ART UNLIMITED 33 - SEPTEMBER 2015 by Art Unlimited

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ENGINEERED FOR MEN WHOSE HOME PORT IS VICTORY. CONGRATULATIONS ON WINNING THE VOLVO OCEAN RACE.

Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph “Ocean Racer”. Ref. 3902: Sailing around the world under the toughest conditions imaginable was a feat that stretched even pioneering Portuguese seafarers to their physical and mental limits. And it was no different for the crews in the VOLVO OCEAN RACE 2014–2015, the world’s toughest marine adventure. Before reaching journey’s end in Gothenburg with 39’000 nautical miles behind them, they spent nine months on the high seas with wind speeds up to 100 kilometres per hour and waves up to 30 metres high. The mere achievement of finishing makes every participant a winner. So it makes us all the happier and prouder that the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team, sponsored by IWC Schaffhausen and skippered by the experienced Ian Walker, emerged victorious from this maritime marathon. A great victory that deserves an equally great trophy: the Portugieser Yacht Club Chronograph “Ocean Racer”. Thanks to its combination of precision technology and sporty elegance, this fabulous limited edition of 1000 timepieces was practically made for intrepid adventures on the high seas. And, naturally, the glamour of the prize-giving ceremony that follows.

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19/08/15 19:01

EDİTO

Hello I’ve seen a movie and it changed my life... That’s how I planned to start and talk about Eric Rohmer, however, after the painful events creating a stir around a time when we were preparing this issue, everything lost its meaning. Children, policemen, civilians... ‘People’ have died and we did not. We did not die, but that didn’t make us feel any better either. We felt bitter cold under the sun this summer. All that was rational about the state, the government, authority, ideology, and faith has been lost to us. And here I am trying to write my calm editorial while feeling like one of those women doing yoga on a shore where Syrian refugees stranded while escaping the war. Still… ‘Life’ goes on like everything that is in motion, that never stops and the dynamic art events in Istanbul find themselves a place to ‘live’ in almost every corner of the city this September, as is the custom. The 14th Istanbul Biennial taking place in over 30 venues and inviting us to travel a lot on ‘salt water’, the third edition of ARTINTERNATIONAL Fair with Moving Image Istanbul, right next to it, and a plethora of parallel events will be waiting for the art enthusiasts. We have extensively covered the Istanbul Biennial and its parallel events: We sat down with the Biennial’s Director Bige Örer to talk on “Salt Water”, probe the subtle relationship between art and space and focus on Francis Alÿs who created a new work for the Biennial in the ancient ghost city of Ani. To get a better perspective of publishing today, we had an interview with Tuğrul Eryılmaz on publishing in the 80s focusing on Salt’s exhibition scheduled for September. We haven’t forgotten that this year is the 100th anniversary of what happened in 1915, so we covered the political heritage of grandfathers to their grandchildren.

Year: 7 Issue: 33 Bimonthly culture paper Published 5 times a year. Distributed free of charge. Authors are solely responsible for the content of submitted articles. All rights reserved by Art Unlimited. Quotations not allowed without permission.

Publisher: Galerist Sanat Galerisi A.Ş. Editors at Large: Merve Akar Akgün, Oktay Tutuş Editor in Chief (Responsible): Merve Akar Akgün merveakar@gmail.com Design: Vahit Tuna Design Assistant: Ece Eldek

We wanted to learn more about the Arab Spring from the works of İbrahim El-Salahi, the feeling of youth from Muntean/Rosenblum and the untameable art works from Can Altay. Should same sex marriage be legalized in Turkey? Is Tino Sehgal the master of performance art? Where is Wynwood? Can art works be produced on 3D printers? Who would want to go to the museum of death? Are there divas harassing their young lovers, dwarves and crying singers at the Parisian club Silencio, the partners of which includes David Lynch as well? These were the questions we looked answers for. For this issue, we prepared for you a limited edition ‘art book’ created by the British artist duo Jake & Dinos Chapman, inspired by “The Philosophy od Andy Warhol”, and a ‘Biennial map’ drawn by Sedat Girgin to guide the energetic visitors around the numerous venue spots. We wanted to take you to lands as distant to each other as London, Andalucía, Berlin, Miami, Van, Paris, Bodrum… and offer you new sights. Hope you enjoy... And here is something about ‘life’ just as Nâzım Hikmet said: ... here we are on the waterfront. first the cat will leave, its silhouette will disappear in the water. then I will leave, my silhouette will disappear in the water. then the sycamore will leave, its silhouette will disappear in the water. then the water will leave, and there will only be sun. than it will leave, too... Merve Akar Akgün & Oktay Tutuş

Advertising and Project Director: Hülya Kızılırmak Contributors: Tankut Aykut, Müjde Bilgütay, Nihan Bora, Müge Büyüktalaş, Naz Cuguoğlu, Ayşe Draz, Başak Ertunç, Sedat Girgin, Esra Gürmen, Nick Hackworth, Mehmet Kahraman, Hacer Banu Konyar, Erkan Konyar, Hala Moawad, Pınar Öğrenci, Tayfun Serttaş, Gabriela Sol, Ayşe Müge Var, Elvin Vural, Nazlı Yayla Translation: Ayşe Draz, Aykut Şengözer, Barış Yıldırım, Müjde Bilgütay, Esra Gürmen, Naz Cuguoğlu

Adress: Galerist Meşrutiyet Caddesi 67/1 34420 Tepebaşı / İstanbul Tel: 0 212 252 18 96 info@galerist.com.tr

Print: Ofset Yapımevi Şair Sokak No: 4, 34410 Kağıthane İstanbul T. (212) 295 86 01 F. (212) 295 64 55

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CONTENT

BIENNIAL KNOTS WITH WAVES

BIENNIAL THE ISTANBUL BIENNIAL(S) WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF SPACE AND ART

BIENNIAL FRANCIS ALŸS

PARALLEL EVENT HOW DID WE GET HERE

PARALLEL EVENT THE ARAP SPRING

PARALLEL EVENT THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF FRAGMENTED BELONGINGS

PARALLEL EVENT DOMESTIC DISOBEDIENCE OR DISOBEDIENT DOMESTICITY

PORTFOLIO EKİN ÖZBİÇER

HUMAN RIGHTS ‘MARRIAGE EQUALITY’ RIGHT NOW, IN TURKEY!

PERFORMANCE TINO SEHGAL: FROM THE BLACK BOX TO THE WHITE CUBE

TECHNOLOGY DOUBLING DAVID

MIAMI NEW WALLS ON THE BLOCK

LONDON WHEN AN ARTIST IS TIRED OF LONDON

ARCHAEOLOGY VAN IN SUMMER

EDUCATION HAYDARPAŞA CARTOON HOUSE

CLUB THE SİLENCİO

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AGENDA

Agenda

Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin Retrospective

viennacontemporary ‘Democratic Luxury,’ the posthumous retrospective exhibition of Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, an artist, a writer lecturer and curator, will be on view as of September 2. The exhibition developed as collaboration between Rampa Gallery and M HKA (Museum for Contemporary Art, Antwerp) includes a selection of studies, drawings and notes from the artist’s archive. ‘Democratic Luxury,’ which will be held across both locations, presents an extensive retrospective bringing the works Alptekin produced during the two decades immediately preceding and following the millennium together with his photographs, sculpture, neon texts, videos and collages that he started producing in the early 1990s. ‘Democratic Luxury’ can be on view at Rampa and M HKA until November 15.

Nil Yalter in Brussels

EXPO CHICAGO

From 24 to 27 September, collectors, artists, curators, gallery owners and art lovers will gather in Vienna for viennacontemporary. Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt, the artistic director of the event, which will have its first edition this year, also curated the ‘Unconditional Love’ exhibition at the 53rd Venice Biennale and she was the director of the 2014 VIENNAFAIR The New Contemporary. SteinbrecherPfandt together with the viennacontemporary managing director Renger van den Heuvel, guarantee an excellent contemporary art fair for art lovers. Exhibitions and events scattered around various parts of the city will complement the participating artists and galleries from Central and Eastern European Countries.

MARSistanbul again This season, Pınar Öğrenci’s (artist and writer) artist initiative MARSistanbul reopens its doors. The lower floor of the ex-space will host events as exhibitions, showings, artist talks and performances. Entrance to the basement space will be found through the record shop (Mono Plak). The archive of the initiative is registered in the Salt Researches online. Öğrenci’s exhitibition called “Waiting for Life Feeling to Come” will be open by 28th of August. Öğrenci also plans to organize new exhibitions in her home / atelier space in Osmanbey, in an ancient apartment which is actually threaten by the “urban transformation projects”.

‘Gesture and thought’ series, initiated in 2013, that takes place at La Verrière, the Brussels art space of Fondation d’enterprise Hermes, and which is inspired by works of Marcel Duchamp, features in October a solo exhibition by Nil Yalter. In her exhibition entitled 1973/2015 Yalter explores the notions of nomadism and exile with an ensemble of her works including her iconic Topak Ev created in 1973 and

a new work created especially for this show. Topak Ev which Yalter, who was inspired by nomadic Anatolian traditions, created by including engineering changes and an ideological subtext, and Orient Express (1976) through which the artist tells the story of her journey in Central and Eastern Europe, constitute the two focal points of the exhibition.

EXPO CHICAGO will host 140 leading galleries representing 16 countries and 45 cities, September 17-20. New and young galleries will also present themselves in the EXPOSURE section of the exposition. The programming of the exposition includes special exhibitions; panel discussions presented in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; EXPO VIDEO presented in collaboration with Columbia College Chicago; as well site-specific projects presented both on-site and throughout the city. There will be a variety of arts activities city-wide, September 14 to 20, within the framework of EXPO ART WEEK presented in conjunction with Choose Chicago and DCASE, with EXPO CHICAGO as the centerpiece.

AGENDA

''Yours Sincerely John S. Sargent'' When the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA Boston) relocated in a new building in 1909, in order to decorate the museum harmoniously with its architecture, MFA commissioned the painter John Singer Sargent, one of the most popular and prized artists of the period especially in Boston and New England area, to paint murals for the building’s main stairway and rotunda. These murals considered the most ambitious ones among the artist’s last works, are still the most treasured artworks of the MFA Boston. ‘Yours Sincerely, John S. Sargent,’ by exhibiting along with paintings, photographs, sketches and letters that play a significant role in Sargent’s identity and artwork, discloses the artist’s world. Among the exhibited works are also letters by the artist’s admired friend Claude Monet, caricatures by the artist’s other friends Henry Tonks and Max Beerbohm, photographs of Sargent’s atelier and sketches of his works. ‘Yours Sincerely’ can be visited until November 15.

Seza Paker and Absinthe Seza Paker’s solo exhibition ‘Absinthe’ opens at Galerist on September 1. Paker, in her exhibition built on the idea of a time warp, transforms the exhibition space where video and sound installations as well as collage works take place, into a transitional and fluid space between different time zones. Within this space, by problematizing the moments of one’s exposure to time and space by means of the effect time has on human perception, she invites the audience for a mental journey through which one disappears into time. Absinthe that is a strong drink particularly consumed by artists since the 19th century and which takes one out of his/her time zone by opening the doors of his/her perception, gives the exhibition its name. In this exhibition of hers, the artist explores, through personal and collective memory, Meşrutiyet Avenue where also the gallery is located and which was known as Rue des Petits Champs in the past, and she builds her exhibition on the timeless values of this avenue.

13th Lyon Biennial 12

13th Biennale de Lyon titled ‘La vie moderne’ (Modern Life) explores the contradictory character of the modern-day culture with the participation of 60 artists from 28 different countries. Their artwork questions how and in what form the modern era, despite ‘having come to an end’, continues to affect and shape our everyday life.

Artworks exhibited at the Biennale, by wittily using different forms and images while aiming to bring together different sensibilities, invite the audience to reconsider and reimagine our age. Throughout the Biennale, by means of the exhibited artworks, the audience will face the problems that the modern era transported to the present and which still trouble us and occupy our agenda: societies dominated by consumption and production of corporate culture, issues of post-colonial immigration and national identity, economic inequality, changing relationships and concepts due to the proliferation of technological development, etc. The Biennale’s curator Ralph Rugoff, mentioning that Marcel Duchamp’s statement (the spectator is responsible for half of the artwork) has been his starting point, underlines how important it is that the audience considers the Biennale as a resource for their discussions and conversations rather than just visiting and consuming it.

'The Perfect Day' by Volkan Aslan

Following ‘Any Given Day’ (installation, Arter, 2010), ‘Don’t Forget to Remember’ (solo exhibition, Arter, 2013) which is composed of seven parts, each part taking its name from the days of the week, and ‘A Day Not Lived Yet (solo exhibition, Pi Artworks London, 2014), Volkan Aslan in his solo exhibition ‘The Perfect Day,’ tells the audience of ‘the perfect day’ by creating an autonomous space within the gallery. What the artist describes as perfect

with his installation is a fresh and exciting day where one starts a new work. All the details of the installation create a meaningful whole which reflects the day and the beginnings described as perfect. ‘The Perfect Day’ organized in parallel with the 14th Istanbul Biennial, might be visited at Pi Artworks Istanbul, September 1- October 31.

100 years of Congolese Art at Fondation Cartier

The Struggle for 'Energy For Life'

Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain which was established to support artists and expose their skills in different disciplines, presents works by artists from the Democratic Republic of Congo with its exhibition ‘Beauté Congo, 1926-2015, Congo Kitoko’ curated by André Magnin. ‘Beauté Congo,’ spanning 100 years of modern art of painting in Congo, also features music, sculpture, photography and comics. This exhibition which brings together works by Steve Bandoma, Bela, Pierre Bodo, Chéri Samba, Chéri Chérin, Jean Depara, Kiripi Katembo, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Antoinette Lubaki, Albert Lubaki, JP Mika, Moke, Kura Shomali, Monsengo Shula, Studio 3Z-3C and Pathy Tshindele will continue until November 2015.

Art lovers can visit the group exhibition ‘Energy For Life 50x50’ as of September 8 in Armaggan Art&Design Gallery which was established to support young artists and designers. The exhibition’s starting point is the idea that mankind, in the near future, will struggle for agricultural land, water and air which he himself will be polluting and consuming just like how he pursued oil, mineral, hydroelectric and nuclear energy sources in the past. The exhibition which accordingly aims to draw attention to this life purpose also makes a reference to the core theme of Expo Milano 2015, “Feeding The Planet/Energy For Life.” Şanel San Sevinç, coordinator of the Armaggan Art&Design Gallery and curator of this exhibition, mentions that the participating artists aim to draw attention to how nature is mousetrapped by man since their artworks, which refer to the significance and beauty of energy for life, are produced in the size of 50x50 cm. The theme of the exhibition converges with the theme of the Istanbul Biennial, Saltwater, and it is also a part of the Biennial’s parallel events.

AGENDA

Moving Image Istanbul Moving Image art fair has announced the artists, participating galleries and non-profit institutions in their second edition in Istanbul. Returning to the Kuleli Building at the Halic Congress Center, September 4-6, 2015, Moving Image Istanbul runs in parallel with ArtInternational art fair, and will present a selection of single-channel videos and installations from across the globe. Moving Image has been conceived to offer a viewing experience with the excitement and vitality of a

fair, while allowing moving-imagebased artworks to be understood and appreciated on their own terms. Highlights of the 2015 Istanbul fair include several world premeires, including

Zorlu PSM also became a part of Istanbul Biennial works by, Zeyno Pekünlü (Sanatorium, Istanbul), Leo Gabin (Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York), Carlos Jiménez Cahua (Samsøn Projects, Boston), Wu Ding (L-Art Gallery, Chengdu), and João Castilho (Zipper Galeria, São Paulo). Among the historical selections in the fair are works by Ana Mendieta (Galerie Lelong, New York) and Martha Wilson (P·P·O·W Gallery, New York). Large installations include works by Kon Trubkovich (Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York), and Mic-

hael Nyman (Myriam Blundell Projects, London).

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now's the Time ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now’s the Time’ exhibition organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario will travel to Guggenheim Bilbao in July. The exhibition curated by Dieter Buchhart, the Australian art historian and critic, features 85 large-scale paintings and drawings from private collections and museums across Europe and North America. This retrospective consisting of about 100 pieces might also be considered a thematic examination of the artist’s works. ‘Now’s the Time’ offers Basquiat fans the chance to see the artist’s early works such as1981 Untitled (Car Crash) together with his more famous ones such as Horn Players (1983) and Water Worshippers until November 1.

Zorlu Performing Arts Center will get involved this year in the 14th Istanbul Biennial with two different works, both as a space provider and with a project. Yoğunluk, an art initiative founded by İsmail Eğler, Nezih Vargeloğlu, Nil Aynalı Eğler and Elif Tekir, in its installation entitled

Sublime reveals different states of water to the audience. On the other hand, ’40 meters // 4 walls & 8 cubes’ exhibition that questions the viewer’s relation to space, by transforming the space into a living mechanism creates a project whereby 8 independent works are displayed.

Bruce Nauman Retrospective Exhibition

©Régine Debatty

The Museum of Modern Art and Schaulager announced that they are planning a Bruce Nauman retrospective for 2018. This exhibition which will be the artist’s first retrospective since 1993, will be held first in Basel in March and then will travel to New York in September. Nauman’s drawings, photographs and installations including his sound installation titled Days that he prepared for the 2009 Venice Biennale and which won

him the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, will all be presented at the retrospective exhibition of this cult artist who had an exhibition earlier this year at the Fondation Cartier and whose works made between 19671990 were on view at Gagosian Paris until last August. It seems like Nauman, whom we come across frequently lately, will remain on the agenda for a long time.

Walid Siti, The Tower, 2015, Ahşap/Timber wood, 700x400x400cm, Alana özel yerleştirme/site spesific installation (ayrıntı/detail)

ALPİN ARDA BAĞCIK BURÇAK BİNGÖL GUIDO CASARETTO ANTONIO COSENTINO EXTRAMÜCADELE AZADE KÖKER WALID SITI

4-6 EYLÜL/SEPTEMBER 2015 Booth: C14

Minör Kahramanlıklar/Minor Heroisms 2 Eylül/September– 24 Ekim/October 2015

VIENNACONTEMPORARY 24-27 Eylül/September 2015 Booth: B05

İstiklal Cad. Mısır Apt. No:163, K.2 & 3, D.5 & 10, 34433 Beyoğlu–İstanbul, Turkey t: +90 212 251 1214 f: +90 212 251 4288 galerizilberman.com

BIENNIAL

NAZ CUGUOĞLU

Knots with waves We talked with Bige Örer about this year’s Biennial and the forms art can take regarding 25 years of the Istanbul Biennial.

az Cuguoğlu: How do you assess the importance of the Biennial for Istanbul’s art world? Bige Örer: Biennials’ biggest difference from other exhibitions is the fact that they can take risks and stay experimental. Both creates a different possible experience both for the audience and the artists. In this sense, I think Istanbul Biennial is important as its opens new spaces for dialogue, presents different artistic languages and practices and develops a long-term perspective both for the audience and the artists. I think it is very valuable that an artistic activity in Turkey has been going on for over 25 years continuously showing productions, practices, discussions and theories of contemporary international art world in Istanbul. Istanbul Biennial has become one of the most eagerly awaited exhibitions of the

international art world as it has been showing new forms of art and concepts in the last decade and opening a space for different discussions. This process has been realized both with the help of curators and artists and also with the commitment and excitement of its team members. Istanbul Biennial is one of the most important contemporary art events today leading the world. I believe that the opportunities such as the relationship it established with the city and the lack of its permanent space make the exhibition different as we have also seen with this year’s Biennial. N.C.: What changes have happened regarding the Istanbul Biennial throughout years? B.Ö.: During the years that artistic production and presentation platforms in Turkey increased, Istanbul Biennial has kept on contributing to this

learning process. It stayed aware of the different needs and demands thanks to curators, artists and other participants. It organized events in accordance thinking about ways to reach more people. The number of the audience increased from 50,000 to 340,000 since 2013. N.C.: The curator of the Biennial -Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev- has been criticized by some while considered as one of the most successful curators of 21st century by others especially as a result of her experience as the curator of dOCUMENTA (13). What were the reasons for you to choose Bakargiev? And did you feel like your expectations were met in the process of working together? B.Ö.: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev was suggested by the Biennial’s advisory committee because of many reasons including her outstanding

achievements in international exhibitions, her ability to bring research from different fields together and her tendency to work closely with artists with a deep dialogue. dOCUMENTA (13) was one of the best exhibitions I’ve ever seen as well. Working with Carolyn ChristovBakargiev has been a great experience both for us and Carolyn. Thinking about our work during the exhibition preparations, I can say that Carolyn is an amazing person with her curiosity, interest and energy and we have prepared an exhibition which contains multi-layered stories with enjoyment. N.C.: Bakargiev prepared the Biennial in collaboration with many names including Orhan Pamuk, Füsun Onur and Griselda Pollock. How did you observe the effects of this cooperation on the Biennial? Did polyphony emerge? Were there any

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Bige Örer, İstanbul Biennial Director, ©Manuel Çıtak

disagreements? B.Ö.: Cooperations played an important role in shaping the Biennial. While Carolyn was developing the Biennial, it was amazing to work with her people and friends with whom she has been working together for many years trusting in feelings and knowledge. Each person contributed in a different way. Long conversations took place with all of them. We consulted them about our confusions. Some came up with theoretical suggestions whereas others focused on practical points. In such large-scale cooperations, I believe in the importance of collaborations and polyphony. N.C.: What does the title of the biennial “SALT WATER: A Theory on Thought Forms’ make you think about its conceptual framework? B.Ö.: ‘SALT WATER: a theory of thought forms’ is an exhibition focusing on the transformative power of art and challenging its power in the middle of transformations. Can salt give life to pasts full of trauma? SALT WATER stands clearly in favor of life while also pointing on this possibility. Through art, it is listening to all times of the place it is standing on. On the 100th anniversary of the suffering experienced on this land, it carries out the hope that we can only enlighten if we can let them exist and face. It tries to understand the differences in artists’ perspectives by associating real and surreal, subconscious and conscious, poetic and political, forms and aesthetics and through knots with waves. N.C.: Bakargiev regards the salt water both as vital and also as ‘one of the most corrosive substances of the digital age.’ How does it refer to Istanbul’s socio-political situation as the conceptual framework? B.Ö.: The starting point of Salt Water is Istanbul, the Bosphorus, the water passing through the city. Salt water is not only vital for people but also it is one of the most important elements necessary for the survival of all living things. It offers a healing solution

for Istanbul and everyone living in Istanbul to sustain their lives and cope with different traumas. Salt water refers to tears, labor, and sea showing many artworks referring to current situation and history of socio-political situation of Turkey. N.C.: In line with this conceptual framework, how were the artists selected? Did you have any specific criteria? B.Ö.: Carolyn chose the artists. It was very important for her to work and collaborate with her friends that she has been working with for many years. Of course this exhibition made us very happy as there has been a lot of participation from Turkey. N.C.: Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hamamı, Riva Beach, Hrant Dink Foundation and the new building of Agos, Büyükada Public Library are just a few of many venues of the Biennial. Did any of them affect you in particular with their history and architecture? B.Ö.: Of course, Yanaros Mansion located in Büyükada where Troçki spent the last period of his exile in Istanbul is very charming. And Mizzi Mansion by Italian architect D’Aronco also located in Büyükada which changed city’s atmosphere at the end of 1800s is a very special place. N.C.: The Biennial shows also works from marine science, environmental studies, underwater archeology, Art Nouveau, neuroscience, physics, mathematics and theology. How do you consider this decision of Bakargiev who likes to focus on the relation between art and science in general? What may arise from collaboration of art and science? B.Ö.: I think Carolyn’s practice is very important as it reminds us that the distinction between disciplines dictated by Modernism does not actually exist. As you can see visiting this exhibition, scientists and physicists who have won the Nobel Prize can produce art with passion as well. I think that if the invisible line begins to melt, we will face a world full of surprises. N.C.: Finally, do you have any suggestions and advices to the audience visiting the Biennial? B.Ö.: I suggest them to give at least 3 days for their visit, slow down their speed of exhibition visits and experience the Biennial spending time on the sea. n

Istanbul Biennial has become one of the most eagerly awaited exhibitions of the international art world as it has been showing new forms of art and concepts in the last decade and opening a space for different discussions.

1 Galata Greek Primary School, İstanbul, © Courtesy of Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts 2 Splendid Palas Hotel, Büyükada, İstanbul, © Courtesy of Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts

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BIENNIAL

MÜGE BÜYÜKTALAŞ

The Istanbul Biennial(s) within the context of space and art The 14th Istanbul Biennial, SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms, drafted by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev will open to public in over 30 venues. SALTWATER takes place in museums as well as temporary spaces of habitation on land and on sea such as boats, hotels, former banks, garages, gardens, schools, shops and private homes. The fact that the entire biennial can be viewed at least in three days leaves a question mark when one remembers the maddening traffic problem of Istanbul.

