredible historian I know from Istanbul provided me with detailed information on this subject, and underscored the legal aspect of the issue.

It was obvious, based on what he was telling me, that the

issue stretched towards Iraq and Syria and other areas if you consider the national borders of the time. Again, the former director of the National Museum of Iraq, Donny George, who was granted an immigrant status with his family in the States – after escaping to Syria – also provided me with striking stories. It was about why certain things were looted and how some Iraqis in London angrily wrote to the British Museum officials. It is said that some of it is true, some of it is not; there are claims that the looted pieces were shared between USA and the British. But it is known for a fact that a lot of museums, including the British Museum have such pieces in their collections. In that sense there was another concern raised

by Donny: George told me that they were not deemed as cultural artefacts smuggled illegally from museums, but as refugees, which were classified and treated as having the status ‘not able to return home.’

We are going through interesting times, what do you think? Fourth Plinth 2017 finalists are creative minds such as Huma Bhabha, Pakistan; Damian Ortega, Mexico and Raqs Media Collective, coming mostly from the East or Mexico - places the U.S. is prejudiced against and restrictive towards. What do you see when you look at the finalists and their projects?

All of the shortlisted artists, especially Raqs Media Collective, are inspiring. There is no harm in saying that Damian Ortega is sort of a hero of mine. I have been following and admiring the work of Heather Phillipson from the UK for the past two years. I think it is great that it is such an international list of finalists. Especially in the aftermath of Brexit, in a world where people build walls instead of bridges, art really resists being obliterated by politics. When I look at the shortlisted works for the Fourth Plinth, I have to say there is a political and poetic message to it. For instance, you see a Mexican artist (Ortega) coming up with the idea of a huge ladder at a time when Donald Trump is speaking of building a huge wall!

As for me, my proposal also included in it prospects we would never think of. When I started this project based on Iraq, Obama was in office, and it was never expected that the country would fall apart. It was also not expected

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“Trump’s attitude is completely vulgar, irresponsible, unacceptable, and dangerous, but not surprising. Most of the people I talked to after the election said that he would not do the things he promised, almost forgiving him, but I my reaction was ‘why would he not do the things he said he would do?’ The people surrounding him have become even scarier than him. Everything he says is the exact opposite to what I endorse in this world.”

Michael Rakowitz

that the refugees would be subjected to such execution.

Along with this one, I have been working on another tragic work on refugees in the city of Philadelphia. The news demonstrate that the conditions are getting worse.

In this project called Radio Silence, I was working with Iraq’s ‘Walter Cronkite’ broadcaster Bahjat Abdulawahed.

(He was in the States as a refugee.) I contacted him to have him ‘on air’ and in a short period of time we became close friends. After our first recording session, he tragically lost his voice due to a stroke and asthma, and in a way Iraq also lost its voice. After being in intensive care tied to life support for eight months, he passed away last August. In that sense, this project was a miniature of Iraq. Paralleling to this, we are now witnessing the disintegration process, and new policies instigate humiliating and inhumane conditions in which it is impossible for people fleeing their country to feel safe. So the project is valuable for it makes visible the existence of people living there, moreover, it carries hope, and I also want to return to my home country Iraq one day.

In one interview you said that you believed art had the potential to “make the impossible possible.” Do you still believe that?

Of course. When we first got together for Fourth Plinth, it was the last day of the Obama administration and right before the inauguration all the shortlisted artists that met in London had in mind how difficult of a process Brexit would be. For me, behind this shortlisted project, which I was able to produce in a period of endless ‘war on terror’ since the late-90s, is the possibility of making everywhere a better place than it already is. In that sense I absolutely refuse to become cynical. The work I do embodies the force of life, poetry, art. Just like someone told me before, my works are prototypes of how things can be. I exhibited a similar project in Dubai with a restaurant I opened, Dar al Sulh. By carrying the Iraqi-Jewish heritage to the area again, I wanted to show that this is not only nostalgia, but can be a blueprint for the future. Another example of this is Davison and Company I opened in Brooklyn, New York.

Looking at that store experiment, it was evident that importing Iraqi products to U.S. was incredibly difficult.

Of course, no one at that time knew about the condition of the Iraqi refugees like we do now. Within the context of the project, we were able to import ten parcels of date.

Because the existing border law in the States, a gesture of import/export was only possible under the guise of art, in the most absurd way possible. In that sense I would prefer my works not to be considered solely as art, because these acts show the possibility of something...

We are really going through interesting times; for instance, ancient ruins that are destroyed by war or

by Isis can reappear through replicas created by local amateurs in order to honor the existence of the said ruin. This coincidentally corresponds to what you have been doing, because you are sort of a recycler, in the sense that in your projects you revoke memory through the language of contemporary art; you propose a contemporary camouflage to history through your understanding of aesthetics with your sense of humor.

What do you think?

I like that very much. I think this is a wonderful reading, and especially when I think of the element of ‘camouflage’ in my works, I can reach a very interesting layer of subconscious. I intend to ponder more on that.

If we consider my latest works, the material we use are

already designated for the trash bin, they are made for throwing away, and for instance one of those cans belong to Ma’amoul Cookies, special desserts from Lebanon.

And they are sold as Saudi Arabian products. They are also consumed in Iraq and the same goes for the dates.

Dates go through various stages, from production to distribution, in Iraq, Lebanon and other countries. For that reason, Iraqi date industry has circumvented the U.S. sanctions. This had been the case from 1990s on till 2003 and the strict security examinations regarding the products still go on. Thus I think the packaging of the products bear an aesthetic and problematic concern.

Plus, I like the problems about ‘belonging’ experienced due to the failure in reporting the source of the products, although these products are originally from Iraq, and the incalculable result, the change of color that are formed by the packaging, which differentiates the work from the original sculpture from Babylon or Assyria. Eventually everything becomes blurry and remains vague. I like that confusion very much.

Can we say that your sculpture, which is shortlisted for the Fourth Plinth, also refers to another work of yours, May the Arrogant Not Prevail?

Absolutely. That is a pretty ‘scowling’ work. The invitation for this project was made by the Pergamon Museum through Berlin Haus der Kulturen die Welt (HKW) in Germany. I was also going to exhibit the 11-year-old series, May the Arrogant Not Prevail. I knew it was a great opportunity. I was aware of the eliciting power of Pergamon Museum. Because all of us knew where the Pergamon Altar (taken from Anatolia) actually belonged to. I did not know until 2006 when I visited the museum that the Ishtar Gate was also there. But right before installing the exhibition, Pergamon Museum realized that this project had an anti-looting contextual framework and by postponing the installation, caused us to move the exhibition across the river, to HKW. After this, my assistants and I reconstructed the Ishtar Gate using ‘cheap material’, with packages of well-known products.

What is your opinion on the President of the United States’ attitude towards the freedom of press and civil rights?

Vulgar, irresponsible, unacceptable, dangerous, but not surprising. Most of the people I talked to after the election said that he would not do the things he promised, almost forgiving him, but I my reaction was “why would he not do the things he said he would do?” The people surrounding him have become even scarier than him. Everything he says is the exact opposite to what I endorse in this world.

In these circumstances, how do you see the future of contemporary art in the U.S.?

Oh my god! Frankly, I think that more and more people become artists. Art turned into a language, a code now, and also the ongoing protests have formed a unique language. Contemporary art is heavily attached to that, and when you think of the works produced, you can see that they save us artists from being outcasts. This enables us to be aware of each other’s positions and this further paves the way for a social aesthetic. Any tiny beam of light that is generated through this process hinders the possibility of surrendering completely to exhaustion or cynicism. Therefore, what is happening leaves us with a sequence of possibilities and the ability to dream blatantly becomes the most radical option. Because to be able to dream is not something you can program or give in to. In

that sense, I hope that the artists will produce more to assert sense, yet do that in order to promote “nonsense.”

If we go back to the idea of art’s treatment as camouflage, as you know there can be some legislation against demonstrations. Yesterday I made a phone call about this in Philadelphia. We were granted permission in July for a replica of an Iraqi monument to be installed in front of the Independence Hall. No matter which way things go now, we have the permits, because they approached it as a performance, not as a protest. For this reason, I think protests in the future will eventually turn to performance.

How do you see Turkey from over there?

I have some intimacy with Turkey. Besides a few projects realized there, I have friends such as Esra and Nicole (Rampa). But beyond that, I would like to mention artists like Can Altay, Hüseyin B. Alptekin and Gülsün Karamustafa, whose works I admire. We were in some of the exhibitions together. Likewise, I follow Hera Büyüktaşçıyan and Meriç Algün Ringborg closely. I like their passionate way of production. Especially Can’s public space works that incorporate an approach towards psycho-geography and nationalistic mapping of the city are very interesting.

Although I do not have a very clear picture of what is going on there, I can see that Erdoğan’s voice has become increasingly louder. In my work that was based on the production techniques of Armenian craftspeople (The Flesh Is Yours, The Bones Are Ours, Galata Greek Primary School) which was included in the Istanbul Biennial a year and a half ago, I saw how a wound in collective memory could not be illustrated as a national project. After that there was a coup attempt in Turkey. And then everything unraveled, and for people who live and create there, it has become harder to do that. I do not know how much of this is true but I heard that the galleries are shutting down. This is tragic. Societies experience disintegration and depraved treatment firstly in the cultural domain, mostly through intellectuals and minorities. I do not know where things might go but I am very concerned. I hope everything goes well.

When we look at the European Union, there is an inclination towards far right and it is in the form of a historical repetition, a cycle. When I think of the degree of the hate speech and the level of degradation directed towards people who only want to survive, I cannot help but think racism. The European Union is not exempt from any of this. Everywhere from Italy to France nationalism is on the rise.

What is the definition of cultural imperialism in the 21st century? Mass communication devices? Cinema, radio, TV? These devices sometimes can be fantastic equalizers.

It also reflects in my works related to the Middle East, a mechanism I include through pop-culture references.

For instance, when I was working on my shortlisted work for Fourth Plinth, Donny George was the drummer for a Baghdad based Pink Floyd cover band called 99 Percent.

For another work named Smoke on The Water, which is a component of this project, I worked with Ayyub, an Arab fusion music band from Brooklyn. I want to remark their surreal sense of humor and absurdity, and humaneness in their works. They have shown us that the whole world listens to the same thing.

Just like your work The Break Up, which both refers to the last performance The Beatles gave on a roof in

LESS IS MORE 25 yıldır tasarımda "az"ın gücüne inanıyor, ev & ofis için mobilya ve aydınlatmanın modern klasiklerini showroomlarımızda sizler ile buluşturuyoruz.

London, not being able to perform in the East, then broke up, as well as the disrupted atmosphere of peace in the Middle East, right?

Exactly. An environment in which Palestinians listen to Sgt. Peppers at the same time with the rest of the world...

Just like George Harrison’s amazing anthemic guitar solo intro, and this triumphant singing from Paul McCartney...

The one-minute piano chord that peaks at the end of the album Day in the Life... Just like that concert which was based on the idea of freedom to Palestine even acoustically. The beginning of that record you hear the phrase ‘liberate Palestine,’ and then the ending of is the setback.

On the other hand, there are different manifestations of cultural imperialism which is something that I am personally interested in; for instance, I believe that an intervention in order to bring a so-called democracy and nation-building is also a form of cultural imperialism.

Likewise, art history is a form of cultural imperialism.

When you look at the exhibitions from the Middle East displayed in the Western part of the world, the compartmentalization is evident. We know that a long-list approach to this ‘international’ modernist-contemporary art is the only obvious way for the West. There are people who I believe to have left this narrative, who reject Western canon and categorization; but there are also attempts at destroying the ‘independence’ of these people. For example, if you do not know Pablo Picasso, Donald Judd or Clement Greenberg, the torch-bearers and pioneers of significant movements in the West, your incompatibility with this aesthetic chronology and program is disclosed and the danger of eluding a complete cultural atmosphere is revealed. A lot of the things go unrecorded. That results in your efforts failing to reaching enough people. Therefore, sometimes I cannot help but think that even this “post-post modern contemporary art” is somehow imperialist.

Bilgi: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/ arts-and-culture/art-and-design/fourthplinth-what-will-go-plinth-next https://www.nationalgallery. org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/ fourth-plinth-shortlist-exhibition2016michaelrakowitz.com

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Nazlı Pektaş Photo: Elif Kahveci

Nermin Er’s home studio

Passing time in an artist’s studio invites numerous feelings.

On one hand you get excited going in the creation universe of the artist, on the other you embrace the privileged pride of witnessing the creation process of the works. Some of the studios we have visited in these series were at the same time their homes. At times when you are in home studios, the pride that you embrace and the excitement are kneaded with the meaning of the house and wrap you up. After that every image that you will turn into a voice tries to leak from the inside out.

Nermin Er’s studio in Teşvikiye is at the same time her home and her universe.

This is place is such that both Nermin Er is inside this universe, and the homestudio is itself inside the artist. This mingled state has long been reflected on the creations of the artist. Looking at her works since the 2000’s, the little worlds that we encounter at times raise a smile and at others leave an acrid taste in our eyes.

What reaches us from Nermin’s imagination is usually cut from paper, among reality and dreams, via light and shadows. Nermin’s hand sculpted, shortly put, hand labor paper works weave their stories somewhere between the hands and the eyes of the artist. Nermin Er’s works breathing with light are born from paper in her home that has long been embracing light from one end to the other. Paper sculptures/works meet their forms under Istanbul’s light, accompanied by the sound of cutters like scissors, scalpels, and craft knives, in a small studio –a light box- overlooking attached building from wide windows.

In Nermin Er’s light box studio, the heroes of her imagination, installed on her table, in boxes, inside the window, at different corners in her place, and at last in the exhibition space, are incisions of life flowing from inside out, as well as outside in. In Nermin’s home studio, I too was inclined to dream. The way the studio was included in the home and the taste the home added to the studio do touch upon the writer’s desire to create. Or to set a story let’s say… I am asking Nermin if these scenes will be in a book. She answers: “I will write one day.”

There are memories, toys, plants, and objects from various trips, flowers, books,

paintings, and examples from Nermin’s other world in many corners of the home studio. Nermin Er is a graduate of Mimar Sinan University, Fine Arts Faculty Department of Sculpture. She worked in animation, and designed characters for long years both when she was a student and after. Nermin’s hands create many of the characters of brands we observe in the media. She has even directed a movie. The first kids’ puppet movie in Turkey: Rimolar ve Zimolar: Kasabada Barış (Rimos and Zimos: Peace in Town). Naturally, besides that, she never stopped cutting paper. When the humor and the play flowing to the artist from the world that she calls “my other world”, meet with the paper cutting ritual, the city that looks at her through the windows, and the life she came out of, frame her imagination with a fragile sensitivity. Or they embrace the possibility of Being Someplace else at the Same time, like her last solo exhibition’s title.

