Thursday 8 November 2007

Friday 2 November 2007

On Friday morning 4 curators flew back to Manchester and six of us remained in Turkey for another 24 hours.

In the morning we went back to AKM on Taksim Square in Boyoglu to see the Istanbul Biennial exhibition. AKM is a cultural centre and was re-constructed after a fire in the1970s which now, 40 odd years later, faces potential radical refurbishment.

After AKM a few of us moved swiftly on to the show at Karsi Gallery just off Istikal Caddesi which was not part of the Istanbul Biennial but wanted to see some more work by emerging Turkish artists. We saw some really interesting work, mainly video and installation, often with political undertones. Then we moved on to Platform Garanti to see a solo show by Croatian artist Mladen Stilinovic. His work consisted of installation, drawing and video and dealt with issues around economy, referencing Platform Garanti’s previous function of a bank.

After this we went on a much deserved walk through Sultanahmet, from the Blue Mosque to the Grand Bazaar to the Egyptian Bazaar and completed our trip with a meal in the bustling Tunel area.

Wednesday 31 October 2007

Wednesday 31 October 2007

First thing in the morning we headed out by taxi for our 9:00 meeting with co-founders and directors Didem Ozbek and Osman Bozkurt at PiST in the Pangalti area of Istanbul. PiST is an artist-led organisation focussed around exhibition and dialogue. It was founded in May 2006 and occupies 3 disused shops. Didem spoke PiST’s methods of distribution through their PoST newspaper, LiST the only what’s on guide for contemporary visual art in Istanbul and about their support for artist’s dialogue within the city and its role in maintaining an independent scene in Istanbul. Didem and Osman also spoke about one of their recent project’s Turkish Pavilion.

From here we headed to one of the other Istanbul venues AKM on Taksim Square and met with Ceren Erdem from the Istanbul Biennial Office who worked closely with Hou Hanru throughout. She gave us a detailed insight into how the research process was carried out for the Biennial, her experience of working with Hou Hanru, his curatorial approach to the Biennial and funding.

After meeting with Ceren Erdem we went to the recently opened Rodeo Gallery to meet with Huseyin Alptekin who was part of a group show called This Then That. He is one of Turkey’s most prolific contemporary artists who’s work has been included in exhibitions and Biennials throughout the world. He is also currently showing in The Emergency Biennial Chechnya, a review of contemporary Turkish art at Santralistanbul and the Venice Biennial. Also at Rodeo Gallery we met with the gallery director, Greek born, Sylvia Kouvali who spoke about her experiences in setting up the gallery and her additional projects for example her co-curated artist film screening Frozen Waves with Michelle Cotton.

After this we went to another Istanbul Biennial venue Santralistanbul on the Bilgi University campus which houses the Special Projects including the Apartment Project. The Special Projects features a range of artist led organisations’ projects often with a socially engaged dimension or with a focus on dialogue.

At 18:00 we met with one of the Istanbul Biennial Nightcomers curators Marcus Graf a German born curator who has lived in Turkey for about 6 years. He spoke about the curatorial approach to the Nightcomers and its reference to the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1960’s and 1970’s when people posted images and text demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the totalitarian regime on street corners.

We then went to the Otto Café on the campus for our evening meal.

At 20:30 we returned to the hotel for informal speed dating with three Istanbul based artists Elmas Deniz, Canan Senol, Deniz Gul who had been recommended by another curator.

Thursday 1 November

On Thursday we had a breakfast meeting with Ruth Ur, Esra Otzemir from the British Council office in Istanbul and with Louise Wright from the British Council Offices in London at the Mamara café on Taksim Square. They reiterated how the British Council’s focus has shifted from being purely about exporting British based artists abroad to embrace a more collaborative approach between organisations in the UK and abroad. They also reiterated their interest in supporting strategic projects rather than one off low-budget projects. They were particularly interested in promoting Turkey and its culture as an accession state to the EU especially in light of its status as capital of culture in 2010.