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verything starts with making leaving possible... Leaving our safe and comfort zone, established order and established thoughts... If your point of departure is, in the most daily sense, your home, we are not telling you to go to work, the gym, shopping or have fun, but to the Biennial. In its broadest sense, to think... Recent years have seen tons of methods to make people believe that viewing art is as attractive as entertainment activities within the consumption culture. Even though art spaces such as museums and galleries continue to preserve their sterility, experiencing art in different forms as part of our everyday-lives has become easier. And when the sincerity of bringing art and the people together crossed paths with the free market games devised by art marketers to attract more viewers, it has become more confusing to understand who intends what. Under these circumstances, the Biennial will be opening its doors in September in the Istanbul of 2015 with a relatively demanding experience with its coverage of two continents and two islands. The proposed transportation and the difficulty (or even impossibility) of seeing the exhibitions in a certain order to conceive it holistically naturally brings about criticism concerning the number of exhibition venues. Is such an experience really necessary for an exhibition in the form of a biennial? After all, a viewing experience confined to time

and destination is also an experience. Here the question should be: Will the holistic statement lose anything if the proposed navigation route is not taken, or if it is taken, will it add anything to the statement? Moreover it might become a narrowed-down reading from a pragmatic approach. Looking at the dispersion of the Biennial venues, the exhibition is again concentrated in Beyoğlu and its surroundings except for the Rumeli Feneri, Şişli, Kadıköy and the Turkish bath on the historical peninsula. Christov-Bakargiev almost pulls the viewer to the salt water as the title of the biennial suggests. Salt water will be one of the few remedies that an old, wise fisherman would advise you, thanks to its both scorching and refreshing effect. If you don’t have it around, you can immediately get some by crying out your tears. Could it be that Christov-Bakargiev is trying to use salt water to clear our minds, which have been muddled between the overwhelming city and the recent political turmoil in the country? If every choice is an attitude, then let’s review the Biennial venues on the basis of their histories, memories they hold and the consequences of their transformation. This might feel like creating an imaginary story using the tips handed to us by ChristovBakargiev. Whether or not it had anything to do with the selection of venues is unknown to us, but looking at their backgrounds and the characters that had lived in them, these venues, altogether, carry a mystery

which reminds us of the plot in novels of Orhan Pamuk, who will be participating in this year’s Biennial as an artist. On the façade, this mystery could be likened to the diligence of a child dressed up for a school show, however its real power will be revealed after the works are in place. The selection of venues for biennials will result in different interpretations when they are handled within and outside the conceptual framework and discourse of that specific biennial, which should be one of the desired outcomes of a thought process created using art. For example, even though breaking the confines of the historical peninsula for the 9th Istanbul Biennial could be construed as an answer to the criticism of orientalism, curators Charles Esche and Vasıf Kortun said they wanted to emphasize that the city was modern as well as historically rich and that artists did not create works solely for the historical venues1. When we turn back to the current Biennial, we see that ChristovBakargiev chose spaces bearing the fractions of everyday-life such as a car park, a hotel, a school, homes, a sea bus, and a shoe store in addition to the traditional exhibiting spaces such as galleries, museums as well as historical buildings which greatly contribute to what is exhibited with their aesthetic values and texture. Some of these venues bear traces of the lives of important figures in Turkey’s political history. This association becomes even more interesting with an array of works focusing on the history of

oceanography, environmental works, underwater archaeology, art nouveau, neurosciences, physics, mathematics, and theosophy, so much so that she goes as far as starting the history of Istanbul from Greek mythology. It should be no coincidence that Rumeli Feneri, located where the Bosphorus meets the Black Sea on one side, is chosen as one of the Biennial venues. She even doesn’t refrain from adding the island of Kastellorizo to her story by going beyond Turkey’s territorial waters, and she has a point there. We have a serious history with Greece when it comes to territorial waters. It is as if Christov-Bakargiev is intent on peeling the layers of the territory where the Biennial will take place, the land and the water included, clearing our muddled minds with salt water, looking under the water, inject our collective history into our brains and encourage us to ponder on existence and the mystery of nature... The story begins at the Bosphorus, which is a narrow fault line that was constructed as a water canal 8,500 ago, where the Argonauts led by Jason who was looking for the Golden Fleece passed through. The Küçük Mustafa Pasha Hamam (bath), built right after the fall of Constantinople, points at another moment in history as one of the Biennial venues. One of the viziers of Bayezid II, son of Mehmet the Conqueror, is a character not known much to us other than the epithet “küçük” (little) attributed to him not to be confused with Koca (big) Mustafa Pasha, another vizier of the same era

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Footnotes: 1 Yardımcı, Sibel (2005) Kentsel Değişim ve Festivalizm: İstanbul’da Bienal (Urban Transformation and Festivalism: The Biennial in A Globalizing Istanbul), İletişim Publishing, p. 87. 2 Türkiye’nin Sosyalist Solu Kitabı 1 (The Book of Turkey’s Socialist Left 1), Ed. Emir Ali Türkmen, Dipnot Publishing, 2013, p.24.

and the hamam bearing his name. The salt water you breathe while on the way to Büyükada (one of the Princes’ Islands) on a sea bus, takes you to a part of the story that dates back to the socialist revolutions. Leon Trotsky, who commanded the Red Army from 1917 till 1924 and was known for his cruelty towards the Belarus, lost the power struggle he incited against Stalin after Lenin’s death and was exiled to Istanbul in 1929 where he would take refuge in Büyükada until 1933—partly for protection against threats of assassination, partly to stay away from public eye. He penned many of his works at the rented Arap Izzet Pasha Mansion including The Permanent Revolution, which was inspired by Marx’s theories and which was to further inspire Mahir Çayan, who would later be one of the leading figures of Turkish leftists, as well as Çayan’s friends. Those were the years marking the enthusiastic and unconscious progress of a nation, which, following a “national struggle” was trying to get used to a freshly founded republic under the leadership of Atatürk, towards being a contemporary civilization. Not long go, in 1921, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk delivered a speech at the National Assembly in Ankara implying the precautions taken against the communist movement spreading after the revolution in Russia saying, “We have founded a Communist Party in Ankara with the involvement of ethical and reliable friends who think the same way to avoid possible losses because of these movements. We are not telling you not to think freely. Think, but properly.”2 Soon after this speech, in 1922, one of Turkey’s leading advocates of communism, Mustafa Suphi was shot in Trabzon and thrown into the Black Sea... As Lefebvre said: “Change life! Change society! These precepts mean nothing without the production of an appropriate space.” While ChristovBakargiev invites us to think about different political pasts through spaces, she also offers suggestions on the very way of thinking and she does this by bringing quite different approaches such as oceanography and theosophy together as well as adding to imaginary venues to the exhibition: an orphanage (French Orphanage), a beach (Riva) and the former Italian workers’ association building (Casa Garibaldi). If everything starts by leaving, you can also abandon your ways of thinking where you stand, that’s what’s offered. There has never been another era in the history of Istanbul where this multicultural, multireligious

1 Rizzo Palace, Büyükada, İstanbul,©Courtesy of Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts 2 Küçük Mustafa Pasha Hammam, Fatih, İstabul, © Courtesy of Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts 3 Old Galatasaray Building, Beyoğlu, İstanbul, © Courtesy of Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts

composition has faced such destructive power, which maliciously aims to turn a city renowned worldwide with its beauty into a concrete and plastic pastiche with the greed of neoliberal consumption motives. ChristovBakargiev’s selection of venues outside the accustomed tray of exhibiting spaces is a reaction against the erratic urban transformation and speedy destruction of collective memory. These buildings, almost all of which were constructed by the Levantines, carry along a common memory of being the target of destruction by way of genocide or murder. İstanbul tarihindeki çok kültürlü, çok dinli yapının bugüne kadar yok edilmek için çaba gösterildiği, estetik güzelliği ile dünyada nam salmış bir şehri gittikçe en kötüsünden neoliberal tüketim estetiğiyle karışmış oryantalist tavırla betonlaştıran ve plastikleştiren bir devir daha olmamıştır. ChristovBakargiev’in klasik sergileme alanları dışında seçtiği mekanlar şehrin tutarsız dönüşümü ve hafızanın kısa sürede yok oluşuna karşı bir tavır. Hemen hepsi Levantenler tarafından üretilmiş bu binaların halen ayakta olmakla birlikte soykırım ve cinayetlerle yok edilmeye çalışılan ortak bir bellekleri var. The Biennial will be hosted in two other remarkable venues: the Armenian Anarad Hığutyun School which was established in 1903 and

did serve as an educational institution until 2004 only to become home to the Hrant Dink Foundation (founded after the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist and Editor-in-chief of the Agos daily) and the Agos daily after extensive reconstruction in 2015 as well as the original headquarters of the foundation and the newspaper in Pangaltı. The murder of Hrant Dink, which is just one of the chain of nationalism-based assassinations in Turkey’s history, left its heavy mark on both the city’s and the people’s memory. Should we also mention that 2015 is the centenary of the Armenian Genocide?.. The Yeldeğirmeni neighborhood, where Tunca Subaşı and Çağrı Saray’s workshops are located, is one of the symbolic resistance points which have developed in the city during the last few years. The occupation movement, which emerged as a civil resistance during the Gezi incidents and gradually grew, is a modern way of resistance of the civil society against the state. During the incidents in 2013, the meetings held in the parks and public squares around the city could well have been the only places ordinary individuals found the opportunity to express themselves before a crowd. Yeldeğirmeni continues to serve as a representative space for struggle by a group of people who refuse to live their lives as dictated by the neoliberal

apparatus. Almost all of the venues where we have become accustomed to see art in Beyoğlu have their places in the Biennial’s list of venues. The Pera Museum, ARTER, Istanbul Modern, Salt Galata, Kasa Gallery, Depo and Casa Garibaldi have always been frequented by viewers. Most of them have quite singular histories, too. For example, Casa Garibaldi was the building of Italian Workers’ Association, DEPO used to be a tobacco warehouse and ARTER carried the name of Meymaret Han which was built in 1910s by architect Petraki Meymaridis. Another interesting venue is the FLO shoe store, which was built on Istiklal Street at the end of the 19th century and came to be known as Anadolu Pasajı. It seems Christov-Bakargiev aims to shake this history-laden city by the roots. While facing the past on one hand, she is trying to inject hope, regeneration and discovery on the other. Who knows, maybe knots tied to the breaking parts of our lives may, one day, become strong and tight. However, it is a knot and shall always remain so. Christov-Bakargiev wonders if waves could be lines trying to mingle with each other and become knots. That is up to the physicists to find out while the dreamers are busy with imagining new waves to come. Meanwhile, millions of plankton are racing around underwater, unaware of genocides, wars, rage and ethnic discrimination...

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PINAR ÖĞRENCİ

Francis Alys Pınar Öğrenci wrote an experimental article about Francis Alÿs and the making of his video installation for the 14th Istanbul Biennial, in Kars, Ani.

he Belgian artist Francis Alÿs (1959, Antwerp) living in Mexico studies engineering in Venice (1978-93), after studying history of architecture in Tournai (1978-93). In the wake of the big 1985 Mexico City Earthquake, Alÿs goes to Mexico City with a Belgian team. He works in rehabilitation and reconstruction projects for 22 months with a civil group. Following this process, Alÿs decides to live in Mexico City and begins his art career. Alistair Hicks, in his book ‘The Global Art Compass’, says “If New York was not so powerful in the collective imagination of the art world Mexico City would be the

most befitting center of the emerging art in the Americas.” *1. Moreover he adds; “it is a city geographically more centralized, intellectually more transparent, open and positive, with a better capability of understanding rhythm and time, and very apt for making art.” There are many public or private museums in this city which is cheaper almost by thirty percent than Istanbul. In many university museums, such as MUAC (Museo Universitario Arte Contemporaneo / Contemporary Art University Museum) in particular since Cuauhtémoc Medina is its curator, there is an open potential ranging from newly graduated artists to world stars and this is also true for

Francis Alÿs, Behind the scenes of video installation 'Silence of Ani', Ani, Kars, Turkey Armenia border, May, 2015 © Pınar Öğrenci

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1 ‘A Story of Negotiation’ Exhibition, Image from Afganistan Series, Mexico City, March, 2015 ©Pınar Öğrenci 2 Kars Gülahmet Aytemiz Fine Arts School students, ‘Silence of Ani’ video shooting, behind the camera images, Kars, Ani, Turkey Armenia border, May, 2015 ©Pınar Öğrenci 3 Kars Gülahmet Aytemiz Fine Arts School students, ‘Silence of Ani’ video shooting, behind the camera images, Kars, Ani, Turkey Armenia border, May, 2015 ©Pınar Öğrenci 4 Kars Gülahmet Aytemiz Fine Arts School students, ‘Silence of Ani’ video shooting, behind the camera images, Kars, Ani, Turkey Armenia border, May, 2015 ©Pınar Öğrenci 5 'A Story of Negotiation' Exhibition, Installation images from ’Don’t Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River' series, Mexico City, March, 2015 ©Pınar Öğrenci 6 'A Story of Negotiation' Exhibition, Installation images from ’Don’t Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River' series, Mexico City, March, 2015 ©Pınar Öğrenci

Working collectively is an indispensable part of Francis Alÿs's artistic production. He has worked together with Cuauhtémoc Medina on many collaborative projects, for example, in works such as 'Barrenderos',' Bridge ',' When Faith Moves Mountains’ we see Medina leading the operations. The curator Medina goes into action just like an artist as he transports indoors modes of production, such as exhibition production and writing, to the streets and everyday life.

curators. The fragmented architecture of MUAC is convenient for holding several exhibitions simultaneously. During the time I have been there, I had the opportunity to see important names such as Hito Steyrl, Raqs Media Collective, William Kentridge, Sarah Minter and many group exhibitions simultaneously. There are many art initiatives thanks to the funds provided to young artists or curators by the state, museums or universities; Soma, Biquan Wax, RATE, Lulu, Crater İnvertido were among the initiatives I could visit. Everyone I demanded a meeting with opened their doors and welcomed me in this city where artists and curators are extremely genuine, hearty and open; the art world was indeed really positive. It was not hard for me to guess Francis Alÿs’s reasons for leaving Europe to settle in Mexico City. Francis Alÿs whose artistic practice varies from performance, to painting, video and animation is known for his poetic-political work. Alÿs addresses issues such as social practices, social hierarchy and conflict areas, border, immigration and refugee problems, by means of personal memory and collective mythology. Street as a place of production and the act of ‘walking’ to which he assigns a performative meaning, have an important role in Alÿs’s art practice. In the animation titled ‘The Last Clown’ (2001) the Mexican curator Cuauhtémoc Medina, with whom Alÿs worked together on many projects, is so preoccupied and pensive that he does not see the dog passing in front of him and falls to the ground. Alÿs’s performative walks have the characteristics of a reaction or resistance against bringing public space under control. He leaves us tête-à-tête with the contemporary interpretation of Charles Baudelaire’s concept ‘flaneur’ which was elaborated by Walter Benjamin.*.2 Alÿs, who uses the street as a space of ‘action’ like the Situationist activists, sees it also as a depository of images which

sets the artist in motion. This idea manifests itself symbolically in his first performance ‘The Collector (Mexico City, 1991) in which he takes out on a walk in the street a toy dog equipped with magnets, and the dog collects the metal objects on the street. The artist has an impact on the street just like the street has an impact on him, and he leaves behind traces. Alÿs who walks on the street pulling the ropes of his sweater in ‘The Looser / The Winner’ (2006), walks on the armistice border in Jerusalem known as the ‘green line’ in his ‘ Green Line ‘(Jerusalem, 2005) performance and marks the streets with the green paint leaking from the paint can in his hand. In ‘Barrenderos’ (Sweepers, Mexico City, 2004), cleaning workers create a huge barricade out of garbage by sweeping the garbage on the streets. He drags a large block of ice that melts away to nothing in ‘Paradox of Praxis 1 (1997). Alÿs’s works have a fluid and slippery aspect. Objects and people are on the move and they transform themselves just like in the scene where paint pours out of its can into the street or that of the metal dog which enlarges as it collects objects, the scene of the dismantling sweater, of the melting ice or of the car hitting the tree. The relationship between transformation and movement reaches its climax in symbolic terms in the performance ‘When Faith Moves Mountains’ (Lima, 2002). With 500 volunteers, each relocating a shovel full of sand, Alÿs changes the location of a geographical dune by a few inches. Alÿs’s video series ‘Children’s Game’ that initiates with # 1 Caracoles “(Snails, Mexico City, 1999) goes on in various cities of countries like Mexico, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Jordan. Alÿs who uses the street as an indispensable ‘field’ of artistic production, this time gives the turn to perform over to the children. The gloomy atmosphere of cities surrounded by war, poverty or violence becomes invisible for a while thanks

to the frivolous, pure and cheerful body movements of children flying kites, dancing, playing marbles and rolling hoops. The harsh scene of the real world becomes blurred in the company of children’s fantasy world. Children’s games are nourished by the relationship between the fantasy world and poverty. There is still hope for children in the wretched and miserable streets where poor lives prevail. Children still manage to play games even in all kinds of poverty, for the restricted and closed world of poverty triggers the imagination. Nermin Saybaşılı touches upon the subject of ‘children and games’ in border regions, in her book ‘Sınırlar ve Hayaletler’ (Borders and Ghosts) in which she investigates the migratory movements of visual culture. Children in borderlands play the same type of games like all other children; but rather than toys they use completely different materials. For example, instead of playing the ball they throw homemade bombs to the opposite party or instead of playing hide and seek, they secretly watch the positions of the ‘enemy’ and observe his weak spots. *3 Indeed, in Alysia’s work ‘#15 Espejos’ (Mirrors; Juarez, 2013) from his series Children’s Games, children playing a game similar to hide and seek in abandoned houses hold up to the sun pieces of broken glass which they have collected from the houses and thus mark the enemy, when the sunlight hits the enemy’s body they pretend to be shot and fall to the ground. We observe that in the film Reel Unreel (Kabul, Afghanistan, 2011) which Alÿs shot for dOCUMENTA (13), the Children’s Games series turns into a visual feast. We discover the city through the eyes of two boys who unwind a reel of film through the streets of Kabul; we enter and exit the narrow streets of Kabul, pass bridges, blend in with the market crowd, enter the courtyards of mosques and madrasas and get

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out of the traffic. Showing children’s games in this film series in question, Alÿs maintains his relationship to daily life and the street while at the same time he gives an idea about the social and economic structure, the architecture and geography, the music and colors of the city in which the film is shot. ‘Children’s Games’ series is autobiographical in a sense; painting the streets in ‘Green Line’ correlates to ‘painting’ and children rolling a reel of film correlate to ‘video’ production. Francis Alÿs refines and updates some of his performances by repeating them in different times and places. In his performances he and his players

often change places. Children, street sweepers, sailors or fishermen take an active role in his performances. Alÿs (Paradox of Praxis 5, Juarez, 2014) who walks the streets of Juarez passing around a ball of fire, Mexico’s extremely dangerous city that comes to the fore with acts of kidnapping and narco-trafficking, replaces the child who was rolling a reel of film in Kabul. He often includes ‘line’ as a form in his performances, videos and paintings. Street vendors lined side by side in ‘Tourist’ (Mexico City, 1994), symbolic bridges he builds on the sea with fishermen or children, volunteers lined row after row in

Peru on sand dunes and the marks he leaves behind with paint on the streets always consist of either flat or curved lines. These performances of Alÿs that oscillate between action and fiction are immensely pictorial; especially the last scene has been constructed in advance like a picture. Working collectively is an indispensable part of Francis Alÿs’s artistic production. He has worked together with Cuauhtémoc Medina on many collaborative projects, for example, in works such as ‘Barrenderos’,’ Bridge ‘,’ When Faith Moves Mountains’ we see Medina leading the operations. The curator Medina goes into action just like an artist as he transports indoors modes

of production, such as exhibition production and writing, to the streets and everyday life. The street and the life outside, as alternative to the museum, gallery or institution, are also places of production for Medina. During the interview we did with Medina, he told us that working with Francis Alÿs, for him, has the characteristics of a performance and that Alÿs is one of the artists who thrill him the most. In the texts included in his book ‘A Story of Negotiation’ Alÿs mentions the names of artists such as Cándido López (Buenos Aires, 1840-1902) and Robert Smithson (New Jersey, 19381973) who has influenced him while visiting a gallery or museum, in the production stages of his works. In the same manner, he lays emphasis on collective production by writing in big letters the names of the director, cameraman, musician and sound designer he collaborates with on the walls of exhibition halls, and by including them in public sessions. His demeanor galvanizes, activates and excites one. The director Julien Devaux and the sound designer Félix Blume, the Belgian artists I met during my assistantship in Kars, Ani, have gone to Mexico City for one of Alÿs’s projects and never returned, having decided to stay there. Alÿs has attracted them to Mexico City as well, like the magnet in ‘The Collector.’ Alÿs’ exhibition at the Tamayo Museum opens with a landscape painting cut in half by a drill after it has been hanged on the museum wall, after the museum wall has also been scratched; this beginning hints at the fragmented narrative that we will come across later on. The dual-channel video ‘Do not Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River,’ (2008) in which children carrying small sailboats made out of slippers in their hands, swim across to each other from the opposite coasts of Morocco and Spain in the blue waters of the Mediterranean, welcomes you to the exhibition with an easy and fluent feeling, later on the tempo of the exhibition slows down. We come across first ‘Tornado’ (Milpa Alta, Mexico City; 2000-2010) and

then ‘Kabul’ which Alÿs produced for dOCUMENTA (13), included in the Afghanistan series. In his ‘Tornado’ video, Alÿs runs towards a tornado which he sees from afar with a camera in his hand, in a desert in Mexico, and eventually he enters inside the tornado. Alÿs who has profoundly increased the dose of adrenalin, this time round enters the battlefield and describes himself as a ‘War Artist’ in his next ‘Afghanistan’ series. The artist who was passing around a ball of fire in ‘Paradox of Praxis 5’, was this time really ‘playing with fire’. *4 If we consider that the battlefield also looks like a tornado, these two successive series took one’s breath away. We bid farewell to the exhibition with the installation ‘Silence’ (20032010) which invites the audience to keep quiet and be silent. The ‘hush’ image on dozens of small rugs made out of rubber, invited us to silently contemplate on the reality of social contradictions which were presented to us with an intensely poetic narrative. I wondered whether ‘water, air, fire and earth,’ the four basic elements of the Earth came together by chance in this exhibition. The curator Medina told me that they noticed this with Alÿs while installing the exhibition together but that they had not planned it in advance, and told me that I had a point. This exhibition which I tried to briefly explain reaffirmed and refreshed my faith in art. There was a significant distance, separation between the series of Francis Alÿs which he enriches with tiny paintings, drawings, photographs, maps and archival materials, and the insensitive world of the large, expensive and flashy installations which we see in biennials or art fairs. His works are not only poetic as it is much claimed, but their inquisitive and genuine approach to the subject matter also takes you much closer to Him. Alÿs is after a multiple narrative revealing to the audience, processes of research and thought taking place at the production stage of the works. Like in his performances, he had also a fluid, light and fragmented narrative in his paintings and his paintings as