For Nermin transforming papers into sculptures, to cut and to reunite them is a ritual. For this ritual, one needs loads of light, silence and a clean space.

Because Nermin’s main material is white paper. Two tables, papers, cutting plastic, boxes with small items inside, and tools… They are all ready for service in a certain order. This small light box possesses the comfort for this work.

The house has two other cat residents apart from Nermin: Viski (Whiskey) and Fıstık (Nut). This duo claimed their authority in many points in the home except for studio for aforementioned reasons. Therefore leaking inside the studio remains to be their dream. Inside a light box or a moving mechanism,

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the artist who mostly uses paper, sometimes cement, and at times found objects, also makes use of another main material: light. As I mentioned before, the house is full of light; a rare oasis for cut papers that show/hide the light. Going around this home studio in Teşvikiye, it is possible to infiltrate from the dreams inside the boxes to the dream inside the house. With the light that rains from the windows, the sky that the studio reaches towards, building transforming into cement light boxes at night, little white papers and the light works coming out of them, Nermin’s cats, the toys, the walls and the works of art filling up the shelves, and the objects; this house is another dream house coming out of the papers.

The ink that has lately been involved in the artist’s works turns into a new language by crossing the times we go through, and crawling on the blank embraced by white.

Nermin’s hands continue to sculpt the stories made out of paper accompanied by the realities we go through and the unlimited abundance of light in this home studio.

I am asking Nermin if these scenes will be in a book. She answers: “I will write one day.”

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Recently opened

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New museums and their stories Ümmühan Kazanç

Through this comprehensive file where we investigated upcoming and recently opened museums in Turkey, we tried to introduce you to the diversity and the promising developments in this practice, as much as to the challenges and problems arising in this field.

Why are museums important for a country or a city for that matter? The preservation and the transfer of cultural, artistic, societal, and traditional values, and of course the creation of the consciousness of culture, art, history, and science is primary. Many museums have been established lately in Turkey, and there are plans of opening new ones in the following days. Through this file where we put these museums under the spotlight, we tried to determine the diversities, as well as the challenges and the problems in museum practices.

This file where we tried to examine new museum projects such as the newly opened Evliyagil Museum, Abdullah Gül Presidential Museum and Library, Ender Güzey Museum ARThill Bodrum, Ataturk University Faculty of Fine Art Museum, SEKA Paper Museum as well as museums planned to be opened soon such as Vehbi Koç Foundation Contemporary Art Museum, Istanbul Modern’s new building to be temporarily opened in the Package Post building, Devrim Erbil Museum of Contemporary Arts, Eskişehir Musuem of Modern and Contemporary Arts, Demsa, The Museum of Painting and Sculpture moved from the Veliaht Dairesi (Heir’s Room) in Dolmabahçe Palace to the warehouse “Antrepo 5” in Karaköy, and Istanbul

Metropolitan Municipality’s new museum projects through a series of interviews and research articles, also puts together works undertaken in various other fields of museum studies in Turkey.

Various examples of contemporary museums that have adopted dynamic, interactionist, and participative points of views based on the principle of training and teaching beyond the percept of collection, preservation and exhibition, present wider societal and cultural propositions across numerous locations in the world.

Museums integrate with the cities they are in, and its citizens, and bring vibe to the cities via cultural tourism.

One of the first examples of these symbolic structures that come to mind is the Guggenheim designed by architect Frank Gehyr in Bilboa, one of the tiniest towns of Spain. The town hosts thousands of tourists thanks to the museum: around 800 thousand people on average visit the museum per year.

Soon we will start talking about the museum complex on the Saadiyat Island, in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The Maritime Museum designed by Tadao Ando, Louvre Abu Dhabi designed by Jean Nouvel, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi designed by Frank Gehry, Zayed National Museum designed by Foster + Partners, and the Abu

Dhabi Performing Arts Centre designed by Zaha Hadid will greet us as structures that will push the limits of the human mind.

Keeping in mind Turkey’s, especially Istanbul’s rich cultural heritage, and the few museums its has, it is explicit that the reason for this aridity are the culture policies that have not been sustainable and taken seriously over the years.

Coming to today from the 2000’s, albeit new museums that have opened through private endeavors such as the Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul Modern, Pera Museum, Elgiz Museum, the uncertainty in the opening of the relocated Museum of Painting and Sculpture causes a serious problem. On the other side, the presence of museums that significantly contribute to their locations such as the off-centered Baksı Museum in Bayburt, that received the “2014 European Museum of the Year” award by the European Council Parliamentary Council, certainly gives us hope.

While these newly opened and upcoming museum projects strengthen this hope, we tried to analyze the big picture in this file.

Abdullah Gül Presidential Museum and Library Abdullah Gül Presidential Museum and Library opened in the Abdullah Gül University Campus in Kayseri joined the tradition of “presidential museums” that are numerous both in the world and in Turkey. The museum where mainly 11th President of the Republic Abdullah Gul’s life story is told and his private objects exhibited, also exhibits the transformation of the Kayseri Sumerbank Textile Factory by Emre Arolat into an exhibition space. Prof. Hasan Bulent Kahraman is the curator of the museum.

Built in Kayseri in 1935 by Russian engineers as one the Republican period’s first and biggest industrial institutions, Sumerbank Textile Factory ceased production in 1999. The factory, situated inside Abdullah Gul University’s campus serving as an education, culture, and social centre, was added into our cultural commonwealth with a special transformation project by Emre Arolat. The project was rather crucial in not only protecting the history of an institution such as the Sumerbank Textile Factory but also preserving the first effort for the Republic led by Atatürk to earn its economic independence.

The museum exhibits 11th President of the Republic Abdullah Gul’s armchair and table that he used during service, objects given to him as gifts, medals, objects, photographs, and files belonging to Turkey’s political past and the Republican period.

Utmost attention was given to the use of contemporary technology in the museum. Designed as a political history museum, visually and aurally narrating recent history in sections of ten-year periods since the foundation of the Republic, the museum exhibits texts, photographs, movies, and audio recordings that tell the political developments of their time along with objects shown in each section. The library within the museum incorporates around 18 thousand books that include but is not limited to Abdullah Gül’s personal collection; it is possible to access over 6 million publications thanks to digital technology.

Kayseri Sumerbank Textile Factory built in 1933 led by Russian architect Ivan Nikolaev, is one of the most important symbols of the Republican period’s industrialization and modernization movement. The complex incorporating selected examples of Russian constructivism remained as an abandoned space since it was shut down in 1999 until it was bought out by Abdullah Gul University. To reopen the once economic and social generator of the town, holding a strong position in the memory of its inhabitants, was one of the main motivations in the design of the campus. The approach towards the transformation of the existing structures refrains from the two poles that can be defined as either tabooing therefore turning these structures into objects or ruining their original character by over-intervening. This attitude is also valid in the context of structures that would be transformed into presidential museums and libraries.

Inside the complex, it is important to preserve the patina formed over time of the power and steam power plants standing out as authentic industrial structures, the traces of time, and exhibit its layers. Therefore, it was planned that the protective interventions included the necessary repairing procedures in relation to the physical conditions of the structure, and that they were undertaken with the purpose of preserving the qualified elements in relation to their periods. Renovations aimed to bring front the structures that were accepted

as a whole with the layers they put on themselves over time, in consideration of their original state or any state over time. The implementations on the existing tissue, the update of the non-functional elements, and the incorporation of the structural elements into the existent were primary design subjects that were studied specifically for this project. It was planned that the nonfunctional, or/and the disappeared structural elements were complemented according to and in harmony with their position, size, and the configuration around them.

While the elements that would be added within the scope of the current use scenario onto the preserved and partially completed texture, were chosen from amongst those that would follow the trace of the existing structure, and find its position within the existing industrial atmosphere as part of a whole by the use of contemporary materials.

ABDULLAH GÜL LIBRARY, PHOTO: EAA

BEFORE RESTAURATION ABDULLAH GÜL MUSEUM

ABDULLAH GÜL PRESIDENTIAL MUSEUM AND LIBRARY ENTRANCE, PHOTO: HADİYE CANGÖKÇE

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MUSEUMS

Evliyagil Museum

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SARP EVLİYAGİL

EVLİYAGİL MUSEUM

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Artists in Sarp Evliyagil’s Collection The art collection of Sarp Evliyagil who has started collecting at the age of 21 with small cars, establishes the foundation of the newly opened Evliyagil Museum in Ankara. With a 750-sqm exhibition space on three floors, a sculptor garden, a movie room and a library, Ankara’s first museum of modern and contemporary arts, Evliyagil Museum’s first exhibition entitled Anakara (Mainland), is a first exhibition prepared with a selection from Evliyagil’s private collection. Exhibited in three sections, the works are based on the birth dates of the artists. The purpose is to draw attention to the different generations of art in Turkey, the opinion and language associations amongst these generations, or the solitudes not belonging to any floor, generation or section, independent statements, and authentic languages.

Short quotes of the texts of three writers from the same era accompany each generation. It is not coincidental that these literary texts are about Ankara. Anakara, is also an invitation to think not over the limits of not only the generations but also currents, and spaces. It is also a call to the viewers for them to accompany the adventure of a collector who set sail for the seas to discover new continents. The founder of Evliyagil Museum Sarp Evliyagil who tries to underline its mission via this exhibition told us all about it.

Can we hear from you about the Evliyagil Museum that has opened in Ankara İncek? How was the architectural design shaped, how was this four-storey building organized as a museum?

First we thought of building the museum somewhere else. Then this building in İncek was emptied out and we visited the space with architect Nejat Sert. Mr. Nejat told us that we could transform the building into a more functional, higher density space with more wall space for exhibiting; it was originally built for residential use. We transformed it into a museum. We made some extensions to the front and the side. The building was really transformed not in to a higher sqm but a higher volume space.

How many works are there in your collection and what is the main theme of the collection?

220 works are in our collection. Our main theme, or rather our purpose is to keep together Turkish modern and contemporary art from the 1950’s onwards. Secondly, it is to support the art and the artists of these lands. Therefore I do not buy works of foreign artists except those I really like, and suit my budget. Our main mission is to become a space that invests in the artists from Turkey, and exhibits and shares their works with the society.

I understand that in the museum, you are trying to exhibit the works in your collection through themed exhibitions, section by section rather then showcasing them all at once. What is the main reason behind this decision?

At first I thought of the opposite, of exhibiting all together.

Deniz Artun, who curated the museum, proposed the themed exhibitions, and I liked the idea. Because unlimited number of exhibitions can be opened with numerous combinations of works from the 220-piece collection. Once you have a sound idea of an exhibition like the ongoing Anakara exhibition at the museum, you can always curate unlimited number of exhibitions by adding new works to another selection of works from the collection and not necessarily different works.

Many museums perform this way. We also continue buying; therefore the size of the collection increases every other day.

We know that you are have been heavily working on a two-storey project space right across the Vehbi Koç Foundation Museum In Dolapdere, Istanbul. What can you tell us about this project?

We haven’t fully planned it yet but we are thinking of creating an art space where works of young artists as well as works from our own collection will be exhibited from time to time.

Therefore, we will be hosting exhibitions of young to middle age, established to young artists.

The two-storey space in Dolapdere is about 200 sqm big.

Both floors have high ceilings, so there are high volumes. Furthermore, the gallery space in the front has a 8-10 m high ceiling. We are designing a bridge in the middle just like in this museum; therefore this will be a high-ceiling space that

can observe both spaces. In two years, when Koç Museum will be open, the region will become an arts center.

I’m sure you’ve had the chance to visit numerous art spaces, and museums abroad and in Turkey. What are your favorite museums? Was there any museum that you took as an example?

Louisiana Modern Art Museum in Copenhagen blew my mind away. It is a very strange place, a wonder of nature 45 km outside of Copenhagen. There are lakes inside, gardens; and it is by the sea. When I saw that place, I dreamt that Evliyagil Museum in Incek would be situated 15-20 km outside the city center so that people would come to visit in the weekends. Of course it is much bigger than ours, but there are similarities.

Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland is also outside the city center. You jump on the tramway and get there in 15 minutes. Basel’s Schaulager’s architecture and exhibiting spaces are stunning. I also really like New York Guggenheim and New York New Museum. I didn’t get to see Whitney Museum’s new building, but used to love the old one, and I spent quite a long time there. Peggy Guggenheim’s house in Venice is also legendary. It’s a tiny place but you get to see how a house was transformed into a museum and how it lives with the art works.

You achieved to create a professional art collection that became a museum at an early stage. Do you have any suggestions for young art collectors sharing a similar passion like yours?

Collecting really is a passion. Because no one is forcing you; you get attached, and you go on a journey. You somehow get some things together and make a collection. This is also valid for book, painting, art, and car collections; it is a true passion.

My suggestions are very simple. I suggest them to spend time on this, research, read and reach the most suitable option for them by the best means.

Feyhaman Duran, Eşref Üren, Hakkı Anlı, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Abidin Dino, Ferruh Başağa, Selim Turan, Avni Arbaş, İbrahim Balaban, Nejad Devrim, Neşet Günal, Rasin Arsebük, Mübin Orhon, Lütfü Günay, Adnan Çoker, Pierre Alechinsky, Abdurrahman Öztoprak, Erol Akyavaş, Burhan Doğançay, Yüksel Arslan, Fethi Arda, Valerio Adami, Roland Topor, Mehmet Güleryüz, Komet, Utku Varlık, Seyhun Topuz, Ergin İnan, Mustafa Ata, Hayati Misman, Birol Kutadgu, Gülsün Karamustafa, Osman Dinç, Selim Cebeci, Nurcan Giz, Kemal Önsoy, Canan Tolon, İnci Eviner, Bedri Baykam, Mithat Şen, Lale Tara, Kemal Seyhan, Ekrem Yalçındağ, Günnur Özsoy, F. Murat İrtem, Levent Morgök, Haluk Akakçe, Murat Akagündüz, Esin Turan, Ebru Döşekçi, Necla Rüzgar, Mehtap Baydu, Evren Tekinoktay, Şevket Arık, Onur Gülfidan, Ebru Uygun, Erdal Duman, Mehmet Ali Uysal, Ali Elmacı, Seçkin Pirim, Burcu Perçin, Ümmühan Yörük, Ercan Akın, Barış Sarıbaş, Gülşah Bayraktar, Osman Kerkütlü, Gözde İlkin, Yavuz Ayhan, Fırat Engin, Mustafa Elmas, Tunca Subaşı, Erdal İnci, Eda Gecikmez, Elif Tutka, Servet Cihangiroğlu, Ali Şentürk, Mustafa Karasu, Şerif Karasu, Zeynep Kayan, Hüseyin Arıcı, Asya Tok, Ender Özer.