K A T K I L A R I N D A N D O L AY I TEŞEKKÜRLERİMİZLE W I T H S P EC I A L T H A N KS TO

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well many of his performances had no beginning or end. The narrative form of Alÿs, who contrary to the Modernist rational approach is against the whole, which he replicates by writings and drawings, reminded one of the reflexes of an author who jumps from one thought to another, from one image to another, constantly taking notes; and the small size of his paintings made one think that they were made during travels. ‘Silence of Ani’ video work which Francis c produced for the 14th Istanbul Biennial might be considered a continuation of his ‘Children’s Games’ series, but with a twist; this time the artist himself has set the game. The artist who came to Turkey after being invited to the Istanbul Biennial, visited the Turkey - Armenia border and he was intensely influenced by Ani’s abandoned appearance and its silence. With Alÿs who decided to build his work on the theme of ‘silence,’ we went to Kars during the last week of May to shoot his video titled ‘Silence of Ani.’ Our plan was to organize together with Özkan Cangüven the shootings and then return to Istanbul on the day of elections and vote. We started by rehearsing the music composed by the musician Antonio Fernández Ros with a group of students from the Kars Gülahmet Aytemiz Güzel Sanatlar Lisesi (Kars Gülahmet Aytemiz Fine Arts High School) and their teacher Seda Durukan Eren. The children were quite cheerful and they enjoyed spending time outdoors rather than crowding in classrooms. The fact that the team came outside of Kars furthermore thrilled them. I knew this feeling very well since I grew up in a small town like Van. During the summers, I waited impatiently for the days that our relatives from Istanbul would visit the town. Children from the West were more joyful, women more relaxed, men more friendly, or so it seemed to me. I believe this is how it felt to experience what is called ‘rural boredom,’ being in contact always with the same small circle of people. The children became friendly at once with us, the girls were fascinated by Julien Devaux and Felix Blume, the director and the sound designer Francis Alÿs collaborates with, and the boys lined up just to have a brief chat with me. The children had Antonio Fernández Ros, with whom they worked, cornered at every opportunity, and while communicating pretty successfully with their poor English, they learnt by experience, perhaps for the first time in their lives, how important it is to learn a foreign language. We met in the

early hours of the morning every day and worked until dawn for a whole week. After the team became friendly enough with one another, we began singing together on the way back home in the evenings and our trips together became quite entertaining. On the way to Ani, 40 minutes away from Kars, Alÿs would always ask questions, scribble notes and make small drawings on the papers he had in his hands. Pen and paper were tools that complemented/completed his thoughts. He kept writing and drawing at all hours of the day and night – while discussing something with Julien, Félix ve Antonio, during a meal or while sipping his coffee, on the way back home in the evenings – and he somehow managed to keep his notes orderly and organized. The picturesque image of the walks we took, in long queues following each other, on narrow pathways of Ani covered with green grass and church ruins is still in front of my eyes today. Sometimes Francis would stray away from the path and disappear just to appear again from behind another hill, and we would be walking, lined in rows, just like in His performances. On the last day, there was no end of the hugging and kissing, bidding farewell to one another and everyone was trying to conceal the tears in their eyes. The historical city of Ani, which dates back to the 5th century, becomes the capital of the Bagratid Armenian Kingdom in the early 11th century and it is called the ‘City of 1001 Churches’ due to the large number of churches it has. The city which is an important commercial and cultural center on the Silk Road is repeatedly destroyed and besieged by the Seljuks, Byzantines, Mongolians, Persians and the Ottomans during the Middles Ages. In the middle of the 18th century, Ani is completely deserted. At the turn of the 19th century, Russian archeologist and

orientalist Nicholas Marr rediscovers Ani and begins excavations. During that period Ani becomes a serious laboratory for researchers and first scientific restorations begin. Research and excavation works come to a halt during the battles of the World War I, and the city gets once again severely damaged and it is abandoned. While writing this article, I am listening to the album ‘Dance Das Cabeças’ by the Brazilian musician Egberto Gismonti. The introduction of this album that begins with bird calls takes me, over over again, back to Ani. In the ‘Silence of Ani’ each child took the place of a bird and they began calling one another using the instruments in their hands which made bird sounds. For a while, the children, appearing and disappearing behind the hills among the ruins, would communicate with scattered and irregular sounds, but after a while the sounds they made would merge into a melody. Alÿs’ poetic style had melted down the sharpness of borders producing hostilities, and invited them

to peace. The sound of birds crossed the border and reached Armenia, calling their friends back to the lands where they once lived in brotherhood/ sisterhood…. n

Footnotes: 1Hicks Alistair, The Global Art Compass, New Directions in 21th Century Art, 2014, p:15 2 Heiser Jörg, “Walk on the Wild Side”, Frieze Magazine, September 2002, web. 24 Aug. 2011 3 Saybaşılı Nermin, Sınırlar ve Hayaletler, Görsel Kültürde Göç Hareketleri, (Borders and Ghosts, Migratory Movements in Visual Culture ) Metis, 2005,p:66-67 4 ‘Don’t play with fire!’ (‘Ateşle oynama!’) is a Turkish idiom told to those who take risks and put themselves at great danger.

PARALLEL EVENT

MERVE AKAR AKGÜN

How did we get here "How did we get here" delves into Turkey’s recent history through the social movements and popular culture of the era after the September 12 coup d’état. It can be seen in SALT Beyoğlu and SALT Galata from September 3 till November 29, 2015.

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e talked about the exhibition process with curators Merve Elveren and Erman Ata Uncu through archival materials including TV commercials, magazines, photographs, video recordings and films. And Tuğrul Eryılmaz joined us to talk about publishing in the 80’s. Merve Akar Akgün: Hi Merve, hi Erman. Before going into publishing, could you tell us about “How did we get here”? Merve Elveren: “How did we get here” is part of the five-year program “The Uses of Art - The Legacy of 1848 and 1989” organized the L’Internationale Confederation. It provides examples of different civil resistance movements, which started with the September 12 coup and lasted until mid-90’s, by people who lacked political representation such as feminists, environmentalists, gay rights activists and human rights defenders. Comprising mostly archival materials, the exhibition also includes works of artists Halil Altındere, Serdar Ateşer, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Barış Doğrusöz, Ayşe Erkmen, Esra Ersen and Hale Tenger that focus on the period. The exhibition is designed by Esen Karol and it mainly focuses on that fact that the oppressive environment following the end of martial law still existed during the emergence of these social movements. The neoliberal policies of the ANAP government seemed

to promise individual freedom, but military oppression was always coming along. This was a period where people tried to clear a space to breathe under very restricted conditions. Erman Ata Uncu: It is also possible to trace this bottleneck and the search for new outlets back to the Turkish cinema. Anayurt Oteli (Motherland Hotel), which is screened in the exhibition, reflects the suspenseful climate of the period and shows what “waiting” could feel like in a city other than Istanbul. Erden Kıral’s Hakkari’de Bir Mevsim (A Season in Hakkari), an adaptation of a novel by Ferit Edgü, points at a situation, which is otherwise very difficult to tell in the exhibition. It is a seminal work, which many people we talked and interviewed during the research process regard as the first moment they had become aware of the Kurdish issue. Şerif Gören’s On Kadın (Ten Women) where Türkan Şoray gives life to different types of women tells us about almost all social actions of the period from “Caretta Caretta” to feminist struggle. Another example of women’s cinema is Aahh Belinda, but not with the famous bathroom scene, instead with the mental hospital scene that reflects the mood of Turkey in the 80’s. T. E.: Müjde Ar is an icon, a symbol! She is the embodiment of women’s movement in cinema. Even Türkan

Şoray regretted not accepting the lead role in her Aahh Belinda. Müjde Ar is the symbol of women’s liberation in Turkish cinema. She is the woman who makes love with flesh and blood. She makes mistakes, too. She is the woman we all know. She defies oppression. I adore Müjde Ar; she has always acted in movies of this kind with a keen sense of awareness. M. E.: Of course these movies take their place in the exhibition with reference to or in connection with the other topics in the show. Take Anayurt Oteli for example; we see it side by side with the Intellectuals’ Petition which is the first collective movement and the most widespread call to democracy after the September 12 coup d’état. T. E.: We were working in Nokta at the time of the Intellectuals’ Petition. We were in Davutpaşa... It still sounds funny: The guy asked me if the signature was mine and I said, “Yes”. He then asked me “Where did it come from?” I would have given a different reply today, but I remember saying, “I don’t know. I found it on my table and signed it, because I approve it.” M. E.: Not to mention any names? T. E.: Yes. Everyone has a different story certainly, but I do not remember how we reached a collective decision. How could we? It was strange. E.A.U.: In addition to wide-based actions like the Intellectuals’ Petition,

social movements focusing on certain topics also form an integral part of the exhibition. For example the environmentalist campaign ‘Caretta Caretta’ which was started by a small group grew into a government funded campaign and became the symbol of environmentalist demonstrations with its logo designed by Sadık Karamustafa. M.E.: We can see different bands of the era coming together in concerts and demonstrations organized to draw attention to the hunger strikes which started with the August 1 Memorandum and lasted throughout 1989. And the construction boom in the city, protests against thermal power plants, the transformation of Kazlıçeşme, the ‘Solidarity Campaign Against Violence’ of women’s movement in 1987 and Ajda Pekkan’s Eurovision Song “Petrol” become interconnected and find their place in “How did we get here”. E.A.U.: The ‘Human Rights Now, Not Tomorrow’ concerts are also examples of a new form of action that started towards the end of the 80’s. Inspired by the ‘Human Rights Now’ concerted broadcast live by TRT, this concert is a sign of the 80’s generation’s quest to develop new form of unity in approaching social issues. The Sokak (meaning street in Turkish) magazine is another outlet where this search becomes visible.

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M. A. A.: Headed by Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Sokak is the most original publication of its time and serves a guide in the exhibition to the social movements of the 80’s. Covers of Sokak greet us in the entrance and then tour starts from the September 12 coup until the mid90s without a chronological order. M.E: Yes, Sokak was published from 1989 till 1990 with writers of differing backgrounds and opinions and covering political articles and news as well as popular culture. It stands alone among other magazines of the 80’s with its relatively young team. T. E.: Imagine, I was the oldest one and I was not even forty-five. M. A. A.: For how long did you publish Sokak? T. E.: Lasted only a year and then went bankrupt, because there were no ads. M. A. A.: Did you intentionally avoid ads? T. E.: Not at all! We didn’t have such concerns. On the contrary, we tried hard but no one placed ads with us. People found it very strange. We should have experience ‘Gezi’ to get used to such a magazine. Sokak was some kind of ‘Gezi’ in itself, as if we had foreseen what would happen after three decades and planted the seeds then. ‘Gezi’ and I met when I was 65; I went to that park, felt younger and cherished my contribution even if no one actually thought so. When I looked to see what those youngsters were doing, I saw people spread around like the pages of Sokak, and they were together. M. A. A.: Are you the originator of Sokak? T. E.: We were. İpek Çalışlar, Nadire Mater, Yıldırım Türker, Murat Çelikkan... Then Neyyire Özkan, who now runs the new Sokak as a supplement to the Cumhuriyet daily, joined us. Yes, we might have fallen apart afterwards, but that is how Sokak came into existence. It was

published every week for a year. M. A. A.: Could you tell me the story? T. E.: We were a bunch of people wishing to do journalism and felt terribly desperate. There was not a single opposing voice in Turkey, or a different opposing voice. That’s what we thought. Some adopted an orthodox leftism –which I have no objection to– and some adopted the Özalist liberalism. The people had to hear a different voice. At first, we thought we would be that voice, but when we started we –to our surprise– realized that we actually set out to be mediators for those who had something different to say. Not all of us were gays, anti-militarists, socialists, feminists or defenders of human rights, but we were all of them at the same time! Why not give these people a voice, we said... What we could do as a favor for the intimidated voices in the society was to pave the road for them to walk on... Not everybody writes a novel or makes ideological analyses as ‘intellectual responsibility’ dictates. We were journalists who did not want to be ordinary. We could do the crafty work and let the people speak. We needed to work with a lot of young people who had not conditioned themselves or been divided into camps and factions. We just wanted to be and walk with them. For example, we maintained a strong leftist opposition at the Yeni Gündem daily where social opposition started. The ‘bisexuals’, ‘feminists’ and ‘gays’ who were published in Yeni Gündem caused unrest. In Sokak we beautified, sanctified or dehumanized no one. Unknowingly, we started to use the language of peace. There were no such discussions at that time; it has just started to flourish lately. We would say, “Let’s remove this phrase.” “Why?” “Gypsies will be hurt.” “Ah, that would be a shame!” Our policy was based on a code of good manners; we

had no ideological background. Still we were received well by the people. We were selling 8–10 thousand copies a week when we shut it down. M. A. A.: Did you use your own finances until the end? T. E.: Yes, we bankrupted 1 million Turkish Liras and shut the magazine down. That’s the story. Friends who had more money gave more and we took less for salary. The worst thing a journalist can say is “I have a mission”. I hate ‘mission’ journalism… A journalist uses what he or she has and all that needs to be done is to be just to everyone and reflect everything equally. In those years, the lack of different voices was so stark that we made it a mission for ourselves. The team was set up accordingly; no one should be like the other. Yes, none of the team members were like the other, but they came together at the least common denominator; in a sense, they were like each other. We had dedicated Marxists and feminists, too. We talked to people who had devoted their lives to Gay Liberation and photographed them. There was no talk of LGBT as you might guess. We were beyond our time and we even believed we could make a difference and turn things around, but to no avail. It was early and, speaking after the dead may not be very tactful but, Thatcher and Reagan over there and Özal here, together turned our lives into hell. We constantly sought for a new way to continue our opposition, whereas we didn’t need to. What does a journalist do? Inspect the state for the public. How? Writes about corruption and political crises... As I say, Sokak was different. We would concern ourselves about being biased if when we talked about politics. Even reaching a decision on how much to like Gorbachev and how much to oppose him had once become a pain for us. M. E.: So, Sokak had a critical stance with equal distance to everyone.

T. E.: Exactly, that was all there is to it. Finding the balance was overreaching for us, but who else would do it. M. A. A.: 8–10 thousand was quite a good number for sales. T. E.: Of course, it was unbelievable. Once we even sold 15 thousand copies. Sokak published the first interview with Abdullah Öcalan in Turkey. How unbelievable! How daring! I would not make such a bold move today. M. A. A.: Who interviewed him? T. E.: Yalçın Küçük. But let me add this, we were quite professional. Even in 1989, we covered his accommodation and travel expenses. No one spoke of Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish issue was first raised in 1985. Still we interviewed him. Later on we discussed it a lot whether or not it was the right move. I still ask myself if that interview was necessary for Sokak. It, surely, was tempting for us at that time. Today, I would have preferred to wait for some time to publish it, or maybe have had a different cover design. That was the temptation of being the first to do something, a sickness journalists suffer from... M. A. A.: How was the publishing world in general at that time? What were others doing while you were publishing Sokak? T. E.: Yeni Gündem shut down as a magazine with more emphasis on politics and some on social opposition whereas Sokak was all about news on social opposition. Big story, small story did not matter. Nokta magazine lost its power to lead public opinion long after it lost its ability to set the agenda, which was its function in the beginning. We published Nokta first in 1982. Ercan Arıklı called us and said: “Right now, Turkey needs a new magazine with more political emphasis”. Then the team changed; either they sacked us or we left... I went back to Nokta

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We constantly sought for a new way to continue our opposition, whereas we didn’t need to. What does a journalist do? Inspect the state for the public. How? Writes about corruption and political crises... As I say, Sokak [Street] was different. We would concern ourselves about being biased if when we talked about politics. Even reaching a decision on how much to like Gorbachev and how much to oppose him had once become a pain for us.

in 1990 as the chief editor. They wanted it to recover from the dropping circulation. I worked there for about a year and reached 18 thousand copies, which was way below the 100 thousand back in its heyday. The outcomes of the September 12 coup were evident; the people had become apolitical. M. E.: I guess the readers’ profile had gradually changed from the beginning of 80’s towards its end. Is it also a defining factor? T. E.: Exactly. Not covering Yılmaz Güney’s Palme d’Or win in Cannes did not concern a generation of young readers at all! E.A.U.: We can see many of the magazines published from 1980 through 1993 in the exhibition “How Did We Get Here”. The fields and contents differ greatly, and women’s and men’s magazines hold an important place among them. T. E.: Sure. For example, women’s magazines were her achievement and she should certainly be mention in Turkey’s magazine publishing history. With a few touches, she turned a simple women’s magazine into a feminist one, which is Kadınca. However the same does not apply to Erkekçe; they constantly objectified the female body. It targeted educated male population and was not a bad magazine, still the topics in discussion

would be around whether Turkish men like boobs or booties. There was also the Yazko magazine published by the Writers’ Cooperative. Aktüel and Tempo, which later entered the scene, were magazines “published by people from the west in the east”. They avoided too much politics, preferred nice layouts, printed beautiful women’s photos and did not pay much attention to the realities of the public. They were not comparable to Yeni Gündem or Sokak. M. A. A.: What was the situation with the newspapers? T. E.: Terrible. The Cumhuriyet daily was under pressure because it changed hands. Freedom of expression and press could not be mentioned, there was none. You had to write and surrender yourself; the other option was not possible. Just have a look at the headlines after the coup, they are terrifying! M. E.: Sokak is not only a publication composed of news. For example, there is a game mocking YÖK (Turkey’s Council of Higher Education) titled “Let’s see if you can finish” and you cannot progress. It tells us about the education system of the time, the students’ concerns for accommodation and desire to live together, the tuitions and lecturers who were suspended. T. E.: Anything that was current but not sensational and was left out by

the mainstream media either because they feared or found them boring was our topic. We always tried to remain current and topical, that was our motto. The forgotten names in Turkey would make a 30–40 page news story. The best were all forgotten. Take Özcan Tekgül for example, I am proud to have covered her on our front page. She was the woman my father adored. Even I could not reach her times. M. A. A.: Did you have a model or inspiration for Sokak? T. E.: None. However, we took Times and Newsweek while publishing Nokta. Yeni Gündem had a flavor of Tempo. I am not exactly sure, but we might have been inspired a little by Village Voice when publishing Sokak, in a very general sense. Also I worked a freelancer for Time Out in London; that was another influence. But remember, I am talking about the 70s and Time Out was an underground magazine at that time. The AngloSaxons really impressed me. Today, Sokak lives as a supplement to the Cumhuriyet daily with its first issue published on March 8, 2015. Tuğrul Eryılmaz told them: “You made it too proper kids”, because in 1989, the original team avoided the proper and strived to be just like the “street”. nx

1 “Human Rights Now” press conference, 22.08.1989 Archive: Murat Çelikkan 2 Tarlabaşı Boulevard, 1986-1988 SALT Research, Harika-Kemali Söylemezoğlu Archive 3 18 year-old Mehmet Akif Dalcı was killed during the May 1 International Workers’ Day rally in 1989 when police opened fire. Police also attacked Dalcı’s funeral ceremony held in Zeytinburnu on May 4, and smashed the Sokak [Street] magazine photographer Yücel Tunca’s camera. Photograph: Ali Tevfik Berber Archive: Sokak 4 Sokak [Street], Issue 9, March 1989 Archive: Murat Öneş 5 Women in Black, 09.08.1989 Archive: Murat Çelikkan 6 Didar Şensoy funeral, 05.09.1987 Archive: İbrahim Eren

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NICK HACKWORTH

The Arab Spring Coinciding with Istanbul Biennale, Galerist will show, for first time in its entirety, The Arab Spring Notebook, a series of powerful ink drawings that record El-Salahi’s passionate and personal response to the revolutionary spirit of those events; prejudice and inequality, and inequality leads to oppression, and revolt.

brahim El-Salahi recently said of the recent level of recognition afforded his work: “To come in from the cold after all this time is a wonderful thing”. Approaching his 85th birthday, Ibrahim El-Salahi is now widely seen by curators and museums around the world as one of the most important, living African artists and a godfather of African and Arabic modernism. It’s a judgment that was underscored by depth and range of his retrospective at the Tate Modern in 2013, the first retrospective given by the Tate to an African artist. From his early expressive paintings influenced by his studies in London, to elegant works from his ‘Khartoum School’ period inspired by the aesthetics of Arabic calligraphy, to his austere beauty of his The Tree series, El-Salahi has produced work that speaks to and

from multiple cultures; School of Art in Sudanese, African, London in the Arabic, Islamic (El1950’s. On his Salahi is a practicing return to Sudan the Muslim) and Western, cultural distance it has succeeded in between the doing so principally Modernist language because, like almost all he’d encountered great art, it has spoken in the West and the authentically with the tastes and aesthetics one voice that matters of his own culture most, his own. became a critical The complexity and issue for him and drama of El-Salahi’s he spent much art has mirrored of the following, İbrahim El-Salahi ©Beth De Woody, that of his personal formative, decade Courtesy of Vigo gallery and the artist journey. Born in 1930 deepening his in Omdurman, Sudan, to an Islamic understanding of the art and literature teacher, El-Salahi became fascinated being produced across Africa and the with art whilst studying at Khartoum’s Arab work. He participated in the Gordon Memorial College, before famous Mbari Artists and Writers Club winning a scholarship to The Slade in Nigeria and led Sudanese delegations

to seminal pan-African festivals in the 1960’s. Throughout this time El-Salahi, alongside art making, worked for the Sudanese government, first in their embassy in London and subsequently in the country’s Ministry of Culture. This career came to an abrupt end when he was arrested and imprisoned without charge for six months by the regime, accused without evidence of involvement in a coup. After his release, El-Salahi sent himself into selfimposed exile. After spending time in Doha, as a cultural advisor to the Emir, El-Salahi settled in Oxford, England where he has dedicated himself solely to his art. n

Ibrahim El Salahi, Flamenco, 2010, Poster paint on cardboard, 86 x 88 cm

Ibrahim El Salahi, A Visual Diary of a Time Waste Palace, 1996 – 1997, Ink of Paper, 58.5 x 370.5 cm

Flamenco Series (2009 – 2011) A Visual Diary of a Time Waste Palace (1996 – 1997) One of El-Salahi’s most important works on paper, created on square blank books found in the Emir’s palace during his selfimposed exile from Sudan, in Doha where he acted as advisor to the Qatari government. Began on his 66th birthday the work took a year to finish. On completion, El-Salahi decided to dedicate his life solely to his art.

First exhibited at the Tate Modern in El-Salahi’s 2013 the Flamenco series of works were inspired by a trip to Andalusia at the invitation of art collector AbdulMagid Breish. “I first made small works in colour, to catch the impression left on me, especially of Alhambra… In Alhambra I noticed decorations on the walls that were the same as we used to do as children in the khalwa, when we decorated our slates with certain patterns after we had learned parts of the Quran.” Every evening El-Salahi attended flamenco performances and became fascinated by the dancing and the rhythm and quality of the sounds the dancers made with their feet. On his return home, he transformed those memories of sound into this beautiful series of paintings and drawings that also inspired by the forms be saw on the walls of the Alhambra.

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Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Tree 2003, Coloured inks on Bristol board, 76.5 x 76.5 cm

Ibrahim El Salahi, Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams I, 1961–5, Enamel paint and oil paint on cotton, 258 x 260 cm

Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams I (1961–5) Returning to Khartoum in 1957 after studying in London, El-Salahi began developing a new visual vocabulary comprising simple forms, strong lines and sombre colours inspired by his environment, rooted in Arabic and African forms and iconography and the Modernist aesthetic of the West. In this outstanding work, El-Salahi captures the fleeting, and often dramatic, moments when memory and dreams, past and present collide.

The Tree “It has been some time now, since I think the year 2000, that the idea came to me about this tree called ‘haraz’… it’s a huge tree with a very, very soft pulp – and there is a legend around it. They say that ‘haraz’ tree fought against the rain. Because during the rainy season and the flooding of the Nile, it is completely dry, with dry leaves, nothing at all… then during the drought it comes out with blooms and fruit and everything.” Symbolic of the contrary and the exceptional, the Haraz inspired a seminal series of abstract and coolly minimal drawings, nevertheless redolent with spiritual meaning.

Detail from Ibrahim El-Salahi’s Arab Spring Diaries, 201, Black Ink on paper, 10.5 x 14.5 cm

Ibrahim El Salahi, Calligraphic Forms III, 1989, Ink on paper, 135 x 135 cm

The Arab Spring Notebook (2011) Calligraphic Forms III (1989) A series of 46 black, ink drawings originally made in a single sketchbook, the work comprises El-Salahi’s response to the Arab Spring. A former political prisoner, he felt a deep and immediate, common cause with the revolutionary events, “…when [The Arab Spring] happened I rejoiced… because it brought down a huge mountain of injustice… [and a] pyramid of authority… Power, as we all know, breeds greed and greed breeds corruption, injustice and prejudice and inequality. And inequality leads to oppression, and revolt.”

The mask-like faces and earth tones of his early graphic works channel elements of Cubism and Surrealism alongside Muslim iconography, especially the compositional forms suggested by Arabic calligraphy.

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ELVİN VURAL

The new geography of fragmented belongings “Grandchildren: New Geographies of Belonging” exhibition addresses the last period paradoxes of the canon of ‘Armenian art’ that is formed with reference to 1915 and will take place at Depo Tophane between September 3rd and November 1st. The exhibition’s conceptual framework is developed by Silvina Der-Meguerditchian and supported by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Anadolu Kültür, Goethe Institute and Kulturakademie.

an would like to (be able to) die where he was born. During the normal course of his lifetime, man opens brackets such as walking, starting to talk, falling in love, graduating, getting married, having children and retiring. ‘Rites of passage’, that is to say transition phases that mediate to emphasize joys, blessings, acquired responsibilities and fresh beginnings, take place in-between most of these stages. Man, who takes his place in society as “himself”, in order to unite with one of these transition phases separates himself from his self which is his ‘avatar’ in society, completes his transition with various rituals and symbols, and returns to his social self as the transition comes to an end. Just like how the student, who on the morning of her graduation day walks on the stage with a cap and gown thrown over her clothes, has completed a transition the moment she came off the stage, remaining in her morning clothes, and she has achieved nothing tangible aside from having graduated instead of being still a student. Migration, and forced migration in particular, create a rupture in human life. This rupture is such that it would not be quite possible to join together the parts afterwards or to return to the self before the rupture. While these ruptures, in case of especially political in other words forced migrations, transform into non-healing wounds, the cultural grandchildren of the incident are born into migration stories of many years or even centuries ago. They shape their personalities around these stories and they find themselves trapped or in need of being trapped in the Limbo of these incidents. As for the concepts of belonging and homeland, they await, in a chaotic state, to be

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Migration, and forced migration in particular, create a rupture in human life. This rupture is such that it would not be quite possible to join together the parts afterwards or to return to the self before the rupture. While these ruptures, in case of especially political in other words forced migrations, transform into non-healing wounds, the cultural grandchildren of the incident are born into migration stories of many years or even centuries ago. They shape their personalities around these stories and they find themselves trapped or in need of being trapped in the Limbo of these incidents. As for the concepts of belonging and homeland, they await, in a chaotic state, to be resolved.

resolved. We are in 2015 and exactly a century has passed since the Armenian Genocide. Past experiences and the contemporaneous deportation that took place in 1915 are examined in detail with a variety of activities organized on account of the centenary. There are many projects in the arts and cultural sector as well which address what the Armenian minority has been subjected to since the Ottoman Empire. Depo Tophane has reserved its annual program completely to this subject matter with the exception of Aziz Nesin Exhibition, which took place last summer. Through its exhibition “Grandchildren: New Geographies of Belonging,” which is a parallel event of the 14th Istanbul Biennial, Depo Tophane explores in detail, along with its paradoxes an aspect of this topic that requires the most attention, namely the course that the grandchildren of 1915 have set or should set for themselves. It would not be right to read the “Grandchildren: New Geographies of Belonging” exhibition without knowing the beginning and the course of events. Everyone nowadays has an idea of his own about what happened in 1915. No matter how it is defined the fact, included in oral or written history rather than being just an opinion, is that the Armenian minority has not been accepted as a constituent component during the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and during the establishment of the Republic of Turkey which was its successor, that in parallel to this a majority of the Armenians have been killed justified on the grounds of security and war circumstances, and that a majority of Armenians have been destroyed and

deported. The survivors of this process and their grandchildren form today the Armenian Diaspora itself. We should certainly mention Linda Ganjian’s work titled “Sick Man of Europe” when we consider the historical aspect of this subject. The work shows traditional tile art motifs in a scattered, fragmented state. However, we observe that a geometrical form, independent of the plant that prevents the utter disintegration of plants, holds together the tile constituents. It is obvious that Ganjia who has named this composition of hers “Sick Man of Europe” is inspired by the fact that the Ottoman Empire was called by the name ‘Sick Man’ by the European States in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Uprooted Armenian Diaspora and Armenians in Turkey live in a state of being trapped, torn between two or even three places, without knowing where to channel their sense of belonging. On the one hand is the Armenian nation-state, which declared its independence in 1991, on the other hand is Anatolia and the Middle East where they are deep-rooted, and then there is Europe or America where they (can) maintain their lives. Nation-states which mutually do not take each other into consideration, fragmented belongings and this rootless (uprooted)-ness impelled the Armenian Diaspora to launch a campaign of creating an international visibility and awareness that does not address itself to the Republic of Turkey. In this process, Turkey responded to this situation with an equally unilateral campaign that does not address the Armenians. However, as social, cultural and

artistic dialogues alternative to diplomatic relations develop, it causes, along with the arrival of the centenary of 1915, these safeguarded zones and biased states of being to collapse. This means that Armenia, Turkey and the Diaspora have to address each other without any intermediaries. That is to say, the state of being in limbo will be eased to some extent. Just like in the detail of Hera Büyüktaşçıyan’s drawing “Blind Topography” taking part in the exhibition. Two hands holding onto their land are now able to stand against each other even if the middle part is still empty. It is rather meaningful that a red rope, which crosses under the sea, binds these hands and lands and it is rather familiar when you consider the correlation Büyüktaşçıyan has with water in her works. Even though this course of confrontation and showdown signifies great achievements for the cultural grandchildren of 1915, there is now a contradiction facing the third or fourth generations of the genocide and deportations. Most of the contemporary artists who shoulder the legacy of so many years are considered as ‘Armenian artists’ since they deal with the Armenian problem. And many of them either cannot or do not want to get out this cocoon. The willingness and the longing for dialogue observed at the point arrived at with the centennial events, prove that the suitable conditions for Armenian artists to carry on their production as ‘just’ contemporary artists rather than being ‘Armenian artists,’ have begun to slowly mature. We might also observe this paradoxical situation in Mikayel Ohanjanyan’s work titled “Equilibre”

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taking place in the exhibition. In the work, there is a small and white cube stretched in between two larger metal structures by fragile wires or ropes. Even if Ohanjanyan is trying to make the invisible visible through visible forms in this installation, it is quite possible to read the work in terms of the course that ‘Armenian art’ might follow which is full of traps and opportunities, and in terms of the Limbo state of Armenians. Silver-Meguerditchian undertakes the organization and the concept of “Grandchildren: New Geographies of Belonging” and her selection, in such a time frame, of the twelve participating artists is significant. While those living in Yerevan and Istanbul among the twelve participating artists of various ages might explore the subject hosted by the parties (Yerevan or Istanbul), others who are members of the Diaspora also have importance in that they reveal the Diaspora’s, which is the third party in the matter, point of view to the audience. In addition to their works referencing 1915, these artists at the same time confront us with works through which they elude the Armenian identity. For example Achot Achot among the participating artists is an artist, carrying on his artistic production in Yerevan and Paris, widely recognized for his abstract works. He participates in the exhibition with a work that could be regarded as a continuation of his works consisting of successive motifs and designs on which he has been working since 2007. Even though these

motifs that resemble curls bring to mind the question of whether they are created with reference to the auburn curls of Armenian women, it is not so difficult to perceive the work as a contemporary pattern study entirely independent of the subject matter. Although the exhibition examines the artistic production of these cultural grandchildren, it is obvious, when looked through the framework of a Derrida style deconstruction, that the only way to understand the grandchildren is to look at the grandfathers and grandmothers. Only when considered relationally with those generations, the grandchildren do become ‘grandchildren.’ Already the works “Cane” by Ani Setyan and “Earth” by Schouten Tufankjian included in the exhibition seem to support this case. Old wooden walking sticks with crooked handles are laid side by side in Setyan’s work. A child who is a student of Armenian school is seen with open hands to the rain in Tufankjian’s work. By way of these two representations, the exhibition underpins its claim of making an inter-generational inquiry. Therefore how possible is it for these artists to break away from 1915; this is really a question that should be asked. This paradox that we encounter in terms of both art production and identity construction continues to generate in itself other paradoxes. One of them is directly related to migration. Being a minority or part of a Diaspora, by definition and by nature, are uprooting circumstances.

This rootlessness involves both a state of homeland-ness and the inability to establish a satisfactory emotional bond with the place defined as ‘homeland,’ or it refers to the fact that these bonds have been largely damaged. At the same time, it involves the fact that the borders of this same homeland may only be defined diplomatically rather than culturally and that as a result ‘Armenian art’ is dragged into a cultural placeless-ness, unfortunately unable to have a singular cultural reference point. Nevertheless, cultural interactions taking place in the geography where one is a minority or in the country where one is part of a Diaspora return as productiveness in the art of the artists belonging to these groups. Under these circumstances, it seems urgent and compulsory as much as it is reasonable to trace the oral history testimonies and cultural components, which are considered to be disappearing. Here, at this point, emerges the second paradox of the subject matter. The ‘Armenian art’ needs to be freed of its responsibility to be cultural and to find new forms of expression, to form new landscapes. These two paradoxes, as Silvina Der-Meguerditchian also claims, ‘are the good fortunes and misfortunes of an identity fostered by difference.’ The most significant success of the “Grandchildren: New Geographies of Belonging” exhibition that thoroughly addresses a centennial story with the right cultural references is that it makes us deliberately, but not so

directly, ask the questions that need to be asked now. These twelve artists, who fulfill their responsibility by embracing the historical process from 1915 to the present, at the same time foreshadow that ‘Armenian art’ has already grown mature enough to be referred to as just contemporary art. Participating Artists: Achot Achot (Yerevan/Paris), Marian Bedoian (Buenos Aires), Talin Büyükkürkciyan (İstanbul), Hera Büyüktaşçıyan (İstanbul), Silvina Der-Meguerditchian (Buenos Aires/Berlin), Linda Ganjian (New York), Archi Galentz (Moscow/ Berlin), Karine Matsakyan (Yerevan) Mikayel Ohanjanyan (Yerevan/ Florence), Ani Setyan (İstanbul), Arman Tadevosyan (Gyumri /Nancy), Scout Tufankjian (New York), Marie Zolamian (Beirut/Liège) n

1 Marie Zolamian, Family, Oil on canvas, Courtesy of DEPO 2 Ani Setyan, Walking-sticks, Courtesy of DEPO 3 Scout Tufankjian, Universe, Courtesy of DEPO

PARALLEL EVENT

NAZLI YAYLA

Domestic disobedience or disobedient domesticity Based in Istanbul and represented by Arcade in London, Can Altay will open his first solo show in Öktem & Aykut Gallery. We talked with the artist about his new exhibition, his works, cities and spaces.

azlı Yayla: You are opening an exhibition at Öktem & Aykut Gallery for the first time in September. Will this exhibition be a continuation of your solo exhibition at the Arcade Gallery? Can you tell us about your exhibition and works? Can Altay: It is a bit of a complicated exhibition, or should I say mixed? I am building an exhibition where a few new series or a few new works will coexist and interconnect. It makes sense to address solo shows as if they were a group exhibition and to create such a dynamic among the exhibited works. I explore the concept of domestication in relation to the gallery space that is actually an apartment, as well as the resistance shown to this domestication and inability to domesticate or be domesticated. On the other hand, I focus on scopic regimes. Visual arts are a sight-based discipline. I create a set of works that challenge this notion and which at times interrupt spatial perception and at times propose different ways of seeing. I try to address the apparatus constructed to dominate landscape and the regimes, which accompany them. We are planning to also include a work that I exhibited at the Arcade Gallery in May. This work, adjoining the space, is a sculpture - or a lamp – that in some way has a function but by disrupting this function it tries to elude it. A light bulb hangs down from the ceiling in the middle of the room and it rotates. While on the one hand it chases its tail, on the other hand it resists or shows resistance to being a part of the house or of the setting. The exhibition also coincides with the Feast of the Sacrifice. We are all

familiar with the scene of sacrificial animals running away. The exhibition will include a work addressing this scene, which is the most featured one in the press, of being captured after running away, or not being able to run away, and which has an inevitable finale. There will be a work about the Third Bridge as well that investigates the violent transformation of Istanbul over notions of seeing, showing and recording. This is also relates to landscape traditions by means of landscape painting. Ultimately what they all have in common is the mechanism of domestication or control mechanisms in general, and their attempt to resist these. We could translate this notion as domestic disobedience or disobedient domesticity. N. Y.: You make conceptual works. The domestication of conceptual works, surely, is more difficult. How do you sell this kind of work? C. A.: The fact that my work is a commodity in the market that can get in circulation or be bought and sold is not my priority. My priority is always the relationship that my work will establish with the viewer or potential viewers, and the moment of contemplation, the potential of transformation and questioning that this encounter will deliver. When we look at it like this, we realize that the environments in which these moments might be associated with the practice of collecting are provided by individuals and institutions that approach collecting with a sort of responsibility of conservation. Getting artworks into circulation in the market is not the only function of Can Altay at Öktem & Aykut Gallery ©Ayşe Müge Var

PARALLEL EVENT

commercial galleries. Traditionally, they also have the responsibility to somehow show these artworks and make them visible. For example, they exhibited the works from the collections of three collectors during the “Every Inclusion is an Exclusion of Other Possibilities” exhibition at SALT. Most of the artworks in this exhibition are not easily domesticated. Although they resist domestication, they get into collections and in this way they can still meet audiences. On the other hand, I am also interested in the tension of living together with an artwork; in other words, the state of being a part of the same space as the artwork. N. Y.: So what do you have against these spaces? You have an undergraduate and a Master degree from the faculty of architecture. You are currently Department Head of Industrial Design at Bilgi University. Were these not enough to create-new spaces-or ideal spaces? C. A.: Where else do we live? This concept that we all live, inhabit and actually produce together necessitates the questioning of space and opening it up for discussion. Creating the ideal space is not the point either. When we considered in relation to the practice of design there might be a quest for an ideal space, however I am concerned about the impossibility of an ideal space and I problematize this. Assuming that space is always a political, social, and economic construct, I question our way of perceiving space with spatial interventions. Moreover I look at the circumstances that we are constantly included, take part in and I frankly don’t think we could separate space and time. In my projects about the city, I try to comment on space again, by means documents and documentation. N. Y.: As you have declared regarding your work “We’re Papermen”, he said, 2003, can we not be completed without challenging the boundaries and the rules of the space and the system in which we find ourselves? Is that space unable to function? Can it not be completed? C. A.: We are born into both spaces and systems. But our perceptions and what we want to see are limited. I am very much interested in those moments when these limits, or their state of being limits, are visible and when they are challenged. This is something existential. My main focus is on questions such as how we

inhabit the spaces and systems into which we are born, how much of these ways of inhabiting are coded in us, how much they can be challenged and which those limits are that we presuppose so that we challenge them. In Papermen, I was interested, on the one hand, in how they bring out the city’s invisible potential (or an internal excess) and this structure’s relation to the informal sector and on the other hand in how they create a virtually independent layer or a parallel universe which everyone refuses to see. They significantly contribute to the city both economically and ecologically even though they are not recognized or included in the system. Although it has been 12 years, this project still preserves its validity. N. Y.: You are in Istanbul now. The three cities in your life, Ankara, Istanbul and London, what do they signify for you as spaces? C. A.: I actually went to London going after Aslı, my present wife who was my girlfriend at the time. I can say that I made great friends in England and my subjects of interest for discussion found a relevance there. I somehow still have a strong bond not only with London but with England as well. For example, at the moment I have two projects ongoing in different cities. It is difficult to say something about Istanbul without using clichés. However, Istanbul is a city which I still remain on the margins of but I am learning a lot about it. Ankara on the other hand, for me, is formative and it is where my artistic practice as well my discourse was shaped. It is where I conceived of the relationship between space and society and of how this relationship is constructed. And inevitably, you can come across childhood memories in unexpected moments, they do not stop following. N. Y.: What are you reading these days? C. A.: Recently I am conceptually interested in what is called post-humanities, going beyond anthropocentric thinking or the comprehension of the limits brought on by it. I am reading somethings concerning how what we refer to and accept as environment has actually been shaped under human influence for a very long time, concerning the need to rethink dichotomies such as artificial-natural and how humanities might go beyond thinking anthropocentrically and consider the organic together with the inorganic.

On the other hand, there is the issue of commons which is currently on the agenda. Questions such as; how we can consider the city, urban space and publicity, what are some other ways of transforming ourselves and the city. And most importantly, how we could expand language where current language and literature remain insufficient, how we could articulate ourselves; this is my main subject of interest at the moment. So I think we need to go back to literature and look at it again. Narrative attracts my attention these days. I’m reading Roberto Bolaño at the moment. The genre of essay is both an interesting format and I find it akin to my work. Essay seems to me very significant both as a literary text and as an act. I prefer to read essays where ideas are tested rather than read scientific texts. Recently somebody asked me ‘So what is your profession?’ What I do is not always textual but as acts/actions they are actually essays. Consider how the genre of essay, like stories and novels, had difficulty in finding a place for itself, my work might have a similar relation to the visual arts market. N. Y.: We started with your exhibition that will be opened at Öktem & Aykut Gallery. Why did you decide to work with a gallery in Istanbul now: why did you select Öktem & Aykut Gallery and what are your expectations from this partnership? C. A.: So far, I was hesitant about the market and gallery system in general rather than about a specific gallery. Working with Arcade in London since 2008, was a warm-up for me. The fact that Arcade is far away and that is a relatively small gallery, were positive aspects for me. A number of factors play a role in my decision to work with a gallery. The character of the gallery space and the characters of those who run or own the gallery are very important. I would like to build a certain intimacy and trust with the place I work with. In the meantime, mostly, I bear in mind the exhibitions I could realize within that space. I prioritize the dreams, possibilities and probabilities triggered by the gallery space rather than whether a work gets into circulation or not. Both Arcade and Öktem & Aykut are small scale galleries compared to museums or other exhibition spaces. Arcade is a small shop and Öktem&Aykut is an old apartment. As such, their size and character arouse feelings of intimacy

Where else do we live? This concept that we all live, inhabit and actually produce together necessitates the questioning of space and opening it up for discussion. Creating the ideal space is not the point either. When we considered in relation to the practice of design there might be a quest for an ideal space, however I am concerned about the impossibility of an ideal space and I problematize this. Assuming that space is always a political, social, and economic construct, I question our way of perceiving space with spatial interventions. and sincerity in me. I envision both spaces as a ground where it might be easier to cover the distance which might be born between the artwork and the viewer. Both galleries are ambitious in what they do, but they also have an unpretentious and humble character. This also has an impact on me. Ultimately, it is the need have a cautious approach to its market dynamics that underlies my reservations about Istanbul. Being relaxed about Istanbul at this point plays a major role in how the possibility of having an exhibition here and what I imagine about it motivates me. And, of course, the feeling of working with Tankut and Doğa also plays a major part in my decision.

ART FAIR

MERVE AKAR AKGÜN

Muntean and Rosenblum in Istanbul This year the 3rd edition of Art International Fair will be focused on Spanish Art. Fifteen art galleries from Spain will take part in this year’s fair set for 4-6 September at Haliç Congress Centre at the shores of Golden Horn. Gallery Horrach Moya from Mallorca will be selling Muntean & Rosenblum’s beautiful paintings for the first time in Istanbul.

erve Akar Akgün: Markus and Adi, I know that you are in collaboration since 1992. One of you was born in Graz and the other in Haifa, how did you find each other? Where were you? And how it started as an artist duo? Markus Muntean & Adi Rosenblum: We met in art school and worked for several years separately, and then we realized an ever-growing merge of our artistic intentions, which led finally to an intense collaboration. M. A. A.: Will it be your first time in Istanbul? I remember that in 2010 when Istanbul was the European Cultural Capital, one of your works showed in a traveling exhibition called “PastPresentFuture”. M&R: We haven’t been to Turkey or Istanbul yet. M. A. A.: You’re coming out of the adolescent figures from fashion or lifestyle magazines or scenes of everyday life that you’ve seen on the street? What is the peculiarity of those scenes? Who is writing the words of your works? Are they always quotations? M&R: Originally we started from this picture material because it’s only in fashion that there’s a residuum where pathos is still allowed and isn’t yet taboo. At the beginning that was an integral part of our concept, now it’s shifted somewhat into the background because in the meantime we make use of our own photos and increasingly pictures from Internet sources such as Instagram and other image platforms. The texts we use in our paintings are often constructed from literary quotes and aphorisms that seem to state the obvious and sometimes even reverberate with certain clichés. But if you decide to let them affect you, in the context of the painting, you might discover something else. Rather than searching for truth somewhere beneath

the surface, it is often right before our eyes, in certain clichés, gestures or aphorisms, and we simply have to sharpen our perception in order to realise that. M. A. A.: How would you define ‘adolescence’, beautiful and sad? M&R: The state of limbo that is so typical expressed in adolescence and youth is also a direct mirror of the state of the contemporary subject, one of our main focuses of interest. The repetition of adolescence and youth in our works also illustrates the image of human beings in our contemporary collective consciousness, which is reduced to a young and healthy body. M. A. A.: You create amazing possibilities of spirituality in the contemporary life. I would love to acknowledge that they are true; they make youth look smarter! What do you think of that? M&R: In a certain sense we want to salvage the possibility of addressing people on a spiritual level. Forms of pathos seemed to have been entirely lost to art and had been relocated to the domains of popular entertainment and advertising. We reject this logic because we are convinced that human beings are in a certain sense condemned to experience affect and emotion. After all, beyond the explosion of means of communication, what we really share, paradoxically, is the pain that is inextricably part of human existence. Yet the experience of pain remains somehow private and words cannot easily transfer this experience between individual subjects. M. A. A.: I, very much, liked when Markus said in one of the previous interviews “precise ambiguity” to explain contradictions inherent in the construction of identity and the contemporary notion of self in works which simultaneously convey absolute banality and spiritual pathos. What is

your biggest critic of the contemporary society? M&R: In a way, in the west, we are all Descartes’s lost children. His basic operation drew an absolute separation line between the human subject of perception and the perceived, granting the ego a sublime ontological state of it’s own and degrading the rest of the world to objects, ready for being used and exploited. And this is exactly what happened and still is happening today. It is clear that the various arbitrary fragments that seem to form our modern day persona don’t add up to a coherent structure. The result is a state of limbo where the authenticity of our expressions and actions are in constant question. We think it is important to prolong this limbo instead of trying hard to escape from it. We try to come up with a structure of precise ambiguity which allows us to deal with pathos and emotional gestures as essential tools to move the viewer and at the same time to challenge common opinions oppositions as: artificial versus natural, rational versus emotional etc. M. A. A.: Existing in a contemporary society is maybe the hardest among all time periods… Modernism puts us in an invisible cage. Do you agree? M&R: Individuals have become their own islands of meaning in an age of transcendental homelessness. With the rise to power of contemporary communication and social media companies the meaning of the connection between things, the link as such, seems to have become more important than the content itself. At the same time individuals have become entangled in a web of formats, which are necessary for the frictionless exchange of information or goods, to such an extent that they have begun to format themselves. M. A. A.: Do you think human

In a certain sense we want to salvage the possibility of addressing people on a spiritual level. Forms of pathos seemed to have been entirely lost to art and had been relocated to the domains of popular entertainment and advertising. We reject this logic because we are convinced that human beings are in a certain sense condemned to experience affect and emotion.

ART FAIR

gestures are natural or especially acquired? I know that gestures can be dramatically different between diverse generations of youth… 60’s; 70’s… Even 2000 and 2010 is different. Now for instance we can observe “hipsters” global souls that one may find in many countries, with their smart phones... They also have their own gestures… Not written of course, it’s just a way of being. What is your study about it? M&R: The Contemporary consumer society with its imperative to generate authentic selves while simultaneously trying to leave the whole spectrum of negative emotions and pain outside the brackets is deeply contradictory. Regarding the notion of authenticity, we are convinced that once again, the experience of pain points towards the authentic because it is not possible to simulate it – you either feel it or not. One could say that to have a toothache is an experience of truth. In our works we often portray this paradox: a state between an idea of individuality that can be bought fully coded off the shelf and emotions of deep and persistent existential boredom that accompany it. In the words of David Foster Wallace, we employ pathos in order to address the “management of insignificance”. M. A. A.: You always followed the tradition of figurative painting. Two of you are painting? How are you functioning as an artist duo? M&R: When we started to develop our work, we were convinced that we had to choose figurative painting precisely because it seemed to be an “impossible” medium. We created a new persona as part of our artistic concept, reflecting the

notion of the contemporary self as a constructive effort. All our work is actually four handed; both of us are involved in each step. M. A. A.: Do you feel the need of some other mediums sometimes? I know that you worked with video and you realized some sculptures… M&R: We regard painting as the centre of gravity in our work. From this point of origin we move outwards to consider issues of space, the moving image as well as aspects of performance. M. A. A.: Which adjectives would perfectly resume your art attitude? M&R: Our art is an attempt to create tiny holes in the fabric of the official versions of truth in late capitalist societies. M. A. A.: What about new technologies? Are you pro or not? M&R: Since media reality has become constitutive for how we stage our lives and our perception of events, we seem to be forever collecting experiences which are framed by particular pre-existing aesthetic formations. However, this accumulation of preformatted things and experiences does not leave an individual enough time to make sense of what has really happened. In other words the overflow of aesthetic experience is bound up with a lack of personal meaning, which leads to feelings of satiety and emptiness. Most experiences and products that appear to be charged with a special magic that should somehow make us more individual and interesting, deliver precisely the opposite because they are fully scripted and prepared by specialists and thus

allow us no breathing space to leave a personal trace. The result is a form of existential boredom and the pain we depict is thus not primarily physical, but existential. M. A. A.: Finally, could you tell us about “Bricks & Kicks”? And what was behind it? M&R: With our installations we try to develop different kinds of stage sets for other works. At Bricks & Kicks we invited other artists to show their work in these installations but we also use this approach in relation to our paintings, drawings and films. However, rather than creating mere support structures… n

1 Muntean / Rosenblum, Untitled, Oil on canvas, 170 x 220 cm

PORTFOLIO

Ekin

Özbiçer Ekin Özbiçer’s photographs document the relationship of everyday people with public places such as streets, marketplaces, wedding halls, luxury hotels, pubs and cafés with an alienating and surrealist touch that is hidden beneath the moments. Her “New Turkey” series, which is still in progress, follows the emerging new socio-cultural facts and aesthetics dominating the neighborhood she grew up entailed by the tremendous changes she has witness during the recent years. www.ekinozbicer.com

PORTFOLIO

HUMAN RIGHTS

TAYFUN SERTTAŞ

''Marriage equality'' right now in Turkey! During modernity, a rather small group of bureaucrats in a very restricted part of the world attempted to categorize the norms of relationship for the ‘modern individual.’ What they actually did was to expel from the law numerous other forms of relationship... Same-sex marriages, ruled by the US Supreme Court to be legal in all states and inscribed in federal law, are once again on the global agenda. How close are we in Turkey to attain marriage equality?

et us right away put forth an argument which will have to be detailed down below: When the word “marriage” is mentioned, the images that generally spring to mind are alfresco weddings, candies, orchestras, cakes, invitations, bridal gowns, groom suits, decorated ballrooms; however, the LGBT community’s demand for same-sex marriage has nothing to do with reproducing these ceremonies... It is not a spiritual demand either. If, as some of their adversaries claim, LGBTs were interested only in holding a wedding ceremony, they would have found a suitable kind of ceremony and performed it -whether approved by law or not. They would not have demanded marriage equality as a constitutional right. As such, this status demanded from modern states should not be confused with the ‘right to hold a wedding’. Marriage equality, in its most basic definition, consists of universalizing a series of rights generally granted to heterosexual couples by modern law and the civil code. The struggle for marriage equality demands for everyone those facilitating rights enjoyed only by the ‘nuclear family’, which is viewed as the main pillar of modernity, as well as an equal official status in the eyes of the establishment... The ‘official family’ created via marriage is today not only a ‘sacred’ institution, but also represents a series of statuses granted to two people by the state. Family members are offered more rights than unmarried people in a vast area including inheritance law, social security law, tax deductions, and health services among others.