Atatürk University Fine Arts Faculty Museum Opened in 2016 in Erzurum, Atatürk University Fine Arts Faculty Museum, is an important example of offcentered art museums. Another important feature of the museum is that it is within the body of a fine arts faculty.

Especially recently, although there are numerous fine arts faculties in many universities opening up in each town in Turkey, there are not any art museums nor galleries let alone universities having museums in them. The seeingwatching step as the most important step in art training is therefore skipped.

In this context, it is useful to remember Eskişehir Anadolu University’s Contemporary Arts Museum opened in 2001 following a long and challenging process.

Again in 1979, Gazi University Painting and Sculpture Museum opened with the name of Ismail Hakkı Tonguç Museum, is crucial in being the first art museum in Ankara. Trakya University İlhan Koman Painting and Sculpture Museum situated in the station premise in Edirne is another important museum under this title.

If we make a list of all the universities with a fine arts faculty yet no art museum or gallery in the city where it

is situated, we end up with a long, and sad list. The once closed, never open again state of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Painting and Sculpture Museum is another sad case.

Returning back to Atatürk University, it is really the most comprehensive museum following Baksı Museum, opened after great efforts by Hüsamettin Koçan in 2010 in Bayburt. There are about 250 artists’ 250 works in the museum. The first seeds of the museum with 2500 sqm of exhibition space were spread with the First Step into the Museum exhibition 11 years ago. As a result of the efforts in the last two years, the artists donated all of the works in the inventory of the museum opened in 2016.

National and international works from paintings, to sculptures, ceramics, photographs, caricature, traditional Turkish arts, installations, and video-art, are exhibited in the museum. Atatürk University Fine Arts Faculty Museum is also significant in that it comprises different disciplines together in its scope. Applied and theoretical activities are organized mainly for primary and middle school students, yet also open for everyone.

Works of Burhan Doğançay, Adil Doğançay, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Şadan Bezeyiş, Adnan Çoker, Adnan Turani, Süleyman Saim Tekcan, Devrim Erbil, Tülin Onat, Hüsamettin Koçan, Bünyamin Özgültekin, Erdinç Bakla, Adem Genç, Bubi Hayon, Ekrem Kahraman, Yusuf Taktak, Devabil Kara, Muhittin Köroğlu, Turhan Selçuk, Semih Balcıoğlu, Aşkın Ayrancıoğlu, Oğuz Gürel, Eray Özbek, Musa Gümüş, Barbaros Gürsel, İbrahim Zaman, İzzet Keribar, Saygun Dura, Emre İkizler, Sıtkı Fırat, Nihal Kafalı, Yusuf Murat Şen, Tuna Uysal, Gürbüz Doğan Ekşioğlu can be seen in the museum.

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Upcoming

MUSEUMS

Ender Güzey Museum ARThill Ender Güzey Museum “ARThill” was built on the slope Through these techniques, and wording I bring my vision of the Karya road passing through Alazeytin, Bodrum ‘alive’, turn it into ‘life’. in order to share the artist’s 45-years of experience and You also designed the architecture of the museum, and recently opened its doors. Echoing Güzey’s holistic were especially careful for eco-friendliness. approach of art with his extraordinary design, exhibition Yes this is fully my design. The building is 450 sqm in hall, workshop, and sculptor park, ARThill is at the same total and it is an environmentally responsible design, time an environmentally friendly structure leaning against getting its energy from the sun and the wind. We gather the a hillside surrounded by the forest. We spoke to Ender rainwater in a tank and get our daily water from there. This Güzey about the story of the museum, which can be visited on appointment.

How did you decide to open a museum in Bodrum? Is this a personal initiative or were you supported by other institutions?

First, I’d like to state that ARThill is my personal initiative and I have financed it all by myself. I have not taken any support from anyone for this project. I am an independent artist realizing my vision.

For 45 years, I have preserved my freedom, stood up despite all challenges, and performed my art without compromise. If you are truly devoted to art, if you believe that the foundation for life and civilization is culture, your preference will also be accordingly. If you believe that material things and money will make you happy, your preference, your investment will also be accordingly. Whatever I did so far, I ENDER GÜZEY MÜZESİ “ART”HILL achieved it by myself.

Ender Güzey Museum “ARThill” reflects the German eco-friendly building leaning on the hillside surrounded holistic sense of art called Gesamthunstwerk. Can you with the forest, providing its energy from Bodrum’s sun. tell us more?

It is as important to sustain a museum, as it is to open Yes, Gesamtkunstwerk is the right concept that reflects my one. What are your plans for the sustainability of the art. I express mself through inter-disciplinary techniques; museum?

I use various materials such as oil, watercolor, sand, plants, I am planning some workshop and seminar programs earth, bronze, wood, fire, sound, and movement. There are for master’s students through collaborations with certain dancers, musicians, and actors present in my performances. universities. This will also address students abroad. We

Seka Paper Museum

FIRST LOCAL PAPER PRODUCTION IN SEKA, 1936

Established by Turkey’s first paper engineer Mehmet Ali Kağıtçı, the historical SEKA Paper Museum is one of the noteworthy structures in Turkey.

could also plan creative activities for managers, and others who are willing to participate. I also want to host significant collectors’ exhibitions. I am also planning to host Art&Dinner events for small groups, where we can talk art around a gourmet table in the exhibition space.

Apart from exhibiting works in a museum, you are also planning to bring to life an important program like museum pedagogy. What you tell us about it?

The most important thing is to support kids’ creativity, to encourage them without breaking their endless dreams, and providing them with opportunities. I am thankful that the science of pedagogy for kids has recently drastically improved.

Yet our education system didn’t evolve in parallel to this, instead nearly all art classes have been removed. An uncultivated generation was raised, away from art.

The harms this will do to our country are already apparent. The society tries to solve its problems with violence. On the other hand a humanist society that is nested with culture, and art would be much more tolerant, honest and self-respecting.

Your workshop is with the museum estate. Can we call it a living museum in this sense?

Yes, therefore ARThill and its surrounding goes under constant change, development; and it will. This is sort of a metamorphose… New works have already started appearing in the land. My latest works called Birds series that I made out of wooden plow. The slate stone in the area, and the red earth in this region are also excellent materials for me. The Kayra road in front of me, the Goddesses’ Passage, and the Syangela hill across which was the first home of the Leleges. Anyone who comes here is fascinated.

Established by Turkey’s first paper engineer Mehmet Ali Kağıtçı, the historical SEKA Paper Museum is one of the noteworthy structures brought to life in 2016, standing as the only paper museum in Turkey, and the biggest in the world. İzmit Paper Factory was founded in the years where young Turkish Republic’s factories had started to be established one after the other. The paper demand that was initially supplied by imports of basic materials that were locally processed was later met with the efforts in the foundation of paper industry of Mehmet Ali Kağıtçı, who had graduated from Grenoble University in France as paper engineer. The foundation of İzmit Sümerbank Cellulose and Paper Factory was laid on the 14th of August 1934 by the term Prime Minister İsmet İnönü. The factory’s manager Mehmet Ali Kağıtçı, later undertook the foundation efforts for the paper factory which opened its doors in 1936. The factory that was later transformed into a joint stock company, as part of privatization in 1998 was later shut down in 2005 when it merged into Sümer Holding.

Following the shut down of the İzmit Paper Factory, the expected decision for the rebirth of the building was taken in 2005.

The factory became a science and learning center today thanks to an industrial transformation project by Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality. Following the Kocaeli Science Center, Seka was therefore born again 80 years after its shut down. Founded on a 12 thousand 345 sqm land, and consisted of 19 halls, the museum exhibits the foundation story of the factory as well as the story of paper that was spread from Kocaeli to the whole of Turkey through video screenings. All equipment and machines, which were used for paper production, carrying the SEKA soul, were preserved in their original state. In order to reflect on the past the way it was, five printing machines went through maintenance and repair. The most important of the preserved machines is the paper machine no.2 belonging to the Seka 1st Paper Factory opened in 1936. This machine has continued to work since the foundation of the factory for 70 years.

Devrim Erbil Contemporary arts museum Bodrum

DEVRİM ERBİL MUSEUM PROJECT

Devrim Erbil is a man of art who dedicated his 80-years of life to art and to its spread to wider masses. It is not surprising to find his long and challenging art adventure behind his decision to open a contemporary arts museum in Bodrum to protect his work.

Student to Halil Dikmen and Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu at the Istanbul State Academiy of Fine Arts where he was accepted in 1955, Devrim Erbil founded the group Impressionists 7 with his friends upon completion of his degree in 1959. In 1962, he joined the academy as assistant. He was hired at the studios of Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Cemal Tollu and Cevat Dereli. When he founded Mavi Grup (Blue Group) in 1963, with Altan Gürman, Adnan Çoker, Sarkis and Tülay Tura, he continued his research that he started in Madrid and in Barcelona, in Paris and in London as well. Acting as the Head of the Contemporary Artists Association in Turkey and of Visual Arts Association, and the Director of Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum, he took his professorship in 1981. In 1991, he was honored with State Artist title. In 2002, Balıkesir Municipality opened a personal museum entitled Devrim Erbil Contemporary Arts Museum. In 2004, he retired from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. The artist acts as the Dean of Arts and Design Faculty at Doğuş University and continues his teaching position there.

He celebrated his 50th year in the Academy, with an exhibition entitled “50 Years at the Academy” in 2015 at the Tophane-i Amire. Planning to celebrate his 80th birthday with many exhibitions and events, he has already completed his preparations.

The artist who is not only working on canvas, uses other authentic techniques such as gravures, serigraphy, leaded glass, ceramics, marquetry, colored acrylic glass which bring new dimensions to the concepts of light and movement, and carpet designs which bring to life his drawings in order to share his art works with wider masses.

Acting in a way as a record of Art in Turkey, the artist’s priceless archive was put under record by Salt. Here’s what Erbil told about the archiving process of Salt: “I met with art, artists, and different generations thanks to

the art events at the Academy and other associations, and the Osman Hamdi Awards. In the 1980’s, there used to be art festivals at the Academy. We organized the first of such art fairs. We opened the Galleries’ Exhibition at the Atatürk Culture Center in 1983, and around 25 galleries from Istanbul participated to the exhibition. So that was the start of the fairs as we know them today. I took active roles in all events of the Academy in the 1970’s and the 1980’s, and I ended up with a very comprehensive archive.

Recently Vasıf Kortun and his team came to me and told me that they saw my name appearing everywhere when they looked at art events in the 70’s and the 80’s. Now they will take my archive for two years and record it. I don’t have just my artist identity. I was an academic, a painter, a museum professional… but also someone who was involved in artists’ associations and culture events.

These were not easy to accomplish and I took all of them very seriously.”

Acting as the Director of Painting and Sculptor Museum between 1979-1982, Devrim Erbil’s experience in museology is also noteworthy. Talking about his years at the museum, he says: “I was very excited when I got appointed as a Director to the museum in 1979. I always identify myself with the museum seen we are the same age. The museum was opened on 20 September 1937 and I was born 16 September 1937. 4 days ago. I am also a very sincere admirer of Atatürk. I feel profoundly for his value to Turkey, find his principles, his revolution, his contemporaneity to be very significant for Turkey’s current position in the world. I knew I was going to perform a sacred work when I was the director of the museum yet it was a closed museum. We worked hard for the museum to open. 1600 people were visiting the Painting and Sculpture Museum when I was the director. I was hungry and I made it a museum that could be visited.

I founded the museum’s association, where workshops were held. We were working continuously to improve and spread art in the society.”

It is no doubt that following on his experience with the Painting and Sculpture Museum which he gave life after the 1980 coup, the museum he will open in Bodrum will be of great success. Devrim Erbil’s Paintings Which

Imagine of their Museum exhibition on August 2016 in Bodrum, exhibited his works that were donated by the Devrim Erbil Art Education and Culture Foundation.

That exhibition was a direct sneak preview of the Devrim Erbil Contemporary Arts Museum to be opened in Bodrum. About the museum he has been dreaming of for years, he says: “To open a museum is a very serious business. Private and public museums are two completely different domains. The situation of my painting teacher at high school taught me a lot. Adnan Turani had taken painting classes from him and in a book he wanted spare some space for Sırrı Özbay’s works, yet we couldn’t even find one work. He didn’t have any inheritors, thus his work had disappeared. I didn’t want my works to be torn apart. I want to exhibit my works from different periods that I will select myself. Sometimes I buy back certain paintings, which I think represent that period well. I want it to be a place that I will shape, and that my foundation will have an eye on. I donated these works to my foundation. Museums are the best places to preserve my works, and I want to make this dream come true while I am alive. Mayor of Bodrum asked me “Isn’t Beyoğlu the center for art?” Yes but I don’t have a budget like the banks do to open a museum in Beyoğlu. I only paint, and that is how I finance this. In the west, municipalities make museums for certain artists, but not here. I would of course like to open a museum in Istanbul, but the necessary conditions were not met until today.

The museum will be open on my private property in Bodrum, I will build it, I will manage it. Bodrum Municipality liked the idea as well. The fact that I moved to Bodrum will certainly contribute to Bodrum’s art scene. We are organizing Orange Blossom Art Events in Bodrum, and other exhibitions. Artists need to think about the future of their works like their children’s. If you value your works, you protect them. The works of art have a life as much as the artist does. “ The museum that will be situated in Erbil’s 5500 sqm land full of mandarin gardens is designed by the architect Prof. Mustafa Demirkan. Sitting on a 350 sqm base, the two-storey building is planned to be extended with additions onto existing structures.

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MUSEUMS

Vehbi Koç Foundation Contemporary Art Museum

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İstanbul Painting and sculpture museum

VEHBİ KOÇ FOUNDATION CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM PROJECT, GRIMSHAW ARCHITECTS

VEHBİ KOÇ FOUNDATION CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM PROJECT, GRIMSHAW ARCHITECTS

A contemporary art museum that would become both the focus of cultural activities, and an education and quality time hub is amongst Vehbi Koç foundation and Ömer Koç’s most important art projects. The museum that will be established in Dolapdere, will be the home of Vehbi Koç Foundation Contemporary Art Collection as well as periodic contemporary art exhibitions throughout the year. Just the name of the museum attracted the attention to the district.

ARTER, opened in May 2010, that served as a preparation, research and lab space for the contemporary art museum complex that the Vehbi Koç Foundation wanted to establish, brought world-leading contemporary artists’ works to the view of art lovers in Istanbul. The exhibitions organized by ARTER until today, majorly contributed to the art scene in Turkey. It is no doubt that Vehbi Koç Foundation’s success in this art space will be carried

forward with the Vehbi Koç Foundation Contemporary Art Museum planned to opend its doors this year. Melih Fereli, Vehbi Koç Foundation Culture and Arts Advisor, is the founding director of the contemporary art museum, while Emre Baykal is the head of the curatorial team.

Vehbi Koç Foundation added a new dimension to its activities in arts with its contemporary art collection. The works in the collection that started in 2007, involving over 1000 art pieces, have started already started being borrowed by art institutions worldwide and exhibited in different locations across the world.

The 20 thousand-sqm construction space building will include temporary and permanent exhibition halls, a sculpture terrace, performance spaces, interactive dialogue centers, conference/meeting/activity halls, a library, a conservation laboratory, depots, an art bookshop and a food&beverage space. The design of the museum

Grimshaw Architects Grimshaw Architects is an architecture firm from London.

Founded by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw in 1980, it is known as one of the pioneers of high technology architecture. They are mostly known for their Bijlmer Arena Train Station in Amsterdam, Waterloo International Train Station, and the award-winning (Royal Institute of British Architects Lubetkin Prize) Southern Cross train station. They have offices in London, Melbourne, Sydney, and New York. We observe the following statement on Grimshaw Architects’ website (grimshaw.global) about VKF Contemporary Art Museum. The new museum was planned to deliver the ever-growing Vehbi Koç Collection to the widest range of viewers as possible, and to exhibit these works on a national, regional and international level. For the museum, situated in one of Istanbul’s most lively neighborhoods, Grimshaw Architects designed a building that is an extension of this lively public space, where the limits between the interior and the exterior become blurred, and the passing pedestrians will be drawn inside by the gravity of the spaces enriched with activities. In addition, the company is quite assertive that the museum designed with inspiration from the traditional Ottoman architecture’s mosaic tile (çini) forms will become an iconic building for the city.

Thornton Thomasetti, Max Fordham, Neill Woodger Acoustics, and lighting specialist Jason Bruges are involved in the multidisciplinary museum project team that aims to create a civil symbol building, an attraction spot for visitors, a space to study and work, as well as a space that can conserve the works, preserve and restore them.

was undertaken by Grimshaw Architects (UK) selected from amongst local and international architects who participated to an invited competition, while Turgut Alaton Architecture will undertake the application project.

We can get little hints about the museum from Ömer Koç’s interview with Catherin Milner from the Financial Times’ Collecting supplement on 8 March 2013. The museum, with a budget of 50 million euros, will be hosting works of contemporary artists from Turkey and around the world. We have yet to use our imagination or wait for the opening of the museum in order to guess the artists that will be represented by the museum, the project of which is led by Ömer Koç, whose name comes first on the list of contemporary art collectors.

Ömer Koç Currently Chairman of the Board of Koç Holdings Company, and VKF member of the Board, Ömer Koç also has a private art collection. Owning the greatest collection of books on Ottoman history, Koç collects books since the 1980’s. His collection of major books written in Western languages includes itineraries, and books on general history, and impressions. The oldest book is from 1493. Ömer Koç enriched his collection on the Ottoman Empire with autograph files, photographs, drawings, watercolors, and paintings.

He also has a collection that includes furniture from the 20th century, İznik tiles, 18th and 19th century Kütahya tiles, and significant contemporary works from Turkey and around the world. Works of French artists that came to Istanbul in the 18th century such as Melling, Castellan, Preaulx, Cassas and Hilair as well as works of 19th century masters such as Fausto Zonaro, Amadeo Preziosi, Frederick Lewis, Edward Lear, Sir Frank Brangwyn, Georg Emanuel Opiz, Antoine de Favray are also in his collection. One of his collections’ features is that they are brought together in a very systematic, neat, and elaborate way.

İSTANBUL PAINTING AND SCULPTURE MUSEUM FACADE DETAİL, EAA

Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum has always been on the agenda since its foundation. Once open, then shut down.

In the collection of the museum that is the memory, and the modern and contemporary face of our art history, there are paintings, sculptures, authentic print works from different civilizations and different periods in time, as well as private collections that were donated to the museum. According to the 2005 inventory, there are 3977 paintings, 672 sculptures, 80 calligraphies, and 107 ceramics pieces in the collection. In addition to the works of 18th and 19th century Western artists, works of our contemporaries such as Bonnard, Deraini, Levy, Matisse, Picasso, Utrillo also make part of the collection. On the contrary, around 5000 works of art are waiting in depots. Once told to be open in 2015, the museum is still not open and we don’t know when it will be. We asked the director of the museum, also Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Rector Yalçın Karayağız to confirm the opening date, yet we didn’t get any reply back.

If we recall the evolution of the museum, I think years of shut down are more than active years. The museum that started service on the Heir’s Room of the Dolmabahçe Palace by the order of Atatürk in 1937, remained shut between 1939-1945 due to the 2nd World War. It remained closed between 1976-1979 due to fire danger and neglect. In 1979 it reopened its doors due to great efforts by Devrim Erbil and Tomur Atagök. The museum that has been used as Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum for years, was closed down again in 2007 due to lack to resources for the renovation of the building. In 2009, an exhibition called The

Exhibition of the Exhibition was organized in the renovated section. This exhibition was a symbolic repetition of the opening exhibition in 1937.

The University was then given a new building and the Heir’s Room was passed onto the National Palaces. The Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Painting Sculpture Museum collection was then planned to move to the warehouse Antrepo No.5 in Fındıklı where construction for a contemporary museum still continues.

National Palaces Painting Museum was founded in the Heir’s Room, while the temporary halls of the new museum building designed by Emre Arolat housed an exhibition in 2014 entitled “From Elvah-ı Nakşiye to Today A Selection from the MSFAU Painting and Sculpture Museum Collection” It then relapsed into silence.

The year is now 2017… the museum building consisting of 22.000 sqm, 11.000 sqm of exhibition and storage space of which 7000 is closed, a cinema, a library, and multifunctional halls, where a permanent collection of 1100 works will be exhibited, is still under construction.

İSTANBUL PAINTING AND SCULPTURE MUSEUM NIGHT VIEW, EAA

Architectural details: This project can be considered to be a major move in that this vast space in the heart of the city that cannot be entered in, will be open to the public. The museum is planned to house over 8000 works of art among which are modern Turkish painting’s significant examples from late Ottoman era until today. The concrete grid revealed on the façades of all the warehouses is undoubtedly the strongest image in urban memory in relation to these buildings. The meaning of the grid for the architect of the building, Sedad Hakkı Eldem, should be consolidated with a reference to carcass, which he perceives as the founding element of Turkish architecture. The main motivation was to sustain this grid structure that holds a strong position in urban memory, and to reinterpret it in order to incorporate new functions in it. In this context, the concrete load-bearing system was preserved the way it was, and by the removal of the walls and the flooring, they ended up with a three dimensional structural grid where the new ‘containers’ of the museum can be installed in. Containers were connected to each other with ramps and bridges; hence a circulating route has been created. The transparent façade surrounding the structure allowed for visitors to come face to face with a beautiful Istanbul view when moving from one room to another.

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MUSEUMS

İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality museums In November 2016, during Contemporary Istanbul contemporary art fair, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) announced that it would open nine new museums, and exhibited the models for these museums. We contacted the press agentry of IMM after much effort on our part in order to ask questions about the projects. Some were responded to, some were left unanswered.

For instance, first it was announced during Contemporary Istanbul that nine new museums would be opened yet later General Manager of IMM Culture Co. revealed during a press conference that the number went up to 16. Now we here the number went up to 19.

Yet we couldn’t get a clear answer from IMM about this riddle. What will be the criteria for selection for the people that will be hired in these museums? Will there be tests? No answer to that either. Or nothing so far about their opening dates. We were just told that “the Municipality will inform the public in the following days”. About the question as to whom would be in the artistic teams that would manage the museums, we get the following answer: “We are working to create advisory and scientific boards for each musum”. We

SUFISM MUSEUM Location: Golden Horn Feshane Total Construction Site: 8.000 sqm Concept: To make the tasawwuf culture and philosophy known.

Statement: Feshane is an industrial structure, by the Golden Horn in Istanbul, built on 56.000 sqm land, in order to produce fez and haircloth for the army in 1836 by Sultan Mahmud the 2nd. Serving as a congress and fair center until recently, the historical site supported by the green space, and the private pier opening up to the Golden Horn, is today renovated by IMM, and prepares to bring a new soul to Istanbul’s culture and art scene. The Sufism Museum Museum projected in this space aims to introduce the past, enlighten today, and shed light on the future. The purpose of the museum is to introduce the tasawwuf culture, philosophy, and the system to the visitors with both the mundane and the spiritual sides. In this context, the aim is transform Feshane into an international attraction zone by transforming it into a Sufism Museum by using contemporary museology techniques.

YENİKAPI ARCHEOLOGY MUSEUM Location: Yenikapı Total Construction Site: 32.500 sqm Concept: To exhibit the archeological pieces found during the Yenikapı excavations.

Statement: Istanbul presents us a multi-dimensional, multi-cultural structure with its established history, and colorful daily life. Yenikapı Archeology Museum is designed as an inspiring complex exhibiting the archeological remains of the past while creating new dreams for the future.

know from Barika Göcü-Aydemir Hatipoğlu’s book written in 1991, entitled “Greater İstanbul Municipality Painting Collection” that IMM owns a very substantial art collection. Will these collection works told to be exhibited in the Atatürk Library, shown in these new museums, or will new works be purchased? About this question, IMM press agentry says: “All of the inventory belonging to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality will be evaluated in the mentioned projects.”

Nonetheless there are some statements on Culture Co.’s website (kultur.istanbul/homepage) about the museums. During the press conference, Nevzat Kütük stated that 16 new museums will be opened in Istanbul, cultural activities will be organized at the Theodosius Cistern that will open for visit, Tekfur Palace will turn into a Çini (Tile) Museum, Prisons of Anemas into a Middle Age Torture Museum, Feshane into a Tasawwuf Museum, and that works for Miniaworld, a Traditional Arts Museum and Workshop, a City Museum, a Science and Technology Museum and a Hand Crafts Museum are under way. IMM press agentry also shared names of the nine museums: Istanbul City Museum, Tekfur Palace Çini Museum, Kadıköy Gazhane Energy

DOCKYARD OF GOLDEN HORN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MUSEUM

Odunpazarı Modern Museum

Museum, Yenikapı Archeology Museum, Tasawwuf Museum, Prisons of Anemas Torture Museum, Dockyard of Golden Horn Science and Technology Museum, Modern Arts Museum, and Martyrs of 15 July Museum.

When asked about which architecture firms will be designing the museums, we only received answers for the following five: Istanbul City Museum – Salon Architecture / Alper Derinboğaz; Tekfur Palace Çini Museum - Guicciardini&Magni Architetti_Studio Associato / Anıl Mimarlık; Kadıköy Gazhane Energy Museum - Tasarımhane İstanbul; Yenikapı Archeology Museum - Eisenman Architects / Aytaç Architecture and finally Sufism Museum – Tasarımhane Istanbul.

PRISONS OF ANEMAS TORTURE MUSEUM

PRISONS OF ANEMAS TORTURE MUSEUM Location: Fatih Total Construction space: 1.200 sqm Concept: To exhibit historical torture equipment Statement: It is planned to exhibit physical or mental punishment techniques and equipment used to punish or force the prisoners to confess.

MARTYRS OF 15 JULY MUSEUM Statement: It is planned in memory of the 241 martyrs who have shown great courage to protect the unity and solidarity of our country against the traitor.

Founder of Polimeks, Erol Tabanca is also one of the leading at collectors in Turkey. Today, he and his team are carrying out heavy efforts for the modern and contemporary arts museum that they will open in Eskişehir: Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM).

There are numerous museums in Eskişehir, now known as an art town in Anatolia, thanks to the contributions of the Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Yılmaz Büyükerşen. The Municipality also supported the foundation of the museum by allocating the land for the project. It is also important to note that this is how Tabanca, who was born in Eskişehir, pays back his love to his hometown by undertaking such a beautiful project.

The Erol Tabanca Collection, is a wide collection including works from different periods, and from Erol Tabanca’s niche areas of interest, also brought together with certain projects in mind. Yet the museum will not be hosting the whole of the collection. They are still working on the selection of pieces that are suitable for

İSTANBUL CITY MUSEUM

Location: Golden Horn Total Construction Site: 13.399 sqm Concept: The reorganization of the Dockyard of Golden Horn as a science and technology museum Statement: The plan is to transform the Dockyards of Golden Horn, namely Golden Horn, Camialtı, Taşkızak dockyards, built in 1455 by Mehmet the Conqueror, then called Tersane-i Amire, into a science and technology museum.

KADIKÖY GAZHANE ENERGY MUSEUM Location: Kadıköy Total Construction Site: 1.600 sqm Concept: To give the Hasanpaşa air gas plant, as an industrial heritage, the function of shedding light on the past of the plant and the region changing form over the years, and transferring the information onto the next generations.

Statement: Given the function of a public space, Hasanpaşa air gas plant and the buildings will encompass the energy museum. By transforming these structures that are 19th century’s rare industrial heritage into a museum, the new space will shed light on the industrial history of a certain period, and the architecture, as well as provide a new function via contemporary museology techniques by giving a new soul to these technologically idle space.

MODERN ARTS MUSEUM Statement: Modern arts museum planned to exhibit the modern and contemporary works of art registered under the inventory of IMM.

TEKFUR PALACE ÇİNİ MÜZESİ

İSTANBUL CITY MUSEUM Location: Topkapı City Park Total Construction Area: 38 thousand sqm Concept: To tell the story of Istanbul starting 8.500 years ago and exhibit its anatomy.