In this respect, marriage should be understood not only as a spiritual union between individuals or a legitimation of sexuality, but rather as a legal scheme which allows individuals to share rights and responsibilities. Even if you have been living with the same partner for thirty years, as long as your ID card marks your civil status as ‘civil’, you do not have any common rights with your partner in the eyes of the establishment. This inequality is precisely what leads to the conditions that victimize gay couples. For instance, a gay person is not accepted to a visiting day at the prison when their partner is imprisoned, for ‘lack of necessary status’. A gay person cannot accompany their partner in the intensive care unit for ‘lack of necessary status’. A gay person cannot even hold a proper funeral when their partner passes away, for ‘lack of necessary status’... Also for lack of this official status, gay couples cannot prevent distant relatives from plundering the joint savings accumulated during a lifetime... This list can be expanded to include countless other issues. As the mutual social and legal rights that ‘first degree relatives’ enjoy can be easily looked up in any rudimentary research, I do not go into further detail here. Couples who don’t have a marriage contract started to find themselves in this awkward situation only after modernity. In pre-modern societies, the nuclear family was not vested with such clear-cut legal responsibility and significance. The history of the family is naturally as old as that of humanity itself, however, starting with modernity, the issue of how many

HUMAN RIGHTS

individuals and couples of which sexes make up a family became the most universal and crystallized symbol of modernity. The nuclear family composed of a mother, a father and children became the unique institution of this new order and it left no place for gay couples. Throughout history, same-sex marriage expanded over much larger regions than today’s highly restricted zones. Ample historical evidence and numerous contracts attest to the practice of same-sex marriage within different cultural groups, ranging from Ancient Greece to pre-Christian Rome, and from China to American tribes. Same-sex marriage, which is now legal in seventeen countries across the world, twelve of which are in Europe,

was for expelled from the political agenda for a long time and almost forced to oblivion during modernity. Rights of cultural, religious and ethnic minorities were once again brought to the agenda and influenced public opinion in the post-Second World War era, following which the generation of 1968 started to discuss sexual freedom. The struggle for freedom initiated by women would reach homosexuals, who found themselves at the bottom of the gender pyramid, as late as the 1990s. In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage, and soon many other European countries were encouraged to put in place similar schemes under different names such as ‘civil union, civil

had to be blessed by them. In 2003, Pope John Paul II literally waged war against marriage equality. In a 12-paged universal declaration, Vatican basically stated that ‘Homosexual marriage is against natural and moral law. There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family. Legal recognition of homosexual unions would obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity.’ Vatican’s universal declaration calling all nations to oppose marriage equality only had a very limited effect. That is because, only half a century ago, Vatican had similarly demanded

its followers to oppose women’s right to vote, women’s right to work, the right to divorce, the right to have an abortion, or blacks’ right to share the same public space with whites... However, none of these limitations demanded by religious authorities had been put into practice. A large number of human rights advocacy groups issued declarations criticizing Vatican’s declaration, and showed their solidarity with gay couples whom they asked to stay strong. Aside from religion, another argument opponents of marriage equality put forth was that legalization of same-sex marriage would trigger an expansion of homosexuality. In actual fact, homosexuality is an innate orientation and as such it is not a

partnership, civil marriage, registered partnership’, not all of which had ‘marriage’ status. Although marriage equality has a short history its progress was very swift, and it started being discussed in Turkey in 2009. Back then, Turkey’s European Union membership bid and the accompanying cultural reforms seemed to herald the arrival of a new era. What set Turkey apart from other countries which debated same-sex marriage was its being a largely Muslim society. Since Turkey constituted a model for other Muslim countries, the discussion in Turkey was met with immense enthusiasm across the world. In addition, Turkey had a civil code and a constitution based on secular

principles. In the Turkish example, it was almost impossible to speak of any religious authority which could oppose marriage equality. In many countries where the issue was debated, marriage was defined as primarily a religious and sacred institution; in Turkey, however, even heterosexual marriage was not much different from the ‘civil union’ practiced in the West. As such, it could have been much easier for Turkey to legalize marriage equality, in comparison with a number of developed countries. In the western world, religious authorities organized opponents of marriage equality. As a result, the fiercest struggles were waged against these authorities, since in most countries the institution of marriage

1 İllustration ©Masterdesigner 2 ©Stephen Luke 3 Courtesy of ILGA

Unlike other Muslim countries, Turkey has a civil code and a constitution based on secular principles. In the Turkish example, it is also almost impossible to speak of any religious authority, which may oppose marriage equality. In many countries where the issue is debated, marriage is defined as primarily a religious and sacred institution; in Turkey, however, even heterosexual marriage is not much different from the ‘civil union’ practiced in the West. As such, potentially it is much easier for Turkey to legalize marriage equality, in comparison with a number of developed countries.

HUMAN RIGHTS

preference that can be learned later on, or an identity embraced at a later stage in life. In 21st century, as a reflex to survive social oppression, homosexuals felt themselves obliged to make much faster progress in academic, cultural and economic spheres compared with other groups in the society. As a result, homosexuals became more visible and accepted. Today homosexuals are much better organized and more visible thanks to new media networks; however, this does not mean that they were fewer or did not exist in the past. What has changed is not the percentage of homosexuals in society, but their visibility. Numerous homosexuals growing up in societies where hetero-normative family structures are predominant have chosen to keep their identity secret, while an considerable number of them have renounced the fight to instead accept the life imposed upon them, in the form of make-believe heterosexual relations or marriages, at the cost of being unhappy. Changing conditions in today’s world allow numerous homosexuals to come out at a certain stage of their lives. What worries opponents of marriage equality is not an expansion of homosexuality, but instead the rising visibility of homosexuality. Scientifically, it is not possible for the number of homosexuals to increase due to marriage equality or other legal rights. Contrary to popular belief, there is a significant number of LGBT individuals who oppose marriage and choose not to marry -as is the case among heterosexual individuals. It would be a flight of fancy to think that, when a country recognizes marriage equality, all men and women would get married overnight in an explosion of same-sex marriages. No such incident has happened in countries where marriage equality

has been established, and in certain countries, same-sex marriage remains a rare exception in practice despite being legal for many years. In this regard, marriage equality should be viewed as the restitution of a legal right usurped in modern history. Although it is not very logical to introduce the issue of children in a discussion on marriage equality, another argument presented by opponents of same-sex marriage concerns the right to adopt children. Marriage is certainly not a contract for reproduction, and likewise, having children is not the sole objective of marriage. Numerous married couples never have children, while millions of children are born out of wedlock. As has been explained by LGBT advocacy groups numerous times on the issue of adopted children, it is actually the children of heterosexual couples who are forced to grow up with a certain sexual identity. All oppression imposed upon children to become heterosexual in these families is considered to be culturally legitimate. However, as of yet there is no proven example of a same-sex couple trying to impose their sexual identity on their children. On the contrary, numerous heterosexual couples consider it their natural right to resort to methods such as violence, forced therapy and social isolation towards children suspected of being gay. Just as some children of heterosexual families grow up to become homosexual, children adopted by homosexual families can also become heterosexual. Indeed, most homosexuals are born to heterosexual couples and are raised by the very same hetero-normative family values. They live among a socially accepted father/male role model, a socially accepted mother/female role model,

and similar sisters and brothers if any. In such an environment, they learn to fight for, embrace and practice their homosexual identity. The situation will not be any different for heterosexual children raised by homosexual families today. That is because; homosexual families in the USA are known to have adopted around three hundred thousand children, almost all of whom are heterosexual. As it is proven that an individual’s innate sexual orientation cannot be changed under any circumstance, it becomes ridiculous to uphold the claim ‘children of gay couples will become gay’. The disruption of Turkey’s accession talks with the European Union, its new policy towards the Middle East, and the Islamic turn in the political sphere seem set to block any initiative towards marriage equality, at least for the time being. Marriage equality, considered to be one of the most crucial human rights demands of the 21. century is getting legalized across the world, and even parliaments of countries the scale of Uruguay rapidly adopt laws allowing all of their taxpaying citizens to get married freely... Although located on the same planet, the supposedly ‘advanced democratic regime’ of Turkey censors the Eurovision contest on the state-owned channel to prevent the risk of lesbians kissing each other on TV. In fact, law in Turkey is based on impartiality, and impartial law cannot discriminate between citizens with different identities. It is not possible to talk of law where discrimination exists. In this respect, censorship towards LGBT individuals and denial of marriage equality go against the rule of law. On the other hand, Turkey is geographically and culturally more closely connected to the West than other Muslim countries, the country

has Westernized to a large extent starting with the Ottoman Empire, and Western values have largely been adopted in civic life -all of which constitute advantages in the face of the recent negative trend in politics. Istanbul Gay Pride, the largest one of its kind among Muslim countries, was organized until recently without any police intervention; however, the police vehemently attacked the thirteenth edition of the march in 2015. At a time when the US Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage to be a legal right in all states and inscribed it in federal law, and even as marriage equality was hotly debated by the international community, in fact only a week later, the İstanbul Gay Pride was violently suppressed by the state, in a fierce reaction by the Turkish government to Western democracy. Due to Turkey’s specific conditions and changing political environment, it seems that progress in all fronts of human rights, and not only in marriage equality, will be difficult in the period ahead. However, even in the USA, where conservatives make up a large portion of the society, it is not possible to talk about a consensus on the issue. Indeed, there is still ample political debate on marriage equality in many countries who have legalized it. Turkey, which boasts on the international arena of being one of the first countries to grant women’s suffrage, seems set to take an ambiguous position on marriage equality in the coming years. Nevertheless the country is also home to scores of associations and publications defending LGBT rights, LGBT family groups, ground-breaking debates, which engulf the parliament, and solidarity messages from different sections of the society. The future can only be built when civil society embraces this common ground and

HUMAN RIGHTS

legacy of democracy. Despite all the problems and polarization created by the government, Turkey now has a wide mass of dissident groups, which are willing to listen to, understand and solve each other’s problems, and two political parties who have seats in the current parliament are rather openminded about marriage equality. From a political perspective, marriage equality is not at all different from blacks’ right to education or women’s suffrage; thus it is not a sentimental issue, which only concerns homosexuals. As the history is meant to move forward, each day that passes without the legalization of marriage equality should be considered a

loss for humanity. What needs to be discussed here is not the sexual orientation of the concerned parties, but the very institution of marriage and the unjustifiable victimization of couples excluded from it. The Republic of Turkey will most probably have the honour of being the first largely Muslim country to legalize marriage equality -in one way or another, through struggle or negotiation, sooner or later. This new legal basis should be viewed not as a minor detail of domestic politics, but a milestone for Turkey’s historical identity, marked by a movement of modernization and democratization dating back two centuries.

In this process, the fundamental question we need to ask politicians is the following: When two individuals wish to join their lives and be considered ‘married’ in order to benefit from a number of emotional, physical or financial advantages, and to secure their legal rights towards each other and the society, who can oppose this on what basis, with what kind of a motivation? As has been and will be repeated millions and millions of times by human rights advocates, “IF YOU ARE AGAINST GAY MARRIAGE, DO NOT MARRY GAY PEOPLE!” Simply stop trying to make other people’s lives miserable. n

PERFORMANCE

AYŞE DRAZ

Tino Sehgal: From the black box to the white cube One of the names that we encountered this year during the Berliner Festspiele was Tino Sehgal. Artist’s works were exhibited / performed broad in scope for the first time at Martin Gropuis Bau between 28th of June and 8th of August. Tino Sehgal, known as a raising value of the performance art, seems like to be more famous then ever!

ROLOGOS Two years ago, I agreed to work with the Swedish artist duo Goldin + Senneby as a performer for their work titled “Shorting the Long Position” at the 13th Istanbul Biennale. The artists were quite young; I believe one of them or perhaps both of them did study something which has to do with economics in the past; they were well-intentioned and they were pleasant companies; they seemed to have a full command of the financial and conceptual background of their work but in my opinion they did not have enough insight about the theatrical or performative aspect of it (although they had worked on similar performances in the past) and therefore their approach remained pretty naïve. Actually I am rather a theatre person who does not take much pleasure from performance art but the work was well paid and I thought that it could be interesting to experience from within what I tend to always criticize. Even though I was part of this work almost for the entire duration of the Biennale, when I look back at it I am still not sure whether I understood it well enough or not. However, I have the comfort of eluding all sorts of artistic responsibility with regards to the work since I can easily say that I was just a performer who performed what she was told to perform. In any case, I will still try my best to briefly explain “Shorting the Long Position” as much as I understood and experienced – it; to begin with, the duo Goldin + Senneby invests a certain amount of money in the stock market using the financial formula a cultural economist named İsmail Ertürk has developed particularly for this work. (I still wonder today what the criterion

was in determining this ‘amount’, which most probably was covered by the Biennial’s budget…) The money invested in the stock market is inversely proportional to the profit people would normally make; that is to say Goldin + Senneby profit from their investment as the majority of investors in the market lose money… Following this first stage grounded on financial speculation, another artist they collaborate with, Jo Randerson, a playwright, writes a ‘play’ text consisting of a long monologue. This text that one might define as an ‘open’ text also makes reference to the underlying concept, though indirectly. The profit to be made from the money invested in the stock market is used for paying the performer who will rehearse this play/text in the Biennial venue; what is expected of the performer is to rehearse this play/text, either in English or Turkish as she sees fit, in the Biennial venue, during the opening hours of the Biennial, within the space reserved particularly for this artwork, surrounded by three empty walls, with the help of a few items given to her as props which the play/ text itself at times makes references to, such as a plastic garbage bag, an empty wine bottle, a board-marker and a ladder. On the other hand, how long this ‘performance’ will last – during the entire duration of the Biennial or just a few days – depends on the ‘performance’ of the money invested in the stock market. Goldin + Senneby who recognize the possibility that this performance might last for the whole duration of the Biennial and who realize that it would be impossible for a single performer to undertake such a task, recruit another performer who would take turns with

me, and eventually the performance lasts almost until the very end of the Biennial. It is enough to talk about the background of “Shorting the Long Position”; now I would like to briefly talk about, based on my experiences, what sort of an experience and interaction this performance facilitated. The play/text does not only involve interacting with the audience – while telling the audience something, I sometimes climb up the ladder and scribble on the empty white walls whatever I wish with the boardmarker I have in my hand; I ask for the audience to help me as I play with the garbage bags, made out of recycled plastic and brought specially from Sweden, as if they were puppets; then I try to sell them these garbage bags as if they were artworks and sometimes I even succeed - it also leaves some blanks which enable the performer to improvise even if within a certain framework. One of these blanks offers me an incredibly entertaining opportunity with which I could occupy myself while no one visits my ‘rehearsal corner’ at the Biennial, and also with which I could conduct some sort of a sociological research of my own. I can wander freely around the Biennial venue, tell the viewers that artworks by other participating artists are actually made by me, I can make up stories about them or explain these artworks with whatever free associations they evoke in me, I can even introduce myself as another artist. I discover a lot more entertaining and thrilling pastime than rehearsing a text, which I find dramaturgically problematic! On one of those ordinary Biennial days spent partially rehearsing the

play/text and partially entertaining myself with this newly found pastime, the owner of the gallery that represents Goldin + Senneby in Istanbul shows up and tells me that a very important collector will be visiting the Biennial and that most probably he will visit the artwork of which I am a part, or better expressed of which I am a mediator; she asks me to be sensitive about… Whatever that signifies… I first greet the middle-aged Brazilian investor who certainly has the profile of an investor as ‘İpek Duben’. I convince him that I have aged myself with photo-shop for the collage works I exhibit at the Biennial. And then I tell him ‘now, you tell me a little bit about yourself, we, the artists, are tired of telling you about ourselves.’ The collector, seemingly pleased with this situation, begins telling me about himself. He is very bored with and not at all interested in archaic art mediums that he finds pretty ‘passé’ such as painting, sculpture or so. He is obsessed with the colour white. The vast majority of artworks (or should I just say works?) in his collection consist of either conceptual works or those that are not yet realized/actualized. Since a significant portion of his collection consists only of the titles of works yet unrealized, he does not have a problem with storage, and he does not have a space for exhibiting them, at least for now. He acquired the works in his collection not as a future investment but because he and his wife were truly amazed by them. In the meantime, I bluntly declare that I am very confused, that I do not understand what he buys or how he buys it since it is not visible or tangible, and that I cannot comprehend what sort

PERFORMANCE

of a pleasure he derives from this transaction. As well responding with a sympathetic and understanding smile, he politely makes me understand that he does not feel the need to further explain himself. Before we go our own ways, I recommend him the book Masterpiece by Miranda Glover. In return he tells me that after Istanbul he will be meeting his wife in Berlin to acquire the latest piece for their collection and that he is super excited about it. “An artwork by Tino Sehgal” he says, “my wife and I will perform a performance, under the supervision of the artist himself, which will not be documented in any way at any stage, and you would not believe how excited I am…” Let’s fast forward now. Summer of 2015, I am in Berlin. I am in Berlin originally to see performances at the ‘Foreign Affairs’ international festival of contemporary performing arts. Tino Sehgal imprinted on my memory from two years ago and about whom I am roughly informed, is featured both on the festival program and for the first time his work can be seen extensively in Berlin at the Martin Gropius Bau from June 28 - August 8. I do not need to buy an extra ticket for his work ‘This Progress’ featured at the festival but I have to queue up, at the festival venue, to enter the space where it will take place. It is already impossible for

me to queue up since my schedule is pretty crowded with many dance and theatre performances for which I have already bought tickets; besides the long queues I witness are intimidating. At the entrance floor of the Martin Gropius Bau, that was erected between 1877-1881 by Martin Gropius, the great uncle of Walter Gropius, and another architect, five works by Sehgal are on display. This NeoRenaissance style building originally designed as a museum, although it has been severely damaged during the World War II, has been reopened as a museum in 1981. There are no labels on the walls of the exhibition venue or instructions about the works on display. All I know about Sehgal is that he was a dancer/choreographer in the past and that he now makes performances – also about which I was mistaken since I used the wrong terminology. – Therefore I immediately recognize that the exhibition begins when I see the male and the female performers (wrong terminology once again!) slowly approach each other in the impressive atrium of the building which has a glass ceiling. They move with a choreographic grace and as they meet they hug each other and kiss one another as if striking different poses; they transform into a living sculpture. I am visiting the exhibition with a friend who has a wide ranging repertoire of

references from all disciplines of art. He compares each moment that these lips unite to a well-known scene from art history, a kiss that one of the most famous paintings depicts. I understand later on that he was not mistaken at all in his interpretation. I believe that the first work we come across at this exhibition of Sehgal which some define as a retrospective, is Kiss - or a version of it -that he realized for the first time in 2007 for the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and which was later bought by the New York Museum of Modern Art. There is one male and one female performer (if I should use Sehgal’s terminology, then I should say ‘interpreter’ rather than ‘performer’ or ‘dancer’) whose bodies carry a grace peculiar to dancers in spite of the casual clothes they are wearing; they attract our attention since they are moving in space in slow motion but they execute it with great subtlety; they reenact kissing scenes that Sehgal appropriates from the paintings and sculptures of artists such as Rodin, Brancusi, Klimt, Koons, in a loop. Then I learn that Sehgal is a fan of referencing, appropriating. For his work Twenty Minutes for the 20th century, which is the only work he himself has performed, for the first and the last time, before he gave up on his dance and choreography career, on top of everything performed

naked, also consists of ‘quotations’. For the piece performed in 1999, Sehgal has performed a 55-minute series of movements in 20 dance styles from the 20th century, ranging from Nijinsky to Merce Cunningham. I could continue by talking about the four other works I saw at the exhibition, but I will not do that. I will not do that because I do not want to influence you in any way with my own experience about something, which you might encounter, and experience for yourselves in a museum in the future. I will confess though that as someone so prejudiced against performance art and as someone whose prejudices against it remain so intact even after having obtained an insider’s experience, I, for the first time had such pleasure, let alone not be bored, from experiencing a performative work that identifies itself from within plastic and visual arts. Therefore I will just share some interesting information on Sehgal that I came across during my research on him; I leave it up to you to judge, however you wish, the work of Sehgal but I recommend that you say the last word only after you have experienced in person one of his works. British born, Berlin-based artist Tino Sehgal, besides studying dance, also studied political economy and conceptual art. The artist who was already interested in performance during the first years of his studies

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A LEGACY OF STYLE.