Statement: The city museum that tackles all the stages that Istanbul went throughout history, is not just an inventory exhibition space, yet a living space that contributes to the city with permanent exhibition halls, comprehensive conservation and restoration laboratories, museum library, kids’ workshops and spectacle hall, and temporary exhibition halls.

ODUNPAZARI MODERN MUSEUM, POLİMEKS

TEKFUR PALACE ÇİNİ MUSEUM Location: Fatih Total Construction Site: 1.450 sqm Concept: The story of Tekfur Palace and the exhibition of the çini in Tekfur Palace Statement: It is planned to exhibit a narrative on çini production, that is very significant in Ottoman art from the 16th century to the 18th century, reflecting the history of the city from the Roman Empire to the Ottoman Empire, an then to today.

the structure of the museum. Defne Casaretto, Polimeks Art Coordinator, underlines that the museum will be a modern and contemporary arts museum: “Therefore, this will determine the scope of our museum. We would like to follow a chronology that will reflect modern and contemporary Turkish art. In the collection that starts with modern works and includes contemporary pieces, we also wanted to focus on the works of young artists.

Yet art from Turkey is the center of the collection.” The museum is planned to open its doors on Autumn 2018.

Japonese architectures Kengo Kuma said that for the 3.300 squaremeter of space for the museum they will use materials only as wood, stone and paper that will respect the buildings environment.

Demsa Collection It has long been known in the art scene that two of the most important collectors of Turkey, Demet Sabancı Çetindoğan and Cengiz Çetindoğan will be opening a museum on the Golden Horn. Yet the construction of the museum hasn’t even started. It is no doubt that the Demsa Collection Museum, the architecture plans of which were prepared by Zaha Hadid, will be a great value to the Istanbul culture and tourism. It is worth noting that around 4000 paintings and many Islamic works are in Demsa Collection. We hope the museum will be active as soon as possible, and art lovers will have a chance to see these significant works of art.

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Pelin Kırca | Artist and designer

Artist and...

How is it possible for the artist to choose this identity while it is possible to cram in more than one?

Hunting down the positive answer, we spoke to artists who have successfully adapted versatility in their lives, and who have other professions or occupations, about how they ensure this stability and the reasons why.

Gözde Ulusoy Photo: Elif Kahveci

Who were you when you started you career?

Upon completion of a Design masters in New York, I happened to meet writer Illya Szilak. I was commissioned to produce a short animation film based on a book she wrote entitled Reconstructing Mayakovsky, hence I had my first professional animation work done.

Later, this short animation was shown during film festivals and it drew major attention. So I enjoyed taking on further freelance works. I never wanted a desk job, stuck in between hours, where I missed the day and couldn’t get to live the city. I always prioritized living and sparing time for my own production.

How did it come along later? How did this versatile career evolve?

When I decided to move to Istanbul, I knew I was going to teach animation classes at Kadir Has University. At the same time, I started to work at Rafineri advertising agency, and continued to do so for three years. Today we continue to cooperate on some projects, although very rarely. Art has always been there, I always had things to say. This is meaningful for me: to be able to do what I really want to do at my own pace and liberty. I always made art for myself, therefore I always spared part-time.

Is showing presence in more than one domain, instead of determining a single focal point a choice? Or is it a necessity?

A choice and a necessity, maybe it would be better to call it a preference. By doing other things along with art, you kind of buy your way into freedom. To have financial expectations when performing art leads you to miss the joy of being at the exhibition or fair space or the happiness of exhibiting your works. Obviously, I respect those who exist solely with their artist identity, and sustain this successfully. My personal preference is

on the other direction. advertiser or an academician?

I feel freer that way, I think that doing different things I want to keep the nurture each other. Because the space I spare for art market is low these days, I receive cleaner, and I love very few orders yet I continue my other advertising teaching at the school. Observing or animation works how students change and evolve as well. This really in one semester gives me hope. nurtures me.

With the motivation I get from You are an artist of here, my reaction to problems Dirimart, you teach becomes working and producing design courses at even more. Özyeğin and Bilgi Which identity do you think University, you do supersedes when you are asked freelance illustration who is Pelin Kırca? and animation works.

In fact, selecting a title and Do you have a working stating I am this person is where plan? my challenge is. In today’s world I started to work with everyone does everything. In the Dirimart in 2015 with wholeness of this versatility you the In Bloom exhibition. become one person.

Later I joined the Who would you name as an artist group exhibition The who also has another profession Conference of the Birds or occupation that you find to be at Ariel Sanat. In fact, an interesting one? my short animation A comic book entitled Legend of PELİN KIRCA, IN BLOOM, WATER PAINT, 100X70 CM, 2015 shown there, called One Pavement was found in the chest of Moonless Night will be screened during !f festival as well. one of the bad guys in Turkish movies, Masist Gül, after On the other side I continues working on commissioned he passed away. This was very surprising and admirable works. Actually I wake up at 8AM every morning and to me. start working as if I go to the office. I continually produce my own art, while other works intervene.

What are the benefits to you of undertaking different occupations instead of just being an artist or just an

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C. Mehmet Kösemen | Artist and redactor

Kerem Ozan Bayraktar | Artist and plant grower

C. M. KÖSEMEN, JESTER, ACRILIC AND INK ON PAPER, 20X20 CM, 2015

KEREM OZAN BAYRAKTAR, ISLAND, 2013, COMPUTER ANIMATION, 1 MINUTE LOOP

Who were you when you started you career?

I have always been interested in painting and weird monsters. But my first profession for a living was advertising. “My professional career” started in 2008 at AlametiFarika advertising agency as an intern copywriter.

How did it come along later? How did this versatile career evolve?

In 2009 I had an offer from Benetton’s Colors magazine to work as an editor. I worked as part of the team of editors of Colors until 2011. In 2011, I returned back to Turkey, and started working for Medina-Turgul DDB advertising agency. I was in strategy and planning, and it lasted until the summer of 2013. After this period, I made some changes in my life, and sought a working order where I would have more time for myself against less pay and finally I found my first job as an English text redactor at AlametiFarika. Going to work everyday, and passing the day with colleagues makes me happier and more creative; and should I have something to do with my artistic work (like an exhibition) I can work from outside the office as well.

Is showing presence in more than one domain, instead of determining a single focal point a choice? Or is it a necessity?

Both a choice and a necessity. This habit of defining one’s existence with just one adjective, a painter, a writer, a designer, a banker, etc, like a tool, is very new and it is also very inhumane. Everyone exists in different domains in different stages of their lives.

What are the benefits to you of undertaking different occupations instead of just being an artist or just a redactor?

Everything I do supports each other. The experience I got in advertising led me to think project-based, to improve my communication skills, and to make very interesting friends.

You recently held solo exhibitions in Tel Aviv and Ankara. You are represented by Empire Project. Aren’t there times where everything is entangled with your job at the agency, and your works as a researcher? Do you have a working plan / a steady calendar?

I can handle it; I change gears in between a book, an

exhibition, and work, and use my time wisely. I don’t start working on one thing before I am done with the other.

Would your artist identity supersede when you are asked who is C. M. Kösemen? Or would you prefer this?

I have been known as an “artist” for the couple past years…

Yet abroad they also know me for the books I wrote on dinosaurs and on Converts of Thessaloniki.

Are there any artists you could name who also have professions or occupations that you find to be successful?

There are many, but they’re from ago. The fascinating painter Henri Rousseau was a customs official for a living; poet Constantine Cavafy was both a journalist and a state official. There are numerous talented artists in Turkey who also work in advertising agencies, or as subtitle translators.

The real works, to work, to stand on his/her own feet, makes the art we produce even more “real”.

Who were you when you started you career?

As an artist. My interest in plants wasn’t until college.

How did it come along later? How did this versatile career evolve?

I started a blog called agacsakal.com for leisure and started writing what I learned. Then the site suddenly turned into a work. Art has always been there. Although I approached the plants with an artistic sensitivity as well, the work always had an economic side to it or because it was leaning towards design, their relationships with my works were only indirect.

Is showing presence in more than one domain, instead of determining a single focal point a choice? Or is it a necessity?

I think I exaggerate a little in learning new things.

Everything I learned so far, either turned into a part of my artistic practice or turned into a freelance work. Plants are another example. I think most of the artists live this way. If you try to solely make a living from art in Turkey, it reduces the quality of your work, and it limits your experimentality.

Therefore you always end up doing other works. Another reason is I believe we should all have things we do solely for

ourselves. Art springs to life in the social context therefore it is not such a domain.

What are the benefits to you of undertaking different occupations instead of just being an artist or just a plant grower?

If I wasn’t involved in art, I think my approach to plants or anything else for that matter would be more straightforward. On the other hand, plants really changes the way I approach my work. For instance, in most of my works, especially in videos, there are closed and mechanic scenes. I started to become interested in ever-changing structures that we cannot control thanks to plants and it helped me in my self-critical approach. It is also significant in comprehending the difference between the nature and the produced objects.

You are represented by Pg Art Gallery. You also continue growing plants, and working on your blog.

How do you do your working plan? Do you have a certain order in your life?

Although our relationship with Pg Art still continues, we no more work together. I have been independent for a while. Apart from that, I have been working at the

university for the past two years. I have a busy working program but I am now used to it because it goes in a regular order. Still, the lack of time prevents me from undertaking a certain part of my projects. I have not been in a studio for a while now. I also wanted to open a tiny botanic and book shop but I don’t have time for it.

Do you think your artist identity supersedes when you are asked who is Kerem Ozan Bayraktar? Or would you prefer this?

Sometimes people start by saying “Oh, I know you!”. I automatically think they are from the art world but later I get surprised to learn that they are from the botanic world.

They don’t know I am into art. This is a strange feeling. It does create a funny conflict in you. For instance a friend of mine had registered me on his phone as “the flower boy” when we first met.

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Gözde Mimiko Türkkan | Artist and athlete

Cemre Yeşil | Artist, FiLBooks executer, academic

GÖZDE MİMİKO TÜRKKAN, FİGO-FLIGHT-FREEZE #23, 40X60 CM, 3 ED. 2013

Who were you when you started you career?

An artist. I chose to study in this domain because I wanted to produce more consciously and improve the skills I owned. Sports was always in my life but was just a hobby.

I have an interesting memory; When I was doing my masters at Central Saint Martins in London I had been 4-5 times at a pub for a year, while I was going to the Muay Thai training 4-5 times a week.

How did it come along later? How did this versatile career evolve?

The first milestone was a trip to Thailand in 2011 both for a photography series, and a Muay thai camp that lasted for 6 days a week, twice a day. At the end of this 2-month trip, I did my second solo show at x-ist in 2012 called Full Contact, and I obtained a more solid sports practice. While I had thought of producing Full Contact on the axis of “exchange between sexual services and western customers”, the experience of heavy training and my observations there led me to tackle the subject from a different angle. In the end the series were focused on “the two different forms of the use of male and female bodies with money as the exchange medium and space”, meaning I focused on those giving sexual services and those making a living from the fights and the bets. The greatest acquisition of this process was to realize how my artistic production would positively benefit from my sports practice.

Then there was period that followed when me and two other friends managed one of Istanbul’s first amateur groups of city runners called Istanbul Running Forces therefore I continued the habit of running in the city I had gained in Thailand. To define myself as someone with “double profession” was when I received a trainer certificate in 2013 from the Muay Thai Federation in Turkey, and a Crossfit Level 1 Trainer certificate in 2014. Since then I continue to give private Muay Thai classes. Also in the second half of the past year, I acted as the captain of the Adidas global runners team in Istanbul, later which I try to spend more time for our new foundation called BoMoVu (Network of Sport and Body Movement for Vulnerable Groups) that develops complimentary sports and body movement projects for vulnerable groups like refugees, women, children and the disabled.

Is showing presence in more than one domain, instead of determining a single focal point a choice? Or is it a necessity?

My artistic production is for me the most important medium that makes me who I am, that preserves my balance, that allows me to convey what’s cumulated in me to the outside, to make contact with the world, and

to investigate myself and the world. I am not sure at what point, what or how I would be without it. Yet I am restless inside, there are other things waiting to be balanced, and an important part of these find compensation in heavy physical activity. What motivates me most in this domain is to learn my limits, to push them and myself as much as possible. Physical activity is a field where action-reaction is fast observed and I think these cannot be obtained the way they are from artistic production. On the other side, I have since my childhood been inclined to have versatile interests, and to think that way. This is also reflected on my works. There are several subjects I like to think over, examine, and “see the bottom of ”, and by this means I have an artistic practice that has a consistent destination with regards to the subject, that treats the subject from a different perspective or with a different visual style every time.

You are an artist of the Empire Project, a professional athlete, and at the same time one of the founders of BoMoVu. Do you have a working plan?

I wished there was. I am mostly consistent in missing all the openings since I am mostly training in the evenings during the week. Joking aside, except for the times I am preparing for exhibitions, a great time of my day is spent by reading, researching, noting and developing ideas. This is crucial both for the daily routine of my artistic production, and for my contribution to the projects of our foundation where a majority work benevolently. The more our projects come to life, the more there are things to do digitally and on the field: For example running the Voluntary Athlete program that we developed for the kids that Sulukule Voluntaries Foundation works with, designing the booklet of our Play for Peach project, to organize Lebanese Lina Khalifeh’s self defense workshop in Istanbul. As a team, we share the responsibility depending on each of our busy schedules.

What are the benefits to you of undertaking different occupations instead of just being an artist or just an athlete?

I need the physical activity in order to be balanced, peaceful and calm and to protect my self-confidence in life. You need to make a great effort to sustain this state during high tempo or on the opposite depressive times, to avoid procrastinating, and to make it a habit. In offset for this effort I obtain a satisfaction with predictable consequences, which I cannot have through a slippery, intangible field such as artistic production with no definite consequence or maybe even with no consequence at all.

Apart from that, I have always wanted to do something

that would bring social benefit in the long run, yet I didn’t know that I did not want to include this in my artistic production, thus in my works. I prefer my works to be “freer”, to make a more independent connection with the viewer. In this respect, to be able to use sports in a way to create a collective and social benefit is a great source of happiness for me.

Do you think your artist identity supersedes when you are asked who is Gözde Mimiko Türkkan? Or would you prefer this?

I cannot really examine how I am perceived but the way I put myself out alters according to the medium. It sometimes gets schizophrenic, but in general my friends or acquaintances from the art world are aware of my athlete/trainer side. Yet in the sports arena, I do not bring the other forward. One of the reasons for this is that for people in Turkey, except for those who are aware of this practice or scene, being an artist does not evoke anything, or makes confusing associations. They make you feel like it is impossible to sustain your life as an artist, like art can only be a hobby… I need to make many explanations or that is how I feel. Thinking back, I did not feel that way with the people I trained with in London. On the other hand, I try to put sports upfront on my social media accounts, especially on Instagram. More precisely, the content outside my artistic production that I produce and spread is heavily filled with sports.

Are there any artists you could name who also have professions or occupations that you find to be successful?

Right after having exhibited Full Contact, when I started being involved in running in 2012, my mom’s husband had brought me the French version of Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I am sure it has inspired many people interested in running after it was translated in Turkish, yet the biggest impact on me was to comprehend the necessity to routinize the production process by means of a consciously selected medium as an artist without a “boss” to answer to day by day, and involved in creative production like Murakami himself.

Murakami selected running as a medium, and wrote about its mostly positive impacts in the book. It is very important for someone who has a “main” job, doing sports like an athlete for his/her age, to turn it into a sort of obsession in order to keep it in the routine as well as to keep the limits.

While reading Murakami’s training routines giving him pain and pleasure allowing him to regularly run marathons and its impact on his writing, I realized many common points with me, and I decided to take benefit from sports in the same way as well.

CEMRE YEŞİL& MARIA STURM, KAFES VE ELLER #3, 2014, 30X40 CM, HAHNEMÜHLE PHOTORAG ARCHIVAL INKJET BASKI

Who were you when you started you career?

I studied photography at Bilgi University and then started my career as an artist when I was doing my masters in visual arts at Sabancı University. I wanted to be an artist yet I applied for a phD in London with the fears of “what if it doesn’t work”, “how do you survive financially as an artist”. In the meantime, when in college, I had taught photography classes as part of a civil society organization and I had realized how much I liked sharing. I thought I could work on that too. Going into academics was both a challenging and a pleasant option for me. I had teachers who also affected me when I was a student and their influence on who I am today is huge. That form of relationship, to touch upon someone’s life, to be a mentor, to talk about life over an area of interest have always been very interesting for me.

How did it come along later? How did you combine these two identities?

It always went together, and my interest has always been in art. I did my first solo exhibition along with my undergraduate project. When I started my phD in London, the space was opening up for my artist identity. I participated in numerous exhibitions, started working with Daire Gallery. Although I thought of the academy as a plan B, the dream of becoming an artist had also started going well.

Is showing presence in more than one domain, instead of determining a single focal point a choice? Or is it a necessity?

It actually went on by itself and it turned out to be a choice rather than a necessity. The university, the masters, and then the phD were in fact part of a journey where I wanted to keep myself within artistic production framed with the identity of being a student. FiLBooks is a dream come true.

FiL is like an independent photography bookshop and workshop; the coffee shop keeps us alive, and increases the visibility. Through workshops, talks, and meetings, we try to get people in contact with

no defined boundaries with photography and artists’ books. It is also a place that wants to stand by the students; if a student wants it, we open everywhere including the office for his/her use or a young artist can meet many people here to share his/her portfolio.

You are an artist of Daire Gallery. You are a part-time teacher at Bilgi and Koç University, you continue your phD in London and you manage FiLBooks. Do you have a certain working order?

I cannot say that I am a very tidy person but I am a hard worker. It sometimes becomes very stressful to be this split up and to try to catch up with everything.

When I started my phD I was living in London and I stayed in London for two years. I was teaching history of photography, contemporary photography, and portfolio development at Bilgi and during the summer I taught media and visual arts. I turned my phD into part-time; I go to London a couple of times per year to meet up with the teachers, participate to conferences and presentations from time to time. My phD program is called “Practice Based-Research”; meaning practice based theory.

What are the benefits to you of undertaking different occupations instead of just being an artist, FiLBooks executor, or an academic?

In fact, there is a loop that both supports and hinders each other. I am too divided but that is how my life has always been. For instance the independent workshops that we organize at FiLBooks improve my understanding on photography, or art training.

I observe the benefit of being in academia, and to sustain this in a more independent environment at FiLBooks, in the relationship I build with my students at college. This is very nurturing and instructing for me. Or when I was working on my book For Birds’ Sake, I really delayed my phD, and couldn’t move forward for a while. But on the other side, this project has been very instructive for me; it has been very visible abroad both as a book and an exhibition, it has been exhibited in many European

countries, it has been nominated for many awards.

Therefore it really improved me as an artist although it hindered my phD process. Yet for someone as impatient as me, to focus on a single project for 8 years in a phD program, is very challenging and focusing on other things for a while and then coming back is sometimes very useful.

When asked who is Cemre Yeşil, do you think your artist identity supersedes? Or would you prefer this?

What’s valuable for me is to create something, and to witness this work build a relationship with people.

My other identities are like different gardens around this structure of sharing. Therefore, although being an artist and a photographer are what define, I still see myself as someone trying to create a sharing medium over photography and art in all my other works. I realized that after the opening of FiL, I was introduced to people as “You know Cemre has a bookshop” and this worried me a little. I thought to myself “Am I now a bookshop owner”? Although it is an independent structure, opening a corporate space gives someone an identity. Still, like I said, everything is in relation with each other.

Are there any artists whom you take an example by, who at the same time have other professions or occupations?

Orhan Cem Çetin, who is also my teacher. He really had influence on me. He calls himself a photographer, etc. And he has very good reasons for it. He is a very successful translator, a teacher, and also a musician, an academician, a writer, a thinker; he does everything together. Sevim Sancaktar, Atakam, Ali Taptık are some other names that cross my mind.

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Göksu Gül | Artist and caricaturist

GÖKSU GÜL,“ PIG III”,ACRILIC ON PAPER, 28 x 25.6 CM, 2016

Who were you when you started you career?

To be honest, I am holding a pen in my hand ever since I have known myself. I have been painting until I learned to read and write, and when I started writing I started to put speech bubbles on the people I drew. In fact, they were never apart from each other. I started to draw them apart by force after I grew up, with influence from others’ ideas on art or caricature.

How did it come along later? How did you combine these two identities?

I have been drawing caricatures for a long time. I had a meaningless attitude towards the art world. We can say that these two identities came together when I wriggled myself out of these ideas in time.

Is showing presence in more than one domain – although they are relational in your case-, instead of determining a single focal point a choice? Or is it a necessity?

Like I said, I cannot feel like I show presence in different domains; there are many subtitles under drawing, I feel capable for many of them, but I chose happened to choose

these two. Here’s how we can separate the two situations: you would paint with a feeling, and someone who would share the feeling would come and really like the painting although s/he would not be familiar with your language.

Yet the mathematics of cartoons is a little different. You might need to express yourself with a common language, until you set your own tone.

What are the benefits to you of undertaking different occupations instead of just being an artist or just a caricaturist?

I have not idea. I cannot separate the two. Lately I have been critical of myself, telling myself to do the caricatures a little more like the paintings, and to me more sensitive.

I aim to fully integrate them together.

You rEcently participated to a group exhibition at x-ist with a sculğture called “Ugly”, you do common wall paintings with Murat Palta in different locations and you continue your weekly drawings for the magazine.

Aren’t there times where everything is entangled? Do you have a working plan?

Not really. There is an order I don’t get either. It is true

that some days I get very tired. Yet there are others when I don’t work at all. Yet I want to become someone who has completed works under her hand. “To raise” has not been a very peaceful concept lately.

And now when asked who is Göksu Gül, do you think one of your identities supersedes? Or would you prefer one?

In Turkey or abroad, when I am asked what I do, I tell them I am a painter, but at the same time I sculpt and draw cartoons. I think this will go on until the end of my life.

Are there any artists that you follow, like, find to be successful who at the same time have other professions or occupations?

Bora Başkan. He is both an artist and he teaches at universities Digital Illustration and Typography I believe.

To teach and to be an artist are two separate things really.

Yet Bora achieves both of them very successfully.

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An attempt to a dictionary on an explorer of an acoustic geography: Tanburi Cemil Bey Sami Kısaoğlu

It has been a century since Tanburi Cemil Bey passed away on Sinekli Bakkal Street, after which Halide Edib Adıvar’s unforgettable novel was named, in Fatih. If we try to describe him by means of text, spreading around some keywords that go hand in hand with his career may help grasp his genius. Known as a “wonder child” at the age of 12, an unrivaled say player at 18 and one of the great masters today, Cemil Bey brings forth many words, among them culture, talent, virtuosity, perfection and reform.

in dictionaries of music? Or would he be as popular as the great Catalan cellist Pablo Casals, three years his junior, in early 20th century music history though he was the first person to perform a recital in Turkish music history? Would the international music industry embrace him as much as it embraces Art Tatum, a magnificent talent in improvisation and prescient beyond his own age like Cemil Bey himself? Though for different reasons, wouldn’t Cemil Bey, who preferred recording to performing live, like the Canadian prodigy Glenn Gould, and becoming the most important recording star in the first decade of the twentieth century in the capital of the Empire, draw a bit more interest at least in the important circles in his home country within a lost world?

Couldn’t he be named a national hero, like Chopin, whom he admired and shared the cause of death with (tuberculosis) and have a few musical institutes and conservatories named after him? Couldn’t Cemil Bey, who reflected everything he heard, from opera to romanesque tunes and from melodies street vendors sing to the folk songs of Anatolia and Rumelia into his compositions with a unique aesthetic vigor, be embraced by the fist generation polyphonic composers of the early republic, like Bela Bartok, who conducted ethnomusicological research on Turkish folk songs in the early 1900s and shaping the music of the 20th century?

Though the details of the short life of 43

years of the great master resemble those of his Western counterparts, his significance in the global music scene is much more modest.

His story takes place in the 33 year reign of Abdulhamit II, which is the age of great virtuosos in Europe. But global success does not only have to do with timing, but with many more factors. The place one is born in, the genre of music that is performed, the society one lives in, the rulers of the country that issues your passport, a proper agent and many more. Unfortunately, in Cemil Bey’s story, who produced new thoughts by purifying his findings within tradition and influenced generations to come, the five terms above are not as valid as its Western counterparts.

Born in 1873 in a wooden house in the Molla Gürani District in Fatih, it has been over a century since Tanburi Cemil Bey passed away, in another wooden house on Sinekli Bakkal street on July 28, 1916, after which Halide Edib Adıvar’s unforgettable novel was named. Though commemorated within the last year with concerts, radio shows, series of recordings and writing, it is sad to see that the musician is still not embraced by the state, as was the case in his health. (1) Providing the music of the time with a different air with his compositions (2), teaching magnificent musicians such as Kadı Fuat Efendi and Refik Fersan, having the ability to play any instrument by spending little time on it, translating

musical theory books from French (3) and playing the tanbur in such a unique way that has surpassed all his precedents, Cemil Bey gives one the impression of an otherworldly character. If we try to describe him by means of text, spreading around some keywords that go hand in hand with his career may help grasp his genius. Known as a “wonder child” at the age of 12, an unrivaled say player at 18 and one of the great masters today, Cemil Bey brings forth many words, among them culture, talent, virtuosity, perfection and reform.

1 The book Tanburi Cemil Bey Kulliyati, prepared by Kalan Muzik and the book & album compilation Tanburi Cemil Bey Hazinesi by Kultur AS, the Municipality of Istanbul, both in 2016, were the most meaningful works about the artist. He was also commemorated via radio programs, while a symposium to his name between October 13-14, 2016 was held by Istanbul University and Sehir University.

TRT and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism remained silent about the 100th anniversary, while the State Conservatory in Afyon Kocatepe University prepared a documentary in his memory.

2 Cemil Bey, whose works in the maqams

Mahur, Nevâ, Isfahan, Ferah-fezâ, Hicazkâr, Kürdîli Hicazkâr and Muhayyer are deemed masterpieces, has helped enormously in the development of instrumental Classical Turkish Music.

Because of this reason, he is known as an instrumental composer. Apart from his instrumental work, he has composed 18 songs and a lullaby.

3 Cemil Bey translated musical theory books

by Lavignac, Decoudre, Fetis and Mamontel and wrote the book Rehber-i Musiki which is a comparative study examining the systemic differences between Western music and Classical Turkish Music.

ILLUSTRATION: HALE GÜNGÖR OPPENHEIMER

The evening sun of late winter quick escapes the living room. The snow covers the trees like the ouverture of a Wagner opera. When the record finishes its last tour on the gramophone and the needle automatically detaches itself from it, we get a brief moment of silence. While the silence quietly penetrates into the plants, books, furniture and other objects in the room, I feel the need to listen to the last song, Çeçen Kızı again. The song Tanburi Cemil Bey composed, with the influence of local melodies in the maqam of Hüseyni, surely utilizes one of the most famous melodies of the regions of the Middle East and the Mediterranean. I remember that there was a jazz-funk interpretation of this song, on which musicians love to improvise on with arrangements in both Eastern and Western modes, by Emin Fındıkoğlu.

When I turn over the record and fill the room with sounds, questions regarding Cemil Bey start to pop up in my head. In the manner of waves a stone makes when it is dropped in water, every moment that passes widens my circle of questions.

“What would be different in his life if he, as a performer, were born in Paris and not in Istanbul?”. Would Cemil Bey, exhibiting “wonder child” qualities at the age of 12, speaking French so well that he could translate From the Earth to the Moon from its original to Turkish, be mentioned as frequently as his peer Sergei Rachmaninov

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When we think of Cemil Bey and the word talent together, we must always remember his remarkable ability to self teach. Having learned and mastered many instruments by himself, Cemil Bey gained recognition among masters of the time beginning from his very early years. fundamentals of the classical school. His disconnection from traditions and schools in the instruments he played and his lack of a teacher or a mentor are among the interesting aspects of his talent, as well as stories such his being enamored by zurna at their first encounter in a wrestling competition in Yakacik, and learned to play it within a week.

TANBURİ CEMİL BEY’S NOTEBOOKS

A Portrait of Tanburi Cemil Bey in Five Chapters Culture One of the best words to open up the personality and thus the details of his music would be culture. The fourth child of Tevfik Bey, a high level state official and Zihniyar Hanım, nanny to Adile Sultan, the daughter of Mahmut II, and lavta player, Cemil Bey grew up in a multicultural environment both due to the age he was born in and his family. Living with his uncle after his father passed away when he was only three years old, Cemil Bey grew up in a house with three pianos and all the children are in musical training. This household, with Cemil Bey’s father speaking 6-7 languages along with other members who are also multilingual, and most playing at least one musical instrument and interested in fine arts, allowed him to grow up in an intellectual environment. In addition to these, most family members held positions abroad, which allowed Cemil Bey to experience the lifestyle of the West as well. All of this put together gave him the chance to include both Eastern and Western elements in his music, while allowing for some components that will affect his musicianship in the following years.