CMY

PERFORMANCE

Footnotes 1 I should confess that I also secretly took some photos for my own archive from the exhibition at the Martin Gropius Bau, that I came across some other photos (perhaps they were also secretly taken like mine) in an article on the exhibition and that I even came across a video on YouTube (I once again assume it was recorded in secret.) However when there are inconsistencies between what is being said and done in practice, this makes me question the sincerity of the artist… 2 I should also say that one of the artists Sehgal has influenced is Erdem Gündüz who became famous for his act/performance of The Standing Man during the Gezi Protests. 3 It is worthy of consideration that Sehgal identifies the actors, performers or dancers who perform his works as ‘interpreters’ since like the audience who interpret the artwork, they are also become ‘interpreters’. 4 If you would like to read a critical text, which addresses these issues, I would strongly recommend “The Emancipated Spectator Jacques Rancière.

objects; rather his practice is grounded on the dematerialization of art. Sehgal, who refuses to fly as an environmentalfriendly and conscious individual, thinks that there are already enough materials circulating in the world. Therefore he produces not materials but works consisting of social relations and situations. But he does not address capitalism as the object of his criticism, on the contrary he cares about his works being sold and collected in the art market. He just wants to change the rules of the game and make it lighter. Along these lines, he prohibits documentation of his works, and any secretly made photos or his agents immediately take off videos circulating

and who later on worked also as a choreographer, danced with the companies of experimental French choreographers Jérôme Bel and Xavier Le Roy, and also worked with the wellknown dance collective Les Ballets C. de la B. However giving up his dance career he constructs for himself a new artist identity and since then he is strongly against having his works defined as performance works. He insistently positions his works within the domain of contemporary visual arts. He is very outspoken about the fact that he wants his works to be referred to as ‘constructed situations’ rather than theatre or dance pieces. One of the reasons for Sehgal’s dislike (and a valid one) for the word ‘performance’ is its connotation of achievement (for example the performance of the stock market or of a car). As someone who has experienced his ‘constructed situations’ in person, I could easily say that they constitute an even in the Deleuzean sense, the opposite of making a drama or making history. Sehgal does not produce any material

on the Internet1. He does not give interviews, maybe only a few. He does not want labels or texts on the walls, to which we are so accustomed in museums or galleries, to accompany his works. He does not write texts or make drawings before realizing the works themselves; for him they are also an excess of materials. It is very important for him that ‘constructed situations’ exist only ephemerally and that they are documented only in the viewer’s memory. The critique of the object and commodity status of artwork is one of the central themes of art in the 20th century, of Conceptual Art in particular. Sehgal considers himself, a continuation of this tradition. Yves Klein, famous or perhaps infamous for his performances, the voids he sells in return for gold and the blue color he patented, is the biggest influence on Sehgal’s works2 and Sehgal often makes references to him. Sehgal builds his ‘constructed situations’ on temporality and interaction. The human voice, movement, interaction, gestures and

repetitions are among his materials. Even though most of his works have a choreographic quality, he identifies those that perform it as ‘interpreters.’ 3 Usually these interpreters stage the scripts that Sehgal constructs/creates, and on which they work in detail elaborately together with the artist himself, in the exhibition space for the entire duration of the show, mostly tin shifts with other interpreters. For Sehgal, who gets out of the black box of performing arts and enters the white cube of visual arts, museums and galleries are essential to his work as irreplaceable contexts. The networks of meaning and references, which weave around the temples of contemporary art, constitute the safety nets of Sehgal’s works positioning them and granting them significance. Duchamp, who in 1957 said “All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone: the spectator brings in the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualification and thus adds his contribution to the creative act,” proposed that the viewer interprets the art object together with the relationships it constitutes to the museum, the art market as well as our understanding of authorship and the commodity. It is important for Sehgal who builds his works along the same lines, that the visitor is aware of his/her own agency. The word ‘situation,’ while on the one hand pays tribute to the Situationists, on the other hand emphasizes the act of being involved in an activity together. The viewer also participating in this process of constructing is thus also given a certain responsibility. This responsibility, according to Sehgal, eventually empowers the viewer by transforming him/her. However it is fact that the viewer and the interpreter can never be on an equal standing and that they are always limited by the constructed scenario scripted by the artist. Therefore it can be argued how much such a responsibility empowers the audience and how much of it is imposed on him/her. 4 Sehgal is the youngest artist to have represented Germany at the Venice Biennial (in 2005, together with Thomas Scheibitz.) His work This Progress is the first live performance to be acquired by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. In this work, interpreters of different ages accompany you as you begin ascending the famed spiral ramp of the museum; during this journey the interpreters hold a conversation with you about what they think (or Sehgal thinks) ‘progress’ is. The age of the interpreters go up as well as you go further up the ramp. The sale protocol and process of Sehgal’s works are as interesting as the works themselves. He stipulates that there is no written document such as a receipt or catalogue. The sale consists of a conversation (constructed) between the artist and the buyer before a notary and witnesses. Some of the

legal stipulations of the purchase include that the work be installed only by someone whom Sehgal himself has authorized via training or prior collaboration or so; that the people enacting the piece be paid an agreedupon minimum; that if the buyer resells the work, he does so with this same oral contract. Usually the price of a Sehgal piece ranges between $85.000 and $145.000. Besides the editions that are put on sale, Sehgal always retains an additional artist’s copy/proof and he always has the right to oversee the authenticity of the work. As a matter of fact Sehgal, who creates his art using only human material, has the potential of getting more instinctive reactions from those for whom more conventional art practices such as painting or sculpture has no appeal. However it is possible to blame Sehgal for the mystification of commodity, the auratization of the experience of acquiring art and building a brand name for himself, and there are some who do blame him. In order to have the last word on an artist who does not allow any documentation of his works, you have to either go and experience a Sehgal work in person or you have to read the positive and negative criticism on his work trying to arrive at a conclusion for yourself. One is a bodily process and the other a mental one. I would suggest that you opt for the first one and then let your intellect come into the picture. Paying tribute to Beckett I say dance first, think later… EPILOGOS One of the interpreters, who took part in Sehgal’s work kWh exhibited at a group exhibition, felt an urge to make a confession about the work and I somewhere read his confession. The work basically consisted of turning off all the lights in the exhibition venue for two minutes and singing the title of the piece followed by Sehgal’s name. The interpreter confesses that he felt less guilty about how the work was disturbing the audience (and some audience members were really disturbed and startled by the sudden lights off) than about how it was disturbing the other works in the show and the artists who made them. I was as if ‘basically for 2 minutes, we were taking a group exhibition and turning it into a Tino Sehgal solo show.’ This sense of guilt that Sehgal’s interpreter shares are very familiar to me as I look back on my experience at the 13th Istanbul Biennial. I wonder whether I was taking the whole of Antrepo, the Biennial venue, and turn it into a Goldin + Senneby solo show… I also know that in this mischievous act I was as responsible as the artists since it was I who created an entertainment for her, taking advantage of one of the blanks the play/text had…. n 1 Tino Sehgal Exhibition, Tino Sehgal and performers, June 2015, ©Mathias Völzke 2 Martin-Gropius-Bau Building, © Jansch, 2013

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CINEMA

MÜGE BÜYÜKTALAŞ

Everything ends everything restarts Following its world premiere in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto Film Festival in September, Baskın (“The Raid”) will be screened in the Montréal Turkish Film Festival and Austin’s Fantastikfest, and then participates in the competition of the Spanish Sitges Film Festival in October. It is a midnight movie about five police officers that receive an emergency call during their night patrol and go to an abandoned historical Ottoman police station.

he opening scene of Baskın (“The Raid”) is set in a roadside restaurant named Yeşilvadi (Green Valley) whose signboard, white on blue, is lit with flickering neon light. From afar, we see a number of men huddled around a table inside the restaurant, engaged in a spirited conversation. They are police officers who have taken a break from their late night patrol, doing some male bonding through football talk. The chat continues in a disturbingly realistic tone, which we all know exists somewhere out there even if we do not come across it very often. These cops are not the kind of characters you get to know in the first fifteen minutes, as is the case in classical film narrative. What draws our attention is not who they are, but the social positions they represent. The audience quickly bonds with them, while watching them sit and chat away. Different aspects of masculinity or male domination1, which permeate the society, are visible throughout their conversation, right until it turns into a display of courage, a bravado where the bond between courage and horror is underscored with a soft but thick pen. In the resulting picture, this bravado underpinned by horror clearly poses a challenge to the masculine violence represented by the state. The policemen are representative individuals who protect “law and order” in order to reinforce the state, of which they are but a subcomponent. As such, their identities, families, background, and whether they are good or bad, become insignificant in this representation. Horror is continuous and fixed in this world riddled with danger. The film’s approach to horror is different from that of the classical horror movie, where an obscurity is hidden in the

Can Evrenol behind the camera, ©Arda Sanatkar

metanarrative. Here horror is created by the sociological and personal result of individuals’ fears related to existence, the world, society, state and life. In the movie, symbols of fear, and of othering fuelled by fear, appear gradually in a consistent rhythm until the very end. The squad hits the road in response to an emergency call; unaware that this is just the beginning. If we think of it within the classical pattern of the hero’s story, the walkie-talkie is the “messenger” here. Things that the cops come across on the road are clues to help them decipher the hidden meanings of this journey. Dig Your Grave Deep In his analyses, Marx describes modernity as its own gravedigger2. Forged in an urban world, under the masculine pressure of the state, the policemen are on the road to experiencing the results of their choices in life as modern individuals. The protagonists of Baskın display many of the reflexes that prevail among sceptical urbanites due to their sense

of loneliness, and mistrust towards the surrounding world. Although the story features five characters, two of them (Remzi ve Arda) start to stand out as the film moves along. What sets them apart from the others is a sort of telepathic communication, whose source is unknown to us, and the social connection they have via their families. Cem Özüduru, one of the film’s scriptwriters, indicates that the telepathic communication between Remzi and Arda is in a way similar to that found in Stephen King’s novel Shining. This connection, which is as obscure to the characters as it is to the audience, becomes even more intriguing when Arda’s childhood memories come into the picture and create the backdrop for the story’s subtext of mistrust. The mistrust hidden in here is fuelled by one’s uncertainty of what will happen in the future, and of whom to trust -factors that make modernity dig a deep grave for itself. What we have at hand is individual mistrust, fear and loneliness. The main character goes back and

forth between reality and dream, which are depicted as a fall -which brings to mind the metaphors associated with fall in numerous myths and modern day stories. We come across the idea that the road to certain long term achievements in this world always starts with a fall, as is known to us since Prometheus and popularized by the story of Alice in wonderland. The audience is bonded more strongly to the main protagonist when he experiences a fall-like transition in the beginning, followed by new twists throughout the story. From the second half onwards, the film is more and more riddled with symbols, which, when interpreted separately or as a whole, join to form a subtext that pushes our protagonists to a transformation, despite the strong resistance on their part. The social circumstances symbolized by the characters have ossified to such an extent that their resistance against the symbols lead to conflicts which create an immersive experience for the audience. The patrol car hits some creature which the cops cannot see, and they pull over. When their flashlights illuminate the scene, we see toads across the road in the thousands. In pagan religions, toads were considered to be one of the disguises in which Satan appeared to humans. In the dark of night when evil becomes transparent, toads appear before us like an unhappy surprise, and in film grammar, they herald the unfortunate events that are about to happen soon. Toads are one of the first foreshadowing symbols that strike us in the story. Due to their adaptive power which allows them to live both on land and in water unlike most creatures, toads were thought by different cultures to have the capacity to travel between different worlds. Likewise, toads carry an otherworldly symbolism in the journeys

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CINEMA

of heroes travelling across foreign lands. The Others This otherworldly symbolism which we are drawn into as the heroes’ journey moves along, is reinforced further and further, since the new characters which join the story are increasingly distant to modernity which digs itself a deep grave. Joining the story after the toads are toad hunters, who appear to live in some sort of a group, which is closer to ancients forms of community than to today’s modern family. Ancient tribes, or clans had internal codes similar to those of today’s communes, and engaged in abnormal behaviour not in tune with the liberal capitalist system’s understanding of aesthetics, as well as a sense of pollution and darkness. Toad hunters are the last warning before the ultimate catharsis, and function like a second messenger in a sense. From the very beginning of the story the policemen display in both their bodies and words a masculine “courage”, which is dealt a heavy, inquisitive blow by the dialogue that takes place as they drive towards the building which they will raid. One of the policemen, seeing his associate holding on to the driving wheel in panic, urges him to cite the first line of the Turkish national anthem, and he pronounces the first words, “Do not fear...” in a trembling voice, terrorized by the death which awaits them, or the uncertainty hidden in the building they are about to raid. As we approach catharsis, we come across an occult clan, which represent another kind of othering. In the beginning it is not even clear whether they are human beings or not. The clear divide (or maybe refusal) between the modern and non-modern reaches its zenith here, and turns into a confrontation between the two sides. Well, who is good and who is evil? The existentialist inquiry put forth by the film probably has no messages or judgements based on the struggle between the good and evil. If there

is such a message, then it can only depend on the subjective relationship each moviegoer has with the film. The film’s real concern is hidden in the bigger picture. Interior/Exterior-Night The film starts and ends at nighttime. This is not only required by the storyline, but also appears to be a side factor supporting the entire structure. In continuation of the existentialist inquiry we have mentioned above, this is a world where opposites almost melt into each other. Day and night are the mundane appearances of light and darkness, which are key elements of dualism and existentialism, the most basic symbols of the argument that everything exists together with its opposite, and symbols of good and evil. It is always night-time throughout the film. In the dualist approach, night is a time when evil forces can operate and hide away with more ease in the absence of light. Night is less inquisitive. Everyone becomes more courageous and can hide their fears better at night, when most people go home and the sun turns its face towards the other half of the Earth. It is no more possible to shock the audience with imagery such as blood and terror. The language described as “gore” is not new or frightening for modern people who constantly live amidst images of terror inscribed in their minds by the media which disseminates pictures from worldwide wars and massacres, bodies dismembered in killing sprees, human limbs scattered around, and scenes of political torture in damp and dirty rooms. The excess of blood, which we witness in the scene of catharsis, promises a thorough purification, for those who can stomach it. You will have to see the film to find out where the protagonist is heading towards, as he is washed from his past with blood flowing in streams! A line from the script offers a nice clue as to what the film is all about: “Everything ends, everything restarts”… n

1 One of the illustrations of the movie, ©Cem Özüduru 2 Movie poster, ©Justin Erikson Footnotes: 1 Pierre Bourdieu, Eril Tahakküm (Masculine Domination), Bağlam, 1. edition, October 2014 2 Terry Eagleton, Tatlı Şiddet (Sweet Violence), Ayrıntı, 1. edition, 2012, p. 315

TECHNOLOGY

MÜJDE BİLGÜTAY

Doubling David... Almost 50 years after Warhol, the advent of 3D scanning and printing technologies have extended the reach of reproduction beyond two-dimensional images into the realm of objects. Within this context Serkan Özkaya›s David (Inspired by Michelangelo) symbolizes the transformation of art in the age of 3D printing.

here is a website called Artficial (artificial.com) where you can chose a classical sculpture of your liking and either print it on your own 3D printer or order a copy. “Through collaborations with philanthropists, art collectors and museums, the Artficial team has built a database containing several perfectly reproduced 3D models of priceless works of art, from different historical periods and cultural locations” says at the website info page, “Each sculpture has been carefully 3D scanned and 3D modeled into a perfect virtual replica, which is referred to as Art DNA”. The site also features an online “configurator” to reproduce these art works in a way to fit to your individual taste. Although the library of replicas on offer and the materials used for printing are fairly limited, the site promises a larger database and additional customization options including casted and direct metal 3D printing will be available soon. I chose a 1:1 replica (almost 90 cm tall) of 18th century Sicilian sculptor Francesco Marabitti’s “Putto” (naked child) in bright purple polyamide and the price the configurator gave me was about 13 thousand Euros. If you opt for transparent resin and red, the price goes up to 15 thousand. However you can get a humbler 11.5 cm version in the same color and material around 300 Euros. Give up the more stylish resin and turn to polyamide, the price drops to 55 Euros. So how is this different from the pygmy sized plaster replica of Michelangelo’s David at my friend’s bathroom? (Which was probably bought from a souvenir shop for 50 Euros or less…) According to Artficial, the answer is “democratization of art” which was purportedly their starting point, rather than profiting on the wonders of new technology: “By progressively taking some of the most valuable examples from humanity’s artistic and cultural heritage into the future

of manufacturing, Artficial will make the past of human creativity more accessible than ever, inspiring a new era for artistic expression. By passing DNA on to the next generations, humanity assures the survival of its species. Through Art DNA and 3D printing it can assure the survival of its essence.” And yes, probably these are extravagant words on a press release to impress customers but there might be some truth to them. “In fact the only thing that can be scanned and 3D printed without any loss in essence is a statue. Because a statue is an end in itself” says conceptual artist Serkan Özkaya whose “David - Inspired by Michelangelo” project is one of the first and surely the largest 3D printed art work in the world. Based on Stanford University professor Marc Levoy’s computer model, it is a replica of the Renaissance masterpiece, doubled in size and painted in gold (it is almost 10 meters tall). Initially it was meant for the 9th Istanbul Biennial (in 2005) but fell over upon installation and broke into pieces days prior to the opening*. The artist restored the damaged replica and cast two additional copies; one remains in Turkey and the other has been acquired by 21c Museum in Louisville, USA. But before going to Louisville, it toured the streets of New York City on the back of a lorry for two days, creating spectacular images in the minds of the onlookers no matter if they have seen or even knew of the “original” statue in Florence. “My interest in sculpture and David in particular is based on the reproducibility of its pure form” says Özkaya who also has not seen Michelangelo’s David himself, “And we have been thought that Michelangelo was the greatest sculpture of all times and his David was one of the greatest masterpieces of Renaissance, if not the greatest.” It is the most precious manmade object in the world yet today it can be replicated in minute detail

TECHNOLOGY

insomuch that, even if Michelangelo himself were miraculously rose from the grave and made another David, he would not be able to come up with such an exact replica: “If you scan a pencil and take a 3D print out, what you get is a sculpture of a pencil; you cannot write with it. You cannot copy the material or the function. But since the essence of a statue is pure form, the most precious man-made object in the world becomes the most reproducible.” Replicas, reproductions, copies, doubles or appropriations and their repercussions in terms of authorship, uniqueness, originality and public space have been an important discussion topic in art circles since the Industrial Revolution however it was Andy Warhol and his Factory in the 60s who set the tone of the discourse with his army of assistants reproducing images in a Tayloresque assembly line setting. Ultimately what Warhol did was to reject traditional ideas of sole authorship (and by extension uniqueness and originality) and spread it out into the collective, which consequently redefined the role of the artist and the artwork itself. While the artist has turned into some sort of a “code writer” of ideas and concepts, the artwork itself has become almost immaterial; in a way not very much different from the binary code that translates into Michelangelo’s David. Doubles, representations, reproductions became reiterations of the original concept, adding on to its footprints in our collective conscious. This way the artwork itself, though immaterial, has acquired a life of its own. After almost 50 years, the advent of 3D scanning and printing technologies have extended the reach of reproduction beyond two dimensional images into the realm of objects. Take London based husband and wife artist duo Nick and Rob Carter’s representation of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, for instance. Highly faithful to the painting, down to finding a way to represent Van Gogh’s inimitable brushwork,

1‘Double’, book published from ‘Storefront for Art and Architecture Manifesto’ series, includes articles setting off Özkaya’s ‘David’ 2 Rob and Nick Carter, Sunflowers 2012-2013, bronz, 59 cm. Borrowed the same name from Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, produced in 12 copies. (Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-90, Sunflowers, 1888, Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London) 3-4 One of the 18th’s century sculptures ‘Putto’ by Francesco Marabatti. A classic from Artficial library; artficial.com

it is a “real object” based on a 2D rendering by an artist who is famous for choosing expression over realism. In collaboration with MPC, an international visual experience and effects studio, Carters rendered the painting in three dimensions, accounting for every brushstroke and figuring out what the fully realized piece would look like. Then, a 3D printer made a resin model, which was used to create the cast of the final bronze sculpture. The initial inspiration for this project was the short attention span of museum (or gallery) visitors to famous works of art, and thus Rob and Nick wanted to create something that warrants a second look. And indeed it does. “In (Özkaya’s) Double David, as with the doubles of the late 20th Century, there is an absence of the artist’s authorial gesture, but in this case it has been pushed even further, to a more pervasive absence of human agency in

general” writes artist Pablo Soler-Jones in his review of the book “Double”, the latest instalment of Storefront for Art and Architecture Manifesto Series (available at Amazon). Edited by Özkaya himself, the reader is mainly based on his 3D printed Double David. “The power has been shifted to the technology. The sculpture has been created by collective digital and mechanical process; laser beams and electrical currents fraternise, perfectly scanning every detail of the original sculpture and generating a digital 3D model which is then cut into hundreds of Styrofoam pieces generated by a milling machine.” Then he quotes Spyros Papapetros from the Princeton School of Architecture who wrote “[Ozkayaʼs] David is essentially neither his nor Michelangeloʼs.” Instead, it becomes an on-going process, a “constant flux” as Soler-Jones describes, something that continuously evolves into a lot of other things through its doubles, copies, reproductions, appropriations. The blurring of authorship, the endless possibilities of distribution through the internet, challenging of private property turn an artwork into a new kind of public space in itself while the artist assumes a guiding role; a “developer” if you will. *David (inspired by Michelangelo) and its collapse are featured in Danila Cahen’s film, Friendly Enemies (2010). The process is also documented in the 340-page Rise and Fall and Rise of David (inspired by Michelangelo), published by 21c Museum and Yapı Kredi (2011). n

In his review of the book, which was published in Varoom, artist Soler-Jones says: “The power has been shifted to the technology. The sculpture has been created by collective digital and mechanical process; laser beams and electrical currents fraternize, perfectly scanning every detail of the original sculpture and generating a digital 3D model which is then cut into hundreds of Styrofoam pieces generated by a milling machine.” Then he quotes Spyros Papapetros from the Princeton School of Architecture who wrote “[Ozkaya's] David is essentially neither his nor Michelangelo's.”

MIAMI

GABRIELA SOLÂ

The New Walls on the Block There was a time in the last five years where most visitors would have completely sidestepped this neighborhood. Now, Wynwood rightfully stands at the forefront of Miamiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bustling art scene.

MIAMI

1 Gramps Bar, Wynwood, Miami, ©Ines Hegedus- Garcia 2 3 4 5 6 Wynwood, Miami ©Phillip Pessar 7 Pedestrian road, Wynwood, Miami ©Phillip Pessar 8 Wynwood Walls, Miami ©Phillip Pessar 9 Wynwood, Miami ©Phillip Pessar 10 Wynwood Building, Wynwood, Miami ©Phillip Pessar

elightful smells line the air, emanating from the cluster of thirty or so gourmet food trucks parked along one another in an otherwise empty parking lot. Music blares from a number of speakers nearby, and inside many of the exhibiting galleries, plastic flutes of champagne are being laid out for the multitude of visitors that will waltz in and out throughout the evening. It is 6:00 in the afternoon on the 2nd Saturday of the month, and the intense Miami heat is starting to cool down, which can mean only one thing: Miami’s Art Walk will soon be kicking into gear. During the next few hours,

huge crowds of curious onlookers will nearly overrun the streets between NW 2nd Ave and NW 29th, where a bustle of art galleries, shops and studios together make up the city’s Wynwood neighborhood. They move slowly, cautiously even, stopping to admire and snap shots of murals and graffiti that crowd every bit of available space in every direction you look. Parking meters, road signs, empty spaces between lots, all covered in some form or other. Here, even the sidewalks are game- these are not floor space, but rather the urban artist’s canvas. Up ahead, a duo exhibits two gargantuan pythons on the roof of their car. A cluster of people look on both mesmerized and horrified. Next to them, a young artist spraypaints what appear to be finishing touches on three giant neon skulls and proceeds to haul the canvas into a nearby pickup truck. Turning a corner and venturing into Espitia Gallery, I stand over a particularly intriguing piece of the exhibited artist’s “Toys Recycled” mixed media series, and within a minute or so, Rafael the artist and owner (whom the gallery is named after) is standing next to me, explaining the mechanisms of his work. We make small talk for a few minutes, and I ask him what he likes the most about exhibiting in this particular spot. He gives me a smile and says, “Can you tell me a more interesting place to be right now than Wynwood?” In effect, I cannot. Part modern art exhibition, part street art installation, part people watching and food truck haven. Whatever this neighborhood represents to those that head over, one thing is for certain: it is a far cry from the traditional Miami experience of sun & sand that has come to be emblematic of this city. There was a time in the last five years where most visitors would have completely sidestepped this neighborhood. Now, Wynwood rightfully stands at the forefront of Miami’s bustling art scene. Historically a shoddy and rundown warehouse district only a mere fifteen minutes’ drive from Miami Beach, Wynwood was long considered a hodgepodge of lowincome recent immigrants, where unemployment was nearly at 60

percent, crime ran rampant and living conditions were grim, to say the least. In the late 1990’s, with high rents driving them out of other areas, such as the traditionally bohemian Coconut Grove and the nearby Design District, a handful of artists and gallery owners began to transition their studios into the area. Ample spaces could be obtained for dirt cheap prices, and according to one gallery owner, what unfolded was a sort of positive feedback loop: as artists heard about other artists making the move, they too wanted in- the allure of grand space and extremely low cost was too great to pass up. By the mid 2000s, the neighborhood received much greater attention as Art Basel annually set up shop in Miami Beach. Seeking adjacent areas with sufficient space for popup studios to exhibit, Wynwood almost by default became the go-to place. Amid all this came the late developer Tony Goldman, who had previously revived notorious areas such as the Meatpacking District in New York City. Unfazed by the fact that beyond the fifteen or so galleries already in place the larger scope of the neighborhood was still laced with crime, his vision included a fully walkable urban landscape where the relatively new (and in his view, undervalued) art form of street art could come into its own. And flourish it has- the Wynwood Walls, unofficially deemed the hub of the Wynwood neighborhood, are now host to such world-renowned artists as Shepard Fairey, Os Gemeos and a freestanding Peter Tunney exhibition. Surrounding the Walls, which encompass only a small geographical part of the neighborhood, you find one of the most extensive open-air street art installations in the world. To those coming to Miami believing they know what’s in store, Wynwood offers up a delightfully unexpected surprise. Venturing outside of its beaches, an exploration of the greater Miami area also becomes a cultural experience, albeit a grittier one than the average person may have had in mind. Along with the recently opened Perez Art Museum (PAMM), which boasts an impressive array of 20th and 21st century contemporary artwork, the Miami of recent years is undeniably incorporating artistic culture into its mix.