Talent Building a “glass harp” with glasses full of water in the basement and inventing another toy instrument by nailing elastic bands on wood in search of different sounds as a little child, Cemil Bey was to wow the whole empire with his music years later.

Declared a virtuoso in tanbur, classical kemençe, yaylı tanbur, rebab, cello and lavta while playing folk instruments such as tar, bağlama, divan sazı, bozuk, tanbura and zurna, Cemil Bey was also a player of kanun, the violin, alto kemençe, the viola, the clarinet and kemençe.

When we think of Cemil Bey and the word talent together, we must always remember his remarkable ability to self teach. Having learned and mastered many instruments by himself, Cemil Bey gained recognition among masters of the time beginning from his very early years. One of the most significant ones was Tanburi Ali Efendi, one of the most prominent composers of Classical Turkish Music in the 19th century, who said to Cemil Bey: “My son, I have played this instrument for many years, and I though I somehow had a good grasp of it. But now that I’ve heard you play, I will never attempt to play it again.”

After this encounter, Cemil Bey was taught, though not directly tutored, by Ali Efendi about general musical knowledge and the

Virtuosity Likened to the great 18th century virtuoso Niccolo Paganini by the musical masters of his time and declared the first virtuoso in the modern sense in Classical Turkish Music, Cemil Bey was a performer that not only played many of the instruments with which he made recordings perfectly in both the technical and interpretive sense, he also pushed boundaries while doing so. Forming sounds outside of the ranges of these instruments, constantly transforming and broadening techniques, he was accused of deviating from the classical style especially in tanbur, but his work passed the test of time. Cemil Bey influenced not only performers of the instruments he himself played, but players of other instruments too, both in technique and in ways of solo improvisation. Cemil Bey became a musician that influenced and emulated by many musicians through the years, becoming a school for both his contemporaries and generations to come.

One of the most important properties of Cemil Bey’s virtuosity is his grasp of the audio and emotional worlds of certain instruments in other instruments. One of the best examples of this is Çoban Taksimi, which he recorded for Orfeon Plak in the maqam of Hüseyni. In the piece, which he tells a pastoral village scene via notes, he impressionistically emulates the pastoral dog barking and sheep sounds while grasping nuances of the troublesome flute of the shepherd with his kemençe playing.

Another field where his virtuosity reveals itself is his style. Considered a great musician in the palace and in musical circles in his early 30’s with his tanbur, Cemil Bey became curious about classical kemençe and brought it into the realm of the elite instruments, while giving it a brand new identity. (4) Kemençe was the vibrant instrument of dance tunes and was of folk origins before Cemil Bey made it into an instrument of the palace—with that, he had also discovered the instrument that reflected his spirit most accurately.

Another point that should be mentioned

about his virtuosity is his ability to combine superior technical knowledge with a deep world of emotions. His capability of using both hands equally well in each instrument he played allowed Cemil Bey to reveal emotions and dynamics that were relatively unheard of in Classical Turkish Music.

While creating modes in his instruments that are expressed by terms that exist in Italian musical language, such as vivacious, joyful, sickly, mournful, the artist emulates a dialogue between two women in the song he played on kemençe, Yanık Ninni, which is about an Istanbul fire.

Reform In a pot of life where the words curiosity, search, novelty and quest lie, reform is something that is shaped. Cemil Bey not only reformed the traditional tanker technique, “Oksiyan tavrı” that traces back to Tanburi Izak (5), he became one of the game changers in Classical Turkish Music with his invention yayli tanbur in order to reach deeper sounds, and his accomplishments in composition. One of his greatest successes in composition is due to his interest in the music that is outside Istanbul and the Classical Turkish Music tradition. The melody that the beggar on the street hummed, the dance tunes he heard from the Roma community in Sulukule, the Nicosia lavta players he heard in Selatin joints, folk songs from Anatolia

4 Another person aiding the increased respect toward the kemence is Kemenceci Vasilaki. Cemil Bey has acquired his Greek attitude in his kemence playing from his spiritual teacher Vasilaki.

or Western classical music he had embraced at a very early age… All these components gradually became the greatest weapon of his genius in composition and musicianship.

This collection of melodies which he reconsidered within a framework of Classical Turkish maqams, become the source for some of his unforgettable tunes such as Gülizar Taksim, Hüseyni Taksim and Çoban Taksimi. Having tuned the cello differently to match Turkish music and use it in this genre for the first time, Cemil Bey’s reformist attitude most importantly added to the spiritualty of the time’s instrumental music.

Playing tanbur with Mehmed Celaleddin Dede, the sheikh of Yenikapi Mevlevihanesi and sitting in services at Galata Mevlevihanesi helped Cemil Bey acquire a sense of spirituality in his music. Reminding one of Bach when he said “Music is the voice of God”, Cemil Bey’s most overtly revolutionary move in his musicianship is his improvisational solos. Always starting and ending his solos (taksims) with original sentences and using these solos to voice an opinion as if he was talking, having a conversation or describing a view, Cemil Bey gave the form taksim a unique quality and allowed it to be accepted as a distinct genre.

Perfection Cemil Bey made most of his recordings, which we have access to today, in the Orfeon recording company owned by the Blumenthal brothers in 1910-11, due to financial hardship. These recordings are full of examples of his thorough and perfectionist character. Picked up from his house in Aksaray with a horse carriage, along with his instruments, Cemil Bey goes to the Katircioglu Han in Sirkeci, where he walks around, performs taksims on different instruments and starts and stops the recording

as he pleases. On the days he did not feel ready, he would go back home without recording anything, and he laid down the condition of his listening to and approving the records before their release. Writing notes about his recording performance, the musician would put down the number and the name of the recording on each page and his evaluation (with signs meaning good, okay and bad) along a few sentences for some songs.

Final Cemil Bey lived as a dervish of music and songs in his short lifespan, and he was commemorated by poets such as Yahoo Kemal, in a poem he wrote in 1927 while he served as the Turkish ambassador, who gracefully sent his compliments: “My mind is away from this city and from this age, while the old recording of Tanburi Cemil Bey plays” and Nazim Hikmet, in his poem Cemil Ölürken which he wrote after his death, where he expressed his deep sorrow: “Death, do go with him, for the sky is taking back its voice from the earth”. He had a wonderful imagination allowing him to produce music from the pipes of the ships anchored on the shores of the Bosphorus.When Cemil Bey slid away from the earth like a constellation, he had left us with around 130 double-sided recordings, but he had only 14-15 people in his funeral seeing him off.

5 Tanburi Izak, who has also served as the tanbur teacher of Selim III was among the favorite musicians of the Sultan. He frequently joined the fasıls (performances) in the palace and taught at the Enderun. Selim III loved and respected İzak very much, it is known that he would rise when İzak entered the room.

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Feyhaman ’s ‘dual Duran life’ Born into a collapsing Ottoman Empire and witnessing the birth of modern Turkey, Feyhaman Duran emerged as a first generation painter trained in the West. His work distances itself neither from past nor from present. His portraits are solid proofs of the transitionary nature of the era. The exhibition titled Feyhaman Duran.

Between Two Worlds at Sakıp Sabancı Museum, in a similar vein, portrays the artist himself. Özlem Altunok

FEYHAMAN DURAN, INTERIOR (CALLIGRAPHER RIFAT EFENDI AND FAMILY), 1948, OIL ON SACK, 154 x 105 CM, ISTANBUL UNIVERSITY FEYHAMAN DURAN COLLECTION)

SAKIP SABANCI MUSEUM, FEYHAMAN DURAN. BETWEEN TWO WORLD EXHİBİTİON VİEW

SAKIP SABANCI MUSEUM, FEYHAMAN DURAN. BETWEEN TWO WORLD EXHİBİTİON VİEW

The exhibition titled Feyhaman Duran.

Between Two Worlds, true to its name, strikes visitors over 1000 pieces including personal belongings, presenting Duran’s art in spaces re-constructing the sections of the house the artist spent most of his life in Beyazit.

The exhibition title alludes to the artist’s balanced relationship with both the traditional and the modern, and his sui generis ability to negotiate the East and the West. The fact that these pieces have been transported from a now-closed house museum upsets you, though. Yet, this art deal between (as they call it) a traditional Istanbul University and a relatively younger Sabanci University reminds you the “inbetweenness” of Feyhaman Duran.

Feyhaman-Güzin Duran House is closed for restoration since 2013. Having been on display on the upper floor of Istanbul University Rectorate, Feyhaman Duran Collection (along with Selim Turan Collection) has been transferred to SSM in 2015 until the restoration project titled “The Renovation and Restoration of Istanbul University Buildings” finishes.

In the press meeting for the exhibition opening, Istanbul University rector Prof.

Dr. Mahmut Ak announced that both the rectorate building and FeyhamanGüzin Duran House will be re-opened in September 2017. Hoping for the fulfilment of the promise, let us now go back to the well-curated Feyhaman Duran exhibition at SSM. Differing Cultures, Varying Interactions The exhibition aptly illustrates the “dual life” of Feyhaman Duran and his coincidence-stricken personal life in a chronological order, visually highlighting the phases and places that the artist lived through. The reconstruction of the artist’s daily life and his work setting adds up to the exhibition’s success. Along with Duran’s well-known portraits, landscapes, still life paintings, sketches, calligraphies, and works belonging to his wife Güzin Duran are also displayed.

An active figure among the first generation artists trained in the West, Feyhaman Duran internalizes varying influences during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republican era.

The exhibition vividly presents how the artist interacted with both the tradition

and the Western art. The collection offers an insight into the artist’s own personality and his time.

Feyhaman Duran is a key artist representing this transitionary period with all its transformations, ruptures and re-constructions. Avoiding extremes, the artist embraced the new to develop his sui generis art, earnestly translated his experiences into his works at the turn of a century marked by ideological paradigm changes. These are what distinguish him from the other figures of the period, underlining his singularity.

His remark: “Never regret not being appreciated. You are to engage in introspection.” proves his modesty and determination. Being constrained within the conditions surrounding him, Duran never gave up on his ideals and initiatives.

His remarks, his own life, and his works are –again- the solid proofs of that.

1914 Generation Painters Born in 1886 in Kadikoy, Istanbul, Feyhaman Duran lost his father Suleyman Hayri Bey, who was a poet and a calligrapher, and his mother Fatma Hanim when he was very young. Having graduated from

Mekteb-i Sultani (Galatasaray Imperial High School), Duran started teaching French calligraphy in the same school and his artistic skills were soon praised by the teachers Tevfik Fikret and Şevket Dağ.

Somewhat coincidentally, yet primarily thanks to his determination in the art of painting, he met Abbas Halim Pasha of Hıdiv Family in 1910, and the Pasha radically changed the course of his life.

This protector family sent him to Paris in 1911 to study painting. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Duran was not a graduate of Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi (The School of Fine Arts). He studied at Académie Julian and École des Beaux-Arts in Paris; and he was influenced by impressionism, rather than the avant-garde movements of the era, such as fauvism and cubism.

Following the outbreak of the WWI, he had to return to Turkey, just like other young painters Ruhi Arel, Hikmet Onat, İbrahim Çallı, Hüseyin Avni Lifij, Namık İsmail and Nazmi Ziya.

Duran was one of the pioneers integrating new techniques and styles of the West into Turkish painting, a group of painters later known as 1914 Generation. He founded Osmanlı Ressamlar Cemiyeti (The Society

of Ottoman Artists) along with the other prominent figures of his generation. They represented a new age, a “modern” future, of which initial step was II. Meşrutiyet (The Second Constitutional Era). Like other societies, this society embarked on social missions.

Annual Galatasaray Exhibitions (as of 1916) and the teaching profession triggered in him certain ideals. Duran stayed in office for thirty years (1921-1951) in İnas Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi (Girls’ School of Fine Arts), which was re-named in the Republican era as Güzel Sanatlar Akademisi (The Academy of Fine Arts), until his retirement – which proves his determination in realizing a lasting transformation and his missions as an artist.

When Darülfünun, another educational institution, was transformed into Istanbul University following the university reform of 1933, Duran formed close relations with both the academic staff and the intellectuals of the era; his portraits, thus, can be received as visual documents of Turkey’s modernization process.

Both Traditional and Innovative Training younger generations of Turkish painters during his academic life, Duran was also a prominent figure of the Republican era with the exhibitions he participated.

“Country tours” of CHP (The Republican People’s Country), started out in 1938 to promote a new visual understanding was one such effort. Duran completed ten paintings in Gaziantep within the framework of this initiative.

Having engaged in innovative initiatives, Feyhaman Duran never distanced himself from Ottoman traditional arts and lifestyle.

His calligraphies and still life paintings depicting calligraphy collections prove this dual interest in his artistic production.

His family’s interest in traditional arts, his own interest in Islamic mysticism, and his life experiences in both East and West heavily influenced his works. Although he is primarily famous for his portraits (since that was a major demand in the Republican Turkey), the artist produced numerous still life paintings and landscapes; Duran’s works represent a journey in-between two worlds and suggest an individual synthesis.

Influenced by Impressionism, his landscapes and sketches depicting

Suleymaniye Mosque, Bosphorus, the Prince Islands, and Beyoglu also present a history of Istanbul. His perspective, as in the subjective perspective of impressionism, represents the artist’s point of view, perception, and “visual reception”, creating a free expression.

Another remark of his, “An artist’s originality starts when sui generis principles emerge,” is also important as it underlines his close ties with the tradition in both his works and his own life. It also bears implications as to his positioning of his works among the larger art world.

“Painting should convey you a warm feeling,” is another remark from him.

Both his portraits and (as Ahu Antmen underlines in the exhibition book) his selfportraits are clear examples of the above remark. The plain yet stark optimism on his face in his 1911 self-portrait is a telling piece about his inner world, ambitions, and idealism. As Antmen points out, “Social transformation is quite intertwined with internalized phenomena surrounding individuals.”

Portraying prominent figures of the era such as Hilmi Ziya Ülken, Âkil Muhtar, İbrahim Çallı, Sabri Esat Siyavuşgil, Süheyl

Ünver, Fuat Köprülü, Tevfik Fikret, Safiye Ayla, Şerif Muhittin Targan, Hasan Âli Yücel, Feyhaman Duran documents both individuals and social structures of a given historical period.

This should be what distinguishes Feyhaman Duran from his contemporaries.

In a rapidly changing cultural and social atmosphere, in which shifting paradigms denounce the past and champion the present, Duran does not silence his inner voice and supress his own individuality in his artistic productions. It is this solid understanding that earns him presence and respect in both planes.

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HUO IS ASKING

Huo is asking

I would like to start by reminding a poen by Edip Cansever: The Flower That is Forced to Escape

Your life has somehow been shaped in this geography, you matured and you evolved.

We came here at such a period, and we’re experiencing. What would be the recipe that you can’t take out of your kitchen, that you wouldn’t be able to produce elsewhere, and you feel belongs to you? huohuorf@gmail.com

Photo: Sıtkı Kösemen

Hasan Özgür Top | Instant fried noodle

Canan | Meetballs with egg Meatlballs with eggs is one of my favorites since early childhood. When I went to visit my family during eid, this would be cooked as my favorite food.

Despite all other varieties, when the bowl of meatballs with eggs would be put in the middle of the table, that would be the only one to get finished, while the others would be left over. It is the flavor of the table as much as a home’s joy, abundance, and memory. While the bulgur, the tomato paste, and the pepper transport the flavor of their own regions to our palates, they also bring nice childhood memories to today. It takes my mom and dad back to their hometown, while it takes me back to my childhood. When I was a little girl, and my mom would knead the meatballs, I wouldn’t be able to wait for the food to be ready, would take a pinch from the corner of the plate, and couldn’t get enough of it, although the bulgur wouldn’t be completely crashed. My mom would get angry with me because I would eat before it was ready. I still do the same, like a ritual; this is repeated all over at each family visit. I had gone to Urfa a couple years ago, my mom would call me to order

stuff: ‘buy from that paste, and the pepper, 2 kg, no 5!”

Because in order to reach the taste of your childhood, the ingredients that make the taste, and the spices need to be grown with the air and water of that geography.

Meatballs with eggs are is very old and authentic recipe. During the time of King Nemrut, because Prophet Abraham believes in a monotheistic religion, Nemrut orders to gather all wood, everything that can be burnt, and has a swing built on a hilltop. He puts the wood under the hill to burn a fire and throw Abraham in it. According to legend, when Abraham is thrown in the fire, the wood becomes fish, fire and water while Abraham becomes a white fish. According to common belief, if you see the white fish in the Pool of Sacred Fish (Pool of Abraham) in Urfa, your wishes will come true.

This is where the story of raw meatball comes from as well. A hunter hunts down a deer, brings it home for his wife to cook, but Nemrut gathered everything that can be burnt, and banned the fire. A woman then discovers çiğ köfte (raw meatballs); since the fire is banned, the meat is kicked with stone, and kneaded with spicy pepper and other ingredients, hence the raw meatball. This is such an authentic recipe based on old tradition. Meatballs with eggs is actually a poor family recipe. It is made up by a

family that couldn’t afford meat, and had to put fried eggs within instead. If you’re poorer, you then add boiled potatoes in it. The recipe is transformed according to the degree of poorness. I think the story of aşure (Noah’s pudding) is similar to the story of çiğ köfte.

My family had migrated from Urfa to here; what they couldn’t give up is the spicy flavor of the pepper and the tomato paste that gives us a sense of belonging. Should I decide to leave one day, I think I would mostly miss the pepper and the tomato paste. And they are especially very valuable to me these days.

Ingredients 2 glasses of fine bulgur for çiğ köfte 1 onion - 3 cloves of garlic 1 bunch of parsley Half bunch of spring onion 5 eggs ½ glass olive oil (or same amount of butter) 1 full tbsp of tomato paste 1 full tbsp of pepper paste İsot pepper, salt, black pepper to taste 2 teaspoons of cumin 3 tespoons of dry mint Lettuce to garnish

Put the onion, two-three cloves of garlic, pepper taste from Urfa, and the tomato paste, the pomegranate syrup, salt, pepper, cumin, and the dry mint inside the bowl of bulgur. You start kneading, and definitely put in your sweat. It certainly requires a physical energy, and power.

You need to add in water to soften while kneading, but you need to put in small amounts at a time; unlike in the kısır recipe where you blow the bulgur, here you need to crash it. Once really kneaded, you put in finely diced parsley, and the spring onion, which then you mix. The amount of oil you put in shows the degree of wealth of the family. The more oil you put in, it is a sign of the wealth of the family, and of how generous you are. Then, you break 6-7 eggs for 2 glasses of bulgur. You fry them like an omelet, which then you add in the mix, but don’t knead too harsh here. The meatballs with eggs, is not served like the usual çiğ köfte form. You take a pinch of the mix in your palm, smash on the plate, and give leave the mark of five fingers on it. This is what I learned from my mother. It’s how its done in Urfa, not like the çiğ köfte here. Because this is meatballs with eggs. You leave the mark of five of your fingers and your palm, and you serve with lettuce, and spring onions. You must give some to the neighbors.

I left my parents’ home when I was 17, and never have lived in a fully equipped place ever since. I never had the habit of building, or sustaining an order whether I lived alone or shared a flat. In this lifestyle where washing the dishes, clearing up the kitchen, and regular shopping are a burden, many meals are perceived as a problem to be slurred over. To cook pasta and instant foods to fulfill the hunger, to order take away are the most practical methods. Yet you always end up with dishes or a bunch of garbage at the end of the day.

I discovered fried instant noodle recently. Since noodles are in the shape of a slab of intertwined strings, you don’t need to use a strainer. What’s harder than washing up a strainer in this world!

It is possible to grab the full thing with a fork. There is no oil in the ready made sauces coming out of the package, therefore it is easy to clean up the plate as well. When I buy this package that doesn’t necessitate salt, oil, ketchup or other additional materials, I don’t need to think about buying other things or think if anything is missing in the kitchen.

In fact, I am not so incompetent in the kitchen; I can cook many things from pots to sushi. I am from Antalya and I am prone to cooking the recipes that belong to the culture I grew up in. I could have chosen one of them thinking it would represent my identity yet seen my recent daily lifestyle, I thought this was the more authentic choice. “Instant fried noodles” are my reality. Dish-free,

hassle-free, carefree, practical and cheap.

My humble little friend that I would cook anywhere in the world, whether I had money or not, at home or during camp, hassle-free, and easy, allowing me to roll up my cigarette right after: noodles Ingredients 1 pack of instant fried noodles Water Cut the pack of noodles with scissors. I don’t recommend you to open by hand, as the noodles can crack. Put the noodles in boiled water in a pot, and boil for 1,5 minutes. It is written 3 minutes on the package but don’t listen to that, listen to me, put the noodle before it soaks up the water, where it’s still crunchy in some parts.

Add the sauce and the spices on top and mix well. Adding a spoon of the water you boiled the noodles in, makes it easier to mix the sauce and the spice.

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Bahar Yürükoğlu | Chicken curry with chickpeas, cake with banana, apple, ginger, and curry

I usually cook two recipes at home. In order not to cook and clean every day, I usually prefer pot food that will be enough for two to three days. For instance, chicken curry with chickpeas is both fulfilling, and a nice recipe I can serve my guests with ingredients that I like such as ginger, Sriracha sauce, peanut butter. It is a colorful and beautifully smelling option for both lunch and for dinner. Vegetarians can use tofu instead of chicken.

Chicken (or Tofu) Curry with Chickpeas Ingredients 20 ml olive oil 100 gr of shallots 5 gr thinly grated ginger 4 cloves of garlic 2 tsp of turmeric 1 tsp of cumin 1 full tbsp. of peanut butter 1 tbsp curry paste 1 tbsp Sriracha sauce 1 glass of water 1 can of chickpeas (strain the water) 1 box of coconut milk 2 limes (1 tsp grated zest, and 1 tbsp juice) – spare aside to use during service 1 tbsp brown sugar 1 pack of diced tofu or 400 gr of sautéed chicken 3 mid-size carrots (peeled and diced) 1 red bell pepper (diced) Put the olive oil in a heavy pan and warm on mid to high heat.

Add the ginger, the garlic, and the shallot, and mix until the onions are brown. Add the peanut butter, the turmeric, the curry and the Sriracha sauce, and continue to mix until fully integrated. Bring to a boil by adding 1 glass of water, the grated lime zest, 1 tbsp of lime juice, and the brown sugar. Add salt to taste. After adding the diced carrots, the pepper and the chicken (or tofu), cook for 15 minutes. Cook for an additional 15 minutes after the chickpeas have been added or until the carrots are soft. Mix occasionally, and lower the heat when starting to boil. Add the lime juice on top.

Serve on top of a plate of bulgur, wheat, or alike. If you think it’s too hot you can add yogurt to help lower the spice.

Banana, apple, (or pear), ginger and curry cake Ingredients For a loaf: 2 whisked eggs 1/3 glass of yogurt ½ glass olive oil 2 ripe bananas 1 apple or pear (spear 2-3 slices to put on top) 1 ½ glass of sugar 1 glass of flour ¾ glass of whole-wheat flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp ginger powder ½ tsp curry powder ½ tsp cinnamon Warm the oven to 160 degrees. Mix the eggs, the yogurt, the olive oil, the banana and the apple or the pear in a bowl. Add the flour, the baking soda, the ginger, and the cinnamon. Then slowly add on top of the banana mix. Don’t mix too much.

Put the mix inside the greasy cake mold. Keep in the oven for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. When rightly cooked, the toothpick you put in the middle will come out clean.

Hera Büyüktaşcıyan | Topik An Armenian mezze passing on from generation to generation, and an essential for eid and rakı tables. My grand mother would prepare topik at home. As much as I had observed, it seemed quite hard to prepare. Preparations would start weeks before Noel or Easter. Another stage would be completed every other day. Loads of onions would be dices one day, to be sure everyone would shed in tears. Then a fiery cooking stage would start… she would deal with every piece like a sculptor. Topik is a recipe I could never take away from my personal history, the geography I live in, and the memory of the stories it involved… Although it looks impossible and exhaustive, I decided to cook in order to become a part of the tradition that passes on from generation to generation.

Ingredients 4 mid-size potatoes 2 glasses of chickpeas (250 gr) 1,5 kg onions 1 small jar tahini (300 gr) Pine nuts Blackcurrant Cinnamon- pimento – black pepper 2 tsp of sugar Salt The crust: Wash the potatoes, and boil with the skin on. Take the potatoes out before the skin crashes. Leave the chickpeas in the water one night before, and boil them in the pressure cooker, straining out the water. Smash the chickpeas and the potatoes into a puree before they’re cold. Add ¼ of the tahini in this paste, mix the salt, the sugar and the cinnamon, knead and leave to rest.

The filling: Dice the onions. Put a tea glass of water in a pan, add the onion and close the lid. Cook the onion until it soaks the water and turns brown. Strain the water of the now cooked and browned onion.

Add ¾ of the tahini, pine nuts, blackcurrant, sugar and one tsp of spices, as well as the salt and mix well. Take a pinch of the outside crust and put on top of a clean cloth. Close the other end of the cloth and thin the paste down with a roll. Open the cloth up, add a good full of the onion mix inside. Close the other end of the paste with the cloth (with the filling ingredient to remain inside).

Put the prepared topik prepared this way on the plate, and put in the refrigerator for one day. Add loads of cinnamon when serving up. (You can use a stretch instead of a cloth when spreading the dough.)

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Ali Emir Tapan | White rice pilaf

Mehmet Aksoy

Çekicin Rüzgarındaki Ezoterik İllüzyonlar Esoteric Illusions in the Wind of the Hammer 23.2. - 20.4.2017

Fernando Botero Günlük Yaşamın Şiiri - Hayattan Sahneler Everyday’s Poetry - Scenes from the fullness of life

Starting with a white cat that used to come visit the house I grew up in, I have always been enamoured creatures and things of pure white. I guess my love and obsession with the preparation of this grain started at its appearance. Later, I have of course learned about different variety and colours of rice. But I decided to provide my basic recipe for white, short-grain rice.

Rice is white and uniform, like a socialist utopia that belongs to a future from the past. The preparation may even be more demanding of more discipline than love.

The cooking is best achieved through pressure. If the grain is good and is prepared well, it tastes like clean air. From it’s cultivation to it’s transition into food, it is both demanding and graceful. When washing the grain, over and over again as i do, it makes a hushing sound, as if trying to imitate silence. Some South-east Asian Cultures consider rice to be Mother-Goddess’ milk, provided to ease the suffering and pain of the living world. Rice is as much about survival, as it is about delicacy.

Ingredients Rice Salt Water The rice is washed inside a strainer, with mild to cold running water until the water that comes out is transparent with turning moves.

The rice is awaited inside acidic water (ph under 7) with a pinch of salt from 1 to 14 hours (the more the better). If the water becomes blurry, you should change the water it is in.

27.4. - 25.6.2017

Strain the water, put the rice in the pot, and pour the alkali room temperature water (ph over 7) with a ratio of 1 to 1,5.

Turn the heater up to max, remove the lid and boil until you see holes inside the rice. Then close the lid, and put the heat down. After you put a weight on the pot, and once the water finishes boiling (you should listen to the rice in order to understand), turn off the heat. Let the rice rest for 20 minutes with the weight on, open the lid, mix the rice and serve.

ANNA LAUDEL contemporary

Bankalar Caddesi 10 Karaköy, Beyoğlu 34421 İstanbul, TR

www.annalaudel.gallery

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Sònar coming to Istanbul The first edition of this festival that will include widely known names such as Moderat, Róisin Murphy, Nina Kravitz, Floating Points, Clark, Kode9, Weval, and Tim Hecker, was organized in Barcelona in 1994. Hosted in many different cities worldwide, the festival also aims to attract the local voices of the cities it is held in, to the global platform.

Sónar Istanbul has a section created within the framework of creativity and technology that embraces culture and art scene’s dynamics: Sónar+D. This section that promises to offer a new experience to music lovers via visual and auditory performances, panels on important topics in culture and technology, voice installations, and workshops will be curated by Lalin Akalan.

The details of the program where exhibitions, experimental performances, workshops, demos and research undertaken for different forms of voice, as well as panels will take place with the participation of local and international actors, will be announced in the following weeks.

SHIRO, PERFORMANCE VIEW, COURTESY OF ZORLU PSM

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