MIAMI

For Miami locals, Wynwood’s growth is particularly symbolic because it has sprung up in a city increasingly stifled with its own image of bikiniclad aesthetic perfection and boozy overindulgence. Being asked by a visitor to head over to South Beach and landmarks such as Lincoln Road “to see the real Miami” is equally as cringe-worthy as asking a New Yorker to accompany you to the heart of Times Square for dinner and a stroll: there is of course an intriguing excess of stimuli, but an equally deep-seated belief that this does not really represent the city you know and love. As a Miami local, I am drawn to Wynwood, to its happenings and scene, not because I consider myself particularly well versed in the nuances of modern art, but because it represents a new kind of place not previously found in Miami, at least for my generation of twenty and thirty something. Wynwood is especially appealing not only for what it is, but rather what it is not. Rather than facade and smoke and mirrors, Wynwood encourages authenticity. It oozes raw and exposed, and

symbolizes a communal desire to move back to basics, to just be you, while Miami Beach’s specialty is catering to escapism and illusion. Consider for example Wood Tavern, a staple of the neighborhood specializing in serving craft beers that sprung up in the earlier days of the neighborhood’s renaissance. With its rustic ambiance, messily spray-painted outdoor decks and diverse crowds, it practically screams out, come on in! The staff is friendly, and menu prices are beyond reasonable, which is a lot to say for the country’s 4th most expensive city to dine out. Most importantly, you walk in and you can feel that Wood Tavern doesn’t take itself so seriously, which makes you like it that much more. Also consider R House, another experiment in innovation: the space is co-owned by a restaurateur and a gallery owner, and pieces are not only showcased within this space, but act as the centerpiece to the entire experience. The goal, I was told by the assistant to curator Tom Shirk, is to create a dining experience where the artwork catches you off guard, almost, in the hopes of moving you in unexpected ways. When asked where he sees

Historically a shoddy and rundown warehouse district only a mere fifteen minutes’ drive from Miami Beach, Wynwood was long considered a hodgepodge of low-income recent immigrants, where unemployment was nearly at 60 percent, crime ran rampant and living conditions were grim, to say the least. Wynwood headed long-term, Rocco Carulli, owner and Executive Chef of R House, is the first to admit that with time, increased commercialization will lead to inevitable alterations in the character of the neighborhood. However, he says, “we are a tight-knit group of people here with common interests, always working to keep Wynwood as true to itself as possible.” For all our sakes, let’s hope they do. n

LONDON

ESRA GÜRMEN

When an artist is tired of London... The capital’s cultural spaces are disappearing because cheap accommodation where the artists could work without the worry of instant success and profit is either on sale by their landlords or acknowledge a sharp rental raise every year.

hen Jarvis Cocker was studying Fine Art and Film at Central Saint Martins, he met a rich art student who had a penchant for pretending to be poor. She told Cocker that she wanted to move to Hackney and “live like common people”. It was the early 90s, and a young art impresario named Joshua Compston had opened the Factual Nonsense Gallery in a former timber-yard on Charlotte Road in the Hoxton area of the then predominantly working

class borough of Hackney, just north of the affluent City area. Compston was organising an art fair, “Fete Worse than Death”, in Hoxton Square, where a fledgling group of artists sold art — Damien Hirst dressed up as a clown and helped visitors make spin paintings, which he signed for a quid (!), and Tracey Emin ran a kissing booth. 4000 people turned up for the event that put Shoreditch on the cultural map of London for the first time. The YBAs weren’t called

LONDON

the YBAs then; the changing global economy had created husks of lightindustrial warehouses, there had been a house-price crash in 1989, and artists, including the likes of Gary Hume and Alexander McQueen, reclaimed these unused spaces, because it meant cheap accommodation in which they could work without the worry of instant success and profit. By 1995, a number of independent galleries and studios had followed suit, along with the “pauvres chics” Jarvis Cocker famously mocked in “Common People”, who were keen on living on the edge, and wanted to buy into the cultural capital created by artists. A second wave of artists, formed mostly of filmmakers, migrated to the area in 1997, opening The LUX Centre for Film, Video and New Media. Today, most of those warehouses and former light-industry factories have been converted into luxury flats, most of which offer, ironically, “artistic loft style living”, with the average price of a one bedroom flat being half a million pounds. In a sense, Hoxton’s gentrification was the epitome of artist-led regeneration (though it’s important to note that that’s not the only way gentrification plays out in the city.) Hoxton’s initial trend reached its peak when Jay Jopling opened a second branch of White Cube in Hoxton Square in 2000 in a

converted 20th century-warehouse. White Cube was famous for giving YBAs their first solo shows and transforming the neighbourhood from edgy to glitzy, slowly contributing to the commodification of the area, which led to an increase in rent demand and property prices, consequently pushing out most of the artists who made the area in the first place. “Hoxton Square is a classic example,” says Karen Mirza, of the art duo Mirza & Butler and co-founder of no.w.here, a non-profit artistrun organisation in neighbouring Bethnal Green Road. “In 2002, the LUX Centre -of which no.w.here is a part- collapsed in Hoxton Square, because of that wave of gentrification. When White Cube moved in, the money of Jay Jopling attracted all that other kind of ‘money’. It’s a very complex relationship, that’s why I talk about ‘class’. Let’s get to the issue of class and contemporary art within a British context, which is a big subject that no one is tackling. We identify ourselves as cultural workers; we don’t identify with the market and the commodification of art.” Nowadays, Karen and her art partner Brad Butler, and the many artists who use the no.w.here building as a studio space, are facing a predicament that’s all too familiar: displacement as a result of rising property prices and rent hikes.

I first met Karen in Weavers Fields, Bethnal Green, during a campaign called Stop the Blocks, a walking tour of the East End, with visits to the most contested sites in the area that property developers want to capitalise on. No.w.here’s rental lease is up for renewal this December, but their landlord is unwilling to extend it, because he wants to maximise his profits on what is now considered a lucrative patch of land in the heart of East London. Ironically, no.w.here may be priced out by an artist couple who want to buy the building outright. “There needs to be some serious discussion about spatial justice, class and privilege,” says Karen, “and what it means to be integrated in the local community for ten years and then be displaced by other artists, your own so-called kin.” No.w.here’s looming closure isn’t a singular case. Over the last few years, London’s cultural and artistic spaces have been gradually disappearing, and its social life has been tamed and sterilised, as a consequence of a rampant gentrification cycle in the city. In the last decade, according to figures from the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, the number of UK clubs has dropped by over 1400. This faceless figure includes some seminal night clubs such as Highbury’s Buffalo Bar; Soho music institution Madame

LONDON

Jojo’s, where parts of Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut were filmed; Shoreditch’s Plastic People (where James Blake ran a club night); and the Joiners’ Arms, an iconic East London LGBTQI venue in Hackney Road. At the time of press, The George and Dragon, a few doors down from the Joiners’ Arms, has also announced that it’s closing, following a “dramatic rent hike”. The George is a particularly artistic haunt within the queer community, so much so that it has even spawned its own White Cube Gallery! Well, White Cubicle Toilet Gallery — borrowing from the white spaces idea of the modern art gallery (it has white toilet walls, duh!) the single toilet cubicle was curated by Pablo Leon de la Barra and exhibited works from the likes of Wolfgang Tillmans and Terence Koh. “It’s a form of privatisation of public spaces, in a way. Anyone could come in to Joiners’ Arms; the door wasn’t closed, whereas when this space becomes residential flats, that’s it,” says Peter Cragg, an activist from Friends of the Joiners’ Arms, who are campaigning to prevent the site from becoming a luxury high-rise. Recently, they managed to secure an “asset of community value status” from the council, which means that when the current landlords put the land up for sale, the Friends of the Joiners’ Arms community will have the right to bid and buy the site. Their aim is to

turn the space into a community cooperative and run it as an LGBTQI community centre, hosting debates and events. One of the prospective buyers of the Joiners’ Arms is Regal Homes, a London developer that has built more than thousand luxury units across London since 1998. It’s the same company that plans to demolish more than a hundred artists’ studios in Cremer Street, just off Hackney Road. According to the local newspaper Hackney Citizen, the company has applied to knock down Cremer Street Studios to make way for a luxury development. It has recently been revealed that the owners of the building, through the studio managing charity, ACAVA, asked the artists to sign a letter of consent to the redevelopment scheme. The letter states that the artists will not oppose any redevelopment plans, in exchange for a guaranteed extension of occupancy until 30th of November. I reached out to an artist (who wanted to remain anonymous) who said that it was essentially a forced consent. “The landlord has the absolute right to sell to a developer,” says ACAVA’s artistic director Duncan Smith. “They’re working within the current legal and planning framework, so it has to be a matter of policy. Local authorities and the government need to consider the question of whether

The George is a particularly artistic haunt within the queer community, so much so that it has even spawned its own White Cube Gallery! Well, White Cubicle Toilet Gallery — borrowing from the white spaces idea of the modern art gallery — it has white toilet walls, duh! — the single toilet cubicle was curated by Pablo Leon de la Barra and exhibited works from the likes of Wolfgang Tillmans and Terence Koh

in years to come London will have the reputation that it currently does as a cultural centre. The situation has been made worse in recent years. The government removed the restriction on industrial sites that meant that they could only be used for business purposes. So they can now sell them to developers who wish to build homes, and of course, there’s a great deal more money in that.” According to the Economist, “tight planning rules and a shortage of land mean that relatively little new housing is being built, even as a booming economy and spectacular population growth create lots of demand for it.” The article, dated May last year, also argues that “historically, governments have tried to ensure that house prices keep rising, to keep home-owning voters happy.” Low stock of housing means that developers are looking for the next patch of land to build on, or worse, knocking down council estates under “regeneration” schemes, barely replacing them with affordable homes. This is a cycle of capitalled gentrification that comes at the expense of local communities and underprivileged classes. Social renters are being exiled out of the city by their respective councils and rehoused outside of the capital, in places such as Stoke-on-Trent and Hastings. Over the last few years, regeneration has swept through numerous inner London areas

Moving image Still from November 11th, 1970, a single-channel video installation by Hsu Che-Yu. Courtesy Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China.

İstanbul 4-6 Eylül 2015 Haliç Kongre Merkezi Kuleli Binası 34445, Beyoğlu

www.moving-image.info

LONDON

London has also become a haven for foreign investors: “The combined effects of demand, government stimulants and restrictions on supply consistently push house prices above other forms of inflation, making residential property an attractive speculative investment,” argues Rowan Moore in the Observer, “The investors […] might […] be overseas investors who, encouraged by, among other things, nondomicile tax breaks, see British property as a safe bet.”

1 Stop the Block, a group of campaigners opposing the regeneration schemes in the East End, gather in front of Collingwood Estate, Whitechapel. The area is expected to go under large-scale developments with the arrival of the Cross Rail. ©Josh Jones 2 Anti-regeneration posters exhibited in the no.w.here studio. ©Josh Jones 3 South London’s iconic LGBTQI venue has recently been bought by international property developers, and the future is unclear for the pub. ©Rob Holley 4 Brad Butler, co-founder of no.w.here, in his studio. ©Josh Jones

such as Brixton, Elephant & Castle and Tower Hamlets, eradicating local communities. London has also become a haven for foreign investors: “The combined effects of demand, government stimulants and restrictions on supply consistently push house prices above other forms of inflation, making residential property an attractive speculative investment,” argues Rowan Moore in the Observer, “The investors […] might […] be overseas investors who, encouraged by, among other things, non-domicile tax breaks, see British property as a safe bet.” “We’re left wondering, ‘Why has this multi-million euro Austrian international property development company bought a gay pub in Vauxhall that they think is a really bad business?’” says Ben Walters, an executive member of the Future of Royal Vauxhall Tavern initiative, who is campaigning to save Royal Vauxhall Tavern, a decades-old legendary LGBTQI pub in Vauxhall, South London. Rumour has it that Freddie Mercury once smuggled Princess Diana into the bar dressed up as a boy. The pub was sold to international property developers last year, and the future of the venue is unclear. Together with the committee, Ben has applied to Historic England to make the pub a listed building, which by law will ban developers from knocking the building down. “The problem that we’re facing is that London space — the space where people live and work and play and have communities and make culture — is being turned into a commodity, a form of capital,” he says. “And it just means that any use of urban space which isn’t predicated on maximising profit is incredibly vulnerable. And that’s terrible for all of us who live here and value the idea that cities are about more than generating profit.” What we’re left with is a city that is now branding itself on the back of the subcultures that it spawned decades ago, and is now marketing it to investors, who are either seeing parts of the capital as currency or buying into an “authentic cultural lifestyle” that is now so far removed from its original raison d'être. Yes, there is still an exciting creative thread running through its underground, with young editors who are self-publishing great independent magazines (LAW, Mushpit, Little Joe and TALC to name a few), there are still a handful of promising art collectives and independent galleries in South London, still a few record shops — and grime is still well and truly alive! Of course, it is healthy for cities to change and evolve, but London is becoming increasingly exclusive, advocating a monoculture that is too bland, too sterile and too tame, with its pop-up shops and independent cafes that are way too obsessed with the idea of “cool”. The city has simply begun to

consume more than it’s producing. Most of the artists that I’ve spoken to told me that a new generation of creative people are now moving around to different areas in London: in South London there’s a shift from Peckham and New Cross to Deptford and Crystal Palace; in East London, towards Barking; and in West London, towards Brent. Some leave for the countryside, while some leave the country — for Berlin and Amsterdam. So, what’s the way forward for Londoners? “There is no question that people are resisting, and of course in some cases that has been successful. I think it’s important that we do show that these things aren’t inevitable, that they can be stopped,” says Ben. “Having urban spaces where people can be themselves is absolutely fundamental to human nature. We have to support the venues, the artists, and the culture that we do have, and we have to resist, and make a big old fuss when the venues we love are threatened. We have to challenge the story.”

MAGAZINE

issue 7 : biennials

a magazine focusing on contemporary art from turkey in english with an international distribution. pick up your copy in amsterdam, austin, berlin, chicago, d端sseldorf, istanbul, london, munich, new york, paris, seoul, or zurich.

www.ex h i bis t.c o m

ARCHAEOLOGY

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ERKAN KONYAR* AND ASSISTANT PROFESSOR HACER BANU KONYAR

Van in summer Dozens of scientists from various universities work fiercely in Van every year during the summer in order to enlighten the ancient history of Van city. These people who spend the summer heat in Van in the name of science, record in history with their research that the history of the region, including that of an Urartu tablet, dates back much further than we might assume.

he Van Fortress and the surrounding settlements host the remains of the seven thousand years old history of settlements in Van city. As it is well known, the Tilkitepe Mound located within the airfield of Van, is a region that has been home to the oldest settlers in Van. The Tilkitepe Mound excavated by foreign archaeologists in 1899, 1937, and 1939, unfortunately today is not open to visitors. More comprehensive information on the early history of Van city is obtained today through the excavations carried out at the Van Fortress located within the Yalı District, the Mound of Van

Fortress located north of it and the Old City of Van extending just south of the fortress. These sites host the 5000 years old settlements of Van. It is possible to discover the history of settlements in Van, dating back to 3000 BC, by exploring these sites. The history of research on the Van Fortress, the Old City of Van and its Mound dates back to 5th century A.D. going back to texts written by Moses Khorene. Travellers start visiting the city in the 19th century, by looking at this quite contradictory information. It is also possible to observe the change and development of the settlement pattern of the Old City of

Van in some miniatures, engravings and photographs. For example, the miniature identified, as the 17th century “Kala-i Sengi Van” included in the Archive of the Topkapı Palace Museum and the information included in “The Book of Travels of Evliya Çelebi” are the earliest examples of the subject matter. Both the book of travels of Evliya Çelebi and the miniature in question indicate that the Old City of Van was surrounded by a wall. They mention that there were city gates located on the wall at various intervals, but there exist many discrepancies regarding the names and the number of the doors. The same is valid for the

towers located on the walls. However, we can sketch out today that the city had four main gates in total. Other visual records of the Old City of Van consist of engravings and photographs by travellers who visited the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The works of F. E. Schulz in 1828; of the famous architect-archaeologist C. Texier in 1839; of the traveling- archaeologist Austen Henry Layard, the traveling -geologist Xavier Hommair de Hell and his traveling companion painter Jules Laurens around 1840; works of the French geologist, archaeologist and missionary Ernest Chantre,

ARCHAEOLOGY

Markus P. Müller-Simonis, Carl Eugen Waldemar Belck and the ancient historian Carl Ferdinand Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt are important references for the Old City of Van. The British traveler Harry Finnis Bloss Lynch has also been Van in 1898 for detailed research and has published a work titled “Armenia: Travels and Studies.” It is remarkable that he talks of Urartu kings under the title of “the Vannic kings” and that he uses the term “Vannic Empire.” The German scientist Walter Bachmann has made pictures and drawn the plan of the Grand Mosque in 1911, several years prior to the First World War, before the mosque has been demolished. That same year, the Russian scientists Nikolai Ja Marr begin research and excavations in Van on behalf of the “Russian Archaeology Society.” In 1939, they carry out the first official excavation work in Kirsopp and Silva Lake Van Fortress. Later on in the year 1958, excavations by the Istanbul University under the guidance of Prof. Afif Erzen begin in the Mound of Van Fortress, even if for a short time. These excavations continue between the years 1972-75. Archeology projects are conducted by Prof. Afif Erzen again in the Van Fortress and its Mound between the years 1989-1991. Meanwhile, excavations are carried out at the Grand Mosque of Van by Prof. Oktay Aslanapa, also from the Istanbul University, in 1970-71. The excavation and restoration work carried out in Husrev Pasha Complex by Prof. Abdüsselam Uluçam from the Van Yüzüncü Yıl University between the years 1996-2001 is noteworthy. The Restoration work started in this area by the Directorate General of Foundations in 2006 is still ongoing. Archaeological and art historical work in the Old City of Van, its Fortress and Mound have been resumed in 2010. Scientists and students from many universities nationwide, especially from Yüzüncü Yıl University, Istanbul Technical University, Manisa Celal Bayar University, Istanbul Maltepe University and Samsun Ondokuz Mayıs University participate in the archaeological project carried out, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, by the Istanbul University Van Area Historical and Archaeological

Research Centre. Since the 2014 excavation season, excavations have been initiated in 3 major areas within the framework of the Van-Tuşpa Project. In the citadel area documentation work, and in the Mound of Van Fortress and in the Old City of Van excavation and preservation/restoration works are being carried out. The Mound of Van Fortress, which extends parallel to the fortress, located in its north, is another area where excavation and restoration works are carried out within the framework of Van-Tuşpa Project. Architectural remains with mud brick-walls and stone foundations that have multiplerooms and patios, which also include stone-floored barns and domestic spaces such as cellars and kitchens, have been uncovered in this area during the excavation work initiated in 2010. New archaeological data have been obtained, in particular about the downfall phase of the Urartu and about the settlers who came to the area afterwards. Finds in their original states have been uncovered again in these excavated Urartu dwellings. It is very impressive to see that 1.5 meter-high mud brick walls with stone foundations have been preserved until today. Excavations at the Old City of Van, the Van Fortress and the Mound actually aim to enlighten the history of Van city dating back seven thousand years. In this respect, these are pretty important sites since there are only very few places in Anatolia where one might find, within the city centre, such ancient material culture remnants, remains of dwellings of old settlers of the modern city, religious buildings, tombs, roads and other adjacent units of the city. When considered from this point of view, the Old City of Van is important since it represents the original urban fabric of Anatolia especially during the Ottoman Period. One might think of the Old City of Van as the “Pompeii” of Anatolia. The Old City of Van has remained under Seljuk and Ottoman domination for 800 years except for some interludes and it is home to the monumental architectural remains of these periods. It has the characteristics of an openair museum, which discloses, with its material cultural remains, the whole historical course of this process. The

urban fabric that will be revealed by the excavations carried out in this area would facilitate access, in particular, to the restored mosque and to other Ottoman antiquities, as well as facilitate the landscape planning. The original fabric of the Old City of Van will be more intelligible by means of the restoration and restitution of uncovered dwellings and work places as well as of administrative structures. The region has the potential to become a major tourist attraction if these structures in question are refunctioned. The excavation and restoration work in the Old City of Van has rather taken place in those areas of the city that have been inhabited since 1200 BC until the early 20th century. In this respect, a street pattern of approximately an 800 year old SeljukOttoman city and a corresponding example of civil architecture get analysed. Within this framework, architectural remains of arterial main streets made of stone, of intersecting streets with channels in the centre, again made

More comprehensive information on the early history of Van city is obtained today through the excavations carried out at the Van Fortress located within the Yalı District, the Mound of Van Fortress located north of it and the Old City of Van extending just south of the fortress. These sites host the 5000 years old settlements of Van. It is possible to discover the history of settlements in Van, dating back to 3000 BC, by exploring these sites.

of stone, and of mostly two-story houses with stone foundations and mud brick walls located on these streets, have been excavated. A wide spectrum of transportable cultural assets ranging from ceremonial finds to articles of daily use, once again related to these areas, have been detected. Impressive data have been discovered in the Old City of Van with regards to infrastructure. Drainage canals in both road systems, that of

ARCHAEOLOGY

roads with channels in the centre and that of roads with spine, where pipes coming out of houses, beneath the surface, are connected to both sides of the road have been uncovered. The road between Kaya Çelebi and Orta Kapı (Central Gate) indicates, by its structural character as well as by its extending modules on both sides, that it is one of the city’s central areas. Likewise, architecture of possible public buildings and of shops running parallel along the road, on both its north and south, with stony grounds/ sidewalks arranged in front has been uncovered during the works carried out in this area. The archaeological finds excavated from these shops and workshops in question, reveal striking information on the intended use of the buildings. For example, the presence of samples that have been deformed in the manufacturing process among the glass articles uncovered extensively in some shops reveals that this area was a glass-manufacturing workshop. Hundreds of perfume bottle pieces, mostly of French origin, uncovered in another unit adjacent to this workshop, reveal that it was

Excavations at the Old City of Van actually aim to enlighten the history of Van city dating back seven thousand years. The sites are very important since there are only very few places in Anatolia where one might find, within the city center, such ancient material culture remnants, remains of dwellings of old settlers of the modern city, religious buildings, tombs, roads and other adjacent units of the city. One might think of the Old City of Van as the "Pompeii" of Anatolia.

most likely a perfume manufacturing and sales location. Shoe samples, hand tools and dye vessels uncovered in another rectangular structure, excavated in the easternmost point of the area, suggest that here it was a shoe manufacturing workshop. Urartu Kingdom, by dominating Eastern Anatolia, Transcaucasia and Northwestern Iran between 9th - 7th century BC, has kept them under its control over a period of 200 years. Urartu have built headquarters surrounded by city walls and cities with downtown settlements in different parts of the country for the first time. The development of mining and especially the widespread use of iron have paved the way for the creation of works that might be considered as hallmarks of Urartu in stonemasonry and architecture. Cuneiform script has begun to be used in the East for the first time, and artefacts, jewellery and weapons, mostly made out of bronze and iron, that were compatible with the taste of the elite class, have been produced. The Van Fortress (Tuşpa) is the capital of the Urartian Kingdom. A conglomerate

rock approximately 1250 meters long, 70-80 meters wide and 100 meters high, towers up right by the eastern shore of Lake Van. Terrace walls, the palace, the temple, open-air sanctuary, storage spaces, multi-chambered rock graves where all Urartu kings and their families are buried, the cuneiform inscription and steals are included within the fortress surrounded by city walls. The fortress has been used as the home base of the region after the Urartu during the Persians and the Ottoman Periods. Historical places uncovered within the fortress during the excavation and which are still standing are; City Walls, Sardur Tower, Argishti I Tomb, Little Horhor Tomb, New Palace, Founders/Citadel Tomb, Neft Kuyu (Petroleum Well) Tomb, Burial Vault under the Large platform, Tomb under the Citadel (Arsenal Tomb), Eastern Rooms, Cremation Tomb, Citadel and the Old Palace, Analı Kız Sanctuary and Şirşini of Menua. Excavations at the Old City of Van, the Van Fortress and the Mound that cover, in terms of their scope and the historical period they involve, a large time span among other excavation sites in Turkey, are also among the most extensive works carried out geographically. Architectural and small finds which are uncovered and will be uncovered by enduring work of many years, will contribute to the world’s cultural heritage as they get evaluated by scientific methods. * Faculty member of the Faculty of Letters Department of Ancient History, Istanbul University, Director of the Van Region History and Archaeology Research Centre n

1 Van Fortress view from the Van Lake (VKH Archive) 2 During the excavation, Erkan Konyar (left) and Armağan Tan (student-right) (VKH Archive) 3 Cuneiform scripted tablet (VKH Archive) 4 Excavation of Van Fortress Mound (VKH Archive) 5 Van Fortress (VKH Archive) 5

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BOOK

Machines that are talking about us

THE AGE OF EARTHQUAKES TANKUT AYKUT

n an age where information technologies are in a tremendous development, the means of communication between individuals, societies, and generations have irrevocably changed, the book, as a medium of cultural production and communication, is fated to lose its traditional significance. ‘The Age of Earthquakes’: A Guide to the Extreme Present by Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland and Hans Ulrich Obrist, with its format faithful to that of Penguin Books, points at the contradictions and dilemmas of this new age with ironic, absurd and motto-like page designs while at the same time emphasizing the inevitable transformation of the traditional book format and the indispensability of the book as a medium of information transfer. Published in March, ‘The Age of Earthquakes’ focuses on the peculiarities of the new age defined by the fast-moving progress in

transportation and communication technologies and handles global issues such as our addiction to smart phones and social media outlets, new balances occurring as a result of overcoming the long-suffered inequalities, individualization, subjectivity, development, and neoconservatism by comparing their common characteristics and tying them with each other. ‘The Age of Earthquakes’ is the joint creation of Shuman Basar, who had given quite original creative writing courses in Salt last year, Douglas Coupland known for his X generation novels and large-scale public space sculptures, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the most “celebrated” contemporary art curator on the planet, achieves more than what a good book is supposed to: a book that asks instead of answering! It makes the reader question as to how many of the new age’s addictions they are exposed to and, with the turn of each page, it renders the information and judgment on the previous totally questionable. Not giving a clue about who wrote which part, ‘The Age of Earthquakes’ doesn’t give up this

anonymous guise until the end. In addition to quotations from Basar, Coupland and Obrist, you may find illustrations and images by some of the most eminent contemporary artists from Liam Gillick to Trevor Paglen, Hito Steyerl to Dominique Gonzales Foerster. This book is a quick-runner; you can chew up its 250 pages in an hour and a half, preferably on a noisy and windy beach. Not only it offers a very interesting combination of text and visual arts, but it also stands out as a groundbreaking work with respect to the manner of citation of works of art it includes and the role contemporary art may on the information sharing forms of the current information age. Not to mention its ability to be consumed fast, just like the fast consuming habits it centers on... While entertaining its reader by pointing at twists and knots or with the absurdity of endeavoring to define them with a certain pedantry, ‘The Age of Earthquakes’ also attempts to clarify new concepts, values and many other confusing things such as insurmountable contradictions or terrifying dilemmas. The most interesting references are those made to “voting”, one of the main principles of democracy. The books asks, “Would you vote for someone who shares photos of kittens on the Internet?” and gives the answer after a few pages: “Liking isn’t voting”. This small but impressive book also includes collage work by young Turkish artist Lara Ögel, in addition to an array of artists of worldwide renown. Her works pop up in between Basar, Coupland and Obrist’s slogans sometimes to enrich their meaning sometimes to give clues to the reader as to what the answer could be... n 1 A page view from the book, The Age of Earthquakes, Penguin, 2015

EDUCATION

Haydarpaşa cartoon house MODEST KIDS WHO CAN LAUGH AT THEMSELVES NİHAN BORA

ihan Bora: We are well aware of Kadıköy Municipality’s support for art. And that makes the Istanbulites really happy. How did this Cartoon House project come forth? Aykurt Nuhoğlu: Kadıköy had significantly contributed to the urban aesthetics of the city with its waterside mansions and pavilions during the late Ottoman and the early republican period. Sadly, irregular and quick urbanization as well as profiteering has lost us these historic values one by one. Kadıköy Municipality is trying to rectify this by buying these places and restoring them to their previous condition as a way of defending our cultural heritage and collective memory. The historic house in Rasimpaşa is just one of them. We aim to put these places in the services of Kadıköy’s citizens where they can experience culture, arts, crafts and similar interests. The Cartoon House project came forth during a brainstorming session at our offices and we liked the idea. We funded the project by our municipality’s resources and then contacted the cartoonists. N. B.: Have your learned anything about the history of the building? A. N.: There are no written accounts of the house, but as far as we have learned from people who worked or lived in the neighborhood, the house was built in 1906 and its first owner was Kenan Bey. N. B.: I have read that you encountered some bureaucratic obstacles in the process of opening the Cartoon House. Is it true? If so, what were those obstacles? A. N.: Apart from the lengthy period of all historic structures’ physical and functional transformation process, we have encountered none. N. B.: You chose to use a historic mansion as the venue for the project. What were the criteria as far as location and functionality are concerned? A. N.: That’s right; we chose a historic building. The province of Kadıköy is one of a few districts of Istanbul with historic structures. You can come across such buildings on every street and in every neighborhood that carry on the urban memory. Our kids grow up unaware of nature and historical texture in high-rise buildings. We thought it would be a significant attempt, as symbolic as it

is, to bring them together with the historical aspect of the environment they live in. And we believe that the memory, which the architecture of this a-century-old house bears, will contribute greatly to the intellectual imagination of our children. N. B.: What does the Cartoon House offer? What is the age range of kids that can benefit from education, who will be the instructors, etc? A. N.: We are going to plan the program and method of drawing, and humor writing lessons at the Cartoon House with the Association of Cartoonists. The program will aim to improve the children’s relationship with and inclination towards cartoon and increase their awareness of it. The academic content programming is underway, so this interview came a little bit too early to share the final stages with you. N. B.: Will there be only drawing lessons or will you include humorwriting courses, too? After all, we see a lot of them in current comic magazines? A. N.: First and foremost, I can say that the focus will be on drawing, which is the essence of cartoon arts. Still, there can be courses for carrying over the power of cartoon on to text as well. This will probably be shaped when our children and cartoon artists come together. Our instructors at the Cartoon House will comprise cartoon artists of the Association of Cartoon Artists and guest cartoonists. It will be best to leave the curriculum up to the people who are competent in this field. N. B.: Does the Cartoon House aim only children? Are you considering other event, too? A. N.: You said it! Actually, the idea underlying this project is to establish a cartoon museum. The Association of Cartoon Artists will donate ten thousand original cartoon works in their inventory to the Municipality of Kadıköy. We can never be grateful enough to Metin Peker, president of the association, for his cooperation and belief in us. We are planning to share the works in this inventory in the form of exhibitions themed around concepts, artists, and historical eras. We believe this will make our cartoon museum worthy of visiting more than one time and it will become a center of attraction for schools and families with supporting outreach activities. N. B.: How do you plan to preserve these original cartoon works? A. N.: We are exercising utmost diligence about the construction of the Cartoon House considering

the hygiene, level of humidity, etc. required for the preservation of these original works. We are determined to transfer the meaningful legacy of the Association of Cartoon Artists onto the coming generations in the best way possible. N. B.: It’s no secret that comic magazines are struggling with a boatload of lawsuits due to their opposing stance. What is the idea behind teaching children the art of cartoon? A. N.: Our children will learn the very unique and intrinsic creative, liberating, critical, self-critical aspects of the art of cartoon. I hope they can manage to interpret life with an unassuming self-confidence, even laugh at themselves. N. B.: Some speculate that the historic mansion is not a suitable venue for the Cartoon House due to its location. What’s your opinion about that? A. N.: The question of what we can

do with historical places was vital for us. When our projects are finished, we will have put five historical mansions in the service of Kadıköy’s people. We are quite advantageous because we have the resources to do the necessary planning and spare the funds in transforming these structures for their new functions. We have planned the upper floor of the Cartoon House as the museum space, the ground floor for workshops and souvenir shop, and the basement as the archive and our work is progressing accordingly. We believe, in short term, the Cartoon House will be a desired route for schools in helping children to conceive the world and improve themselves knowledge and talent-wise. These school visits will open our place to all educational institutions around Istanbul. Our municipality will also facilitate transportation for schools, which do not have the means to bring their students to us. n 1 Wooden building waiting to become Cartoon House, Haydarpaşa ©Kadıköy Municipality

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MUSEUM

To be or not to be MUSEUMS OF DEATH MEHMET KAHRAMAN

ear is the reflection of man’s conscious and unconscious reactions generated in his brain. This reflection emerges as the sum of moments that it does not wish to confront or that it does not recognize on some level. The subconscious takes shape and becomes reactive according to these instant images and sounds which it encounters, and in this way individual fear notes are formed. Recording and displaying these fearful moments banalize definitions of fear by toning them down. Fear experienced in our age gets heavily shared over visual and written networks and this reveals the fact that, in the meantime, we take pleasure from the situation created by fear in the social sense. The intensity of pleasure transforms some taboo subjects approved by different socio-cultural communities into mechanisms of display. Horror museums that appear as one of these display mechanisms, located in different parts of the world and which are classified according to their content, promise their visitors fearful moments. The concept of modern museum is indeed described by the postmodern notion of dead spaces. Museum buildings that change their activity practices in order to elude these definitions tend to transform their structuring with regards to up-todate conditions. Museums, within the context of visual arts, play a part in transferring the historical memory to the next generations. Besides, they didactically educate the audience and offer pleasure and satisfaction to them. Museums that we come across often in recent years, combining sense of pleasure with fear, accommodate subjects such as death, homicide and autopsy which we prefer not to see much. These museums, because of their unusual contents, are today curiosity objects for the audience. Unlike visual arts museums that we are familiar with, these museums display fearful moments. For Example; no matter how disturbing it is to display, as an object of exhibition, a subject like death considered a taboo, it is a part of our

life. Within the consumer society we live in, it is not possible to contemplate on the reality that life will come to an end. However these museums, by revealing the reality of the life we live, enable us to face it. It might be disturbing to display a phenomenon considered sacred such as death by establishing an ironic network around it. When our fears which we identify as sacred transform into objects of spectacle, do they lose their reality? One of the most important museums in this sense is “The Mummies of Guanajuato” (originally called El Museo De Las Momias) located in the city of Guanajuato in Mexico. When the history of the museum is considered, it emerges as the field where some important families embalmed, under natural conditions, and buried their relatives after the outbreak of cholera in 1833 in Mexico. The building in which the museum is located is recorded in history as the burial site where people who died in the cholera epidemic are buried. Back in the days, entry to the site was prohibited for a period of time due to the intensity of the cholera epidemic. It became an intriguing place thanks to the stories told by the travelers visiting the site in which the museum is located, after 1900s. The mummies could be displayed in their natural state since 1958, after the Mexican government introduced the law regarding the mummies. “The Mummies of Guanajuato” contains more than a hundred mummies. Some of the mummies in the museum exhibit people infected with cholera in the state they died along with the clothes they had when they died. This museum might be defined also as a place for mourning since it is one of the first places visited during the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico. Mummies selected for the activities organized since it began to be used as a museum had displays containing information about their cause of death, as well as information on which class strata the deceased came from. Displaying death objectifies it by transforming its common meaning. They try to keep

the horror identity of the museum up-to-date by creating a mysterious impression. Although the museum is basically described as an open grave lit from the ceiling, its existence is disputed legally and morally in many places outside of Mexico. The world’s most famous death museum is “The Museum of Death” in Hollywood that materialized as an individual enterprise, deviating from historical and organic structuring. It recently opened a new branch in New Orleans. The museum collection offers a dense and bloody content, including works of art made by killers, photos of the American serial killer Charles Manson’s crimes and tools used in autopsies and morgues. The museum defines its aim as showing the wild nature of humanity. Besides, there is no age limit for visiting the museum. While many brutal crimes committed all over the world get carelessly shared over social media networks every day, why are we irritated to see it within a museum structure? While we experience our fears within our personal spaces, when they get publicly shared does this create a discomfort in terms of confronting them?

These museum examples, visiting rankings of which vary depending upon the intensity of violence and horror, try to attract more visitors as well with advertising campaigns implemented also by cheerful museums. Even though we might consider their content irritating, at the end of the day, these structures also need visitors as much as other museums, in order to maintain themselves. Although these artefacts that are a part of social memory and cultural structure, as commercial entities, are subject to criticism, they are day by day favored more by more visitors, and they make contributions in terms of tourism to the regions in which they are located. In an age where elements of taste are changing, confronting our fears and taboos among social norms that acknowledge everything as possible might also enable us to regard life more peacefully. ‘’Words that surprise and dismay people, do not surprise anyone after a certain while.’’ D. H. Lawrence n 1 Mummy, Mummies of Guanajuato Museum, Mexico ©El Museo De Las Momias

They have chosen Ofset Yapımevi for their ‘Fine Art’ prints during attendance of Contemporary İstanbul 2014. AHMET POLAT

BUĞRA EROL

HORASAN

ORHAN CEM ÇETİN

SITKI KÖSEMEN

* It is arranged in alphabetical order.

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CLUB

Late at night

THE SILENCIO HALA MOAWAD

y first time at Silencio was the night of its opening. That must have been three years ago. I remember the way people were lining up and worried at the door. Paris never had real member’s clubs, and let alone one made by Mr David Lynch himself. A club that seem to resonate with bizarre, strange and parallel worlds… A club when one would think dwarves would show us our table and crying singers would sing for us. A club where you would find a dishevelled diva abusing her young lover or a python jacket on a lookalike Elvis. All of this and more came through my mind when I was walking down the endless stairs of the Silencio. I didn’t see any of that. No dwarves, no python jackets,

no crying singer. But I’ll tell you what I saw, is a fine elegant environment, textured in dark ornaments and furniture; a retro type of furniture that is designed by Mr Lynch himself. Like for example, the ultra comfortable armchairs made of wood are in the little private cinema, where by the way many amazing movies are projected throughout the year. The golden tunnel that leads from the cinema to the bar is also a little wonder. Silencio is divided into few little rooms without counting the cinema. The stage and the dance floor are changing according to the event. Sometimes it has a blue light that comes from behind the curtains stage, which make the performer look like an angel. But when it’s booming with some contemporary music, the stage becomes the home of booty shaking hipsters that dance to the sound of cool a DJ. The bar is

beautifully made and has few high qualified and mild tempered bartenders which is a change from the ill tempered staff people that one is used to in Paris. Also the list of cocktails and wide range of alcohol is bliss. As a city of gays, Paris has a tendency of having poor choice of liquors in its clubs. There’s a sort of lounge where books can be consulted (or stolen, I’ve seen some kids putting them in their bags and getting caught!!). The design is very seventies with its tiled domes and glass tables. You can often see beautiful gals being chat up by some older mature men (certainly married, but hey this is Paris!). Then, there is the famous “fumoir”. It is where most of the cool cats hang out. There inside between the smokes and the mutters it looks like a Lynch movie, yes! With the smoke, the muffed sound that comes from the dance floor, and the mouths

CLUB

inhaling and babbling things that night people from high places babble about. Silencio’s clientele is an eclectic one. Sure you got the members that are mostly from big cinema production companies, actors, models, businessmen and the ever and ever socialites. But it mixes well with the cool Parisian kids that have just started a t-shirt brand or the established musicians like Brodinsky or Theophilus London. The building where the club has tiled its walls is in fact historical building where it was a publishing house, also famous to have printed Emile Zola’s most famous manifesto, “J’accuse” and later Justice recorded they’re most famous debut album. So the place has already a resonance with art. Speaking of art, the club offers a variety of events that go from concerts, readings in the afternoon or kid’s party.

There is always something new coming up. And its always nicely improvised and a bit underground especially because the fact that the club is a member’s club, most of the events coming up are going to be spread to the member’s first then will finally know itself to the others by the strength of the word to mouth. Like the Larry Clark picture sale they had about two years ago, where every print of Clark was sold for a hundred euro. First in, first served. That makes art accessible in a weird underground way. Or the Black Lips secret gig that served for punks and posh to watch an impromptu gig without leaving the hood! The Silencio is like its name says, discrete. No pictures allowed, no VIP (because everyone is already VIP), no advertising events. That’s what keeps its club going up on the international

clubbing scene. Also sorry it’s all about the non-club. People nowadays, and mostly a crowd like the Silencio gathers, do not want to go to club. They don’t want to have to be divided, badly talked to, restrained from doing something naughty, or photographed while doing it. It is in the art of the host to attend to all those needs. Just like Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich or Tabou in Saint Germain des Près, the needs have to appeal for the needs of time. We all want to be part of a secret society somehow. That’s why the format of the club might go on for a while. Also nowadays Silencio has expanded itself like every cool club to wider horizons like Miami art Basel and The BFF.Now I just hope you can make it in to the club as like I said its entrance is very narrow. Maybe one side of the mushroom will make you shorter and like Alice you slide through the peeping lock. Good luck! n

CLUB

1-2 Silencio bar ©Alexandre Guirkinger 3 Silencio concert hall ©Alexandre Guirkinger 4 Silencio art library ©Alexandre Guirkinger

Some type of events that the club organized in 2014 Talks « Out of the Box » with Reporters Without Borders has allowed us to question nowadays media with the artist Ai Wei Wei or with the fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh. In the movie theater, the club has hosted a preview of Arte’s favorites movies at the 67th Festival de Cannes, just 15 days after the close of the event, including screenings of «Winter Sleep» by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Palme d’Or in the Official Selection and «Bande de filles» by Céline Sciamma, acclaimed during the Festival. 2014 also marked the beginning of the performance cycle «À Rebours» with one by the Lebanese artist Alexandre Paulikevitch or Israeli Naama Tsabar, but also the first theater performance «Mon ami, Louis» by the author, actor and director Louis Gaston-Dreyfus.

Resident DJs Playlist ERIK RUG SHAMIR «IF IT WASN’T TRUE» (GOD MODE) LOVE DOLLHOUSE «CAN I» (ALL DEF)M.I.A «BADDYGIRL 2» PARTYSqUAD BEYONCÉ FLAWLESS REMIX

Coctails

Sidemint The history of the sidecar is a murky and controversial one. We’ve given it even more of a twist by adding maple syrup and fresh mint to the original classic recipe of Remy Martin Vsop Cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice. A delicious start to the evening! The LC ROMAIN BNO Named after the photographer Larry DANITY KANE «LEMONADE FEAT Clark, during his carte blanche session TYGA» (STEREOTYPES MUSIC) in Paris at Silencio, the LC is a dry HERVÉ & zEBRA KATz «TEAR THE Martini style cocktail with Absolut HOUSE UP» (MAD DECENT) Elyx Vodka, lemon juice and a hint of THE TING TINGS «WRONG Port Charlotte whiskey and bitters. CLUB» (CLUB MIX BY THE SUPER Breakfast at Silencio CRITICALES) We have brought back the morning to your evening; by stirring down JEAN NIPON MICHAEL JACKSON «LOVER NEVER Mount Gay XO rum with our homemade cornflake syrup to create FELT SO GOOD» FEAT JUSTIN an unusual twist on the old fashioned TIMBERLAKE (MJJ PRODUCTION) classic. DARONDO «DIDN’T I» (UBIqUITY The grapes of Eden RECORDS) JAMIE CULLUM Silencio’s version of the mojito but «FRONTIN» with a curve ball! We have chosen to

use the botanist gin, white wine, fresh apple juice and elderflower cordial, churned with lots of fresh mint to create this thirst quenching cocktail. Honeymoon #1 The first in the honeymoon series presents our homemade rosemary and honey syrup shaken with Absolut vodka, lime, fresh apple juice and green chartreuse. A wonderfully refreshing cocktail with a pleasant kick to get you wanting more! Peek-on Rum In this swizzle style drink we are blending the tropical warmth of the Bajan Mount Gay Eclipse rum with the popular French orange picon, served long with velvet falernum and limejuice. Tangy and strong! Feathers An alternative for the classic margarita, feathers is a light cocktail of Avion tequila shaken with fresh grapefruit and lime juices and sweetened with agave syrup. Served straight up with a pinch of salt. Mrs Choops The perfect drink for all champagne lovers, here we combine calvados, dry vermouth shaken and topped with Perrier Jouet champagne and a dash of Peychauds. Elegant and boozy! Artists Companion This cocktail is for the adventurous whiskey drinkers! Spicy and full flavored Rittenhouse rye whiskey, shaken with homemade vanilla syrup, fresh pineapple and lemon juices. A warming drink that will give you a nice buzz for the evening… Rob’s Foy A twist on the classic Rob Roy, which was created in the late 1800’s in new york, the robs foy is similar to a Manhattan but we use the Irish Jamesons whiskey stirred down with sweet vermouth, Cointreau and angostura bitters. A very smooth drink, ideal for after dinner… Charlie Chaplin Created at the Waldorf Astoria in the 1920’s, this cocktail was named after the famous actor while he was at the height of his career. The Charlie Chaplin is a fruity, bittersweet cocktail, we have simply added beefeater gin to Spismiths sloe gin, shaken very hard with apricot brandy and limejuice.

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aşak Ertunç: I know that your partner Ms. Ferda’s and your actual profession is architecture, how did you decide to become a restaurant owner and how did you decide that your restaurant would be a different and special place like “Kabuk”? Özlem Arıkman: Food is a kind of meditation and therapy for us. We used to share with our family and friends the meals we would prepare, together or alone at home, experimenting with different recipes and have a great time, and this is what we still continue to do. “Kabuk” is a venture origination from this passion of ours… We actualized this enterprise with regard to the hardship of finding a place in our country where one can only eat shellfish. Besides, I think architecture and restaurant business are very similar. Both involve design, passion, aesthetics, elaboration… When a flavor taking hold of the palate is added to all of this, there is nothing else left to say but “a meal fit for a king, too good to be true.” B. E.: Why did you choose Bodrum for “Kabuk”? Do you think that you reach your intended clientele? Ö. A.: The main reason for us to open “Kabuk” in Bodrum was that my cousin Ferda had a hotel in Yalıkavak for 25 years. To tell the truth, we could not guess how long “Kabuk” would last and/or how Turkish people so accustomed to eating mezes would approach such a radical concept. If our first experience was in a big city, it could have been more challenging to achieve the success we have accomplished now. One grasps concepts step by step, over time with patience, struggling along and one should not hurry. Especially, if there is no similar concept before you to compare yours with… We are not an institution working with guided public relations. Yes, we are frequently featured in newspapers and magazines but those are by people who come to us as customers and write their own experiences. Our customers

mostly hear of us by word of mouth. Therefore we maintain the quality. We are extremely satisfied with our guests. B. E.: Do you plan on opening another branch in another city as well? Ö. A.: Yes! We have been discussing it with investors for Istanbul. B. E.: If I ask you to choose just two cuisines from around the world, which ones would they be? Can you share a few restaurant names that you enjoy going to and enjoy the food of, in Istanbul and abroad? Ö. A.: I love French and Thai cuisine ... I could give you many names but if I need to sum up, Mikla in Istanbul and Clos Maggiore in London are two of the places that seek to make a difference and which impress me. B. E.: You can accommodate your customers at “Kabuk” in two different ways, either with a set menu or with a la carte one. Can you tell us a little about your menu? Which one of them is more preferred? What is your most popular dish? What are the dishes that vary according to season? Ö. A.: We don’t have a problem with seasonal supply since we provide our products from a mixture of local and foreign goods. Each one of our dishes is loved but “Fullhouse” and “Langouste Tandoori” are everyone’s favorite. B. E.: There is no place in Turkey similar to “Kabuk”, what are the challenges of having such a different place? For example can you always easily provide the products included in the menu? Or when there is something missing in the ingredients, do you temporarily offer any other options? Ö. A.: Not a difficulty at all, but it might require serious effort to explain yourself and get yourself accepted in the first place. When Turkish people, surrounded on three sides by the sea, do not see köpoğlu, feta cheese, melon or sea beans on the menu, which confirms the fact that ‘we are not a fish restaurant’, they experience a shortterm, temporary shock. We do not have any problems regarding product supply.

B. E.: What are the risks of managing a restaurant in a city like Bodrum where the peak season lasts only three to four months and where the rest of the year is more quite? Ö. A.: We are a seasonal establishment and, yes, the season is very short ... Even if this might seem negative, when we close temporarily, our attitude is that we analyze what we might add to the menus of the upcoming season. So I can say that we launch our R & D period. In this way, we take the opportunity to have a little holiday while at the same time we refresh ourselves for the next season. B. E.: Do you have any plans for “Kabuk” in the near future? Ö. A.: We have been discussing the Istanbul branch, but we don’t want to rush it. We are waiting for the right investor, the right place and the right time. B. E.: How do foreign guests react to “Kabuk”?

Ö. A.: Of course, they are much more used to this concept compared to us. The most common feedback we get from them is about how much they feel at home. One should not be very surprised. Kabuk: Merkez Mevkii Tilkicik Cad. No:63 Yalıkavak – Bodrum / (0)252 385 54 31 n

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