We then went to meet Oyku Ozsoy, Programme Coordinator at the temporary Platform Garanti offices on the main street in Beyoglu. Platform Garanti is undergoing capital development and will merge with Garanti Gallery which focuses on design and architecture. She told us about their exhibitions programme, the residency programme and their archive of Turkish and international artists and organisations. She also spoke about the international partnerships they have developed. She then introduced us to three of the artist in residents, Bas van Beek (NL), Mark Aerial Waller (UK) and Kilian Ruthemann (CH).

After a couple of hours of spare time we went to the private view at Santralistanbul on the Bilgi University campus in the north of the city. The exhibition was called Light Illumination and Electricity and was curated by Basak Senova with a performance at 19:00 by the composer, singer and choreographer Adham Hafez.

Tuesday 30 October

As a group we met for breakfast at the hotel.

At 10:00 we had our first meeting of the day with Banu Cennetoglu the Director and founder of BAS, the only artist book publishing organisation in Istanbul. Banu spoke about her motivation for setting up BAS and its place within the contemporary art scene in Istanbul. She spoke about BAS’ new series of books called BENT, meaning reservoir or container in Turkish, and her unique approach to collaboration with the artists who’s works she publishes. She also spoke about BAS’s sponsorship funding and their distribution methods.

From there we made our way to the Biennial Information Centre where we gathered general information and purchased our catalogues and guides.

For lunch we met with curator Esra Sarigedik Oktem who has recently moved back to Istanbul after a period of time working at the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands. We had an informal discussion about our own organisations and her working experience of the visual arts infrastructure in the Netherlands and Istanbul.

After lunch we went to the first Istanbul Biennial venue IMC Istanbul Textile Traders Market in the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul to meet with NOMAD-tv director Basak Senova. Basak spoke about NOMAD-tv’s approach to partnership working with other organisations throughout Turkey and abroad and her curatorial interests in issues around control. Her previous exhibitions include Under Ctrl, Loosing Ctrl, Ctrl_Alt_Del and Upgrade Istanbul which is a new media network of artists, professionals and academics hosted at Santralistanbul.

After our meeting with Basak, we looked around the Istanbul Biennial exhibition World Factory in the IMC Istanbul Textile Traders Market. World Factory included around 30 artists who’s works were installed in and amongst the empty shops and loosely dealt with issues around trade.

From IMC we went to Antrepo No.3 in Beyoglu next to Istanbul Modern for the largest of the Biennial exhibitions Entre-Polis which included around 42 artists. Antrepo also housed the Dream House exhibition which included about 13 artists. Antrepo is part of the Istanbul harbour facing the Bospherus and the Golden Horn. The work in this show loosely dealt with issues around geopolitical conflict, trade and global communication.

A short break for Turkish coffee at the Mosque and we headed to the Port for a ferry to the Asian side of the city to see a screening programme as part of Nightcomers. After a 30 minute taxi ride we arrived in Istanbul suburbia on a road called Kanlica Hisari Caddesi in Kanlica, Beykoz. The films were projected into a paper based screen attached to a stone wall, powered by a nearby van on the roadside. The 2 1/2 hours long screening was compiled of the public’s films selected from 760 submissions. The screening were selected by the four Turkish curators Marcus Graf, Ovul Durmusoglu, Borga Kanturk, Pelin Uran and Adnan Yildiz. The 59 screening locations across Istanbul were selected by Netherlands based artists Bik Van der Pol.

We went for dinner after a long day and all headed back to the hotel for some well earned sleep.

Monday 29 October

We arrived in Istanbul evening to find a more subdued than expected 84th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey which had been moved at the last minute to the Asian side of the city.

Upon arriving we took a minibus straight to The Apartment Project to meet with its founder and director Selda Asal who runs the space with the two other artists Ceren Oykut and Neriman Polat.

After introducing ourselves and our organisations, Selda talked about the history of Apartment Project, its past and current projects including their project 2+1 which is one of the Special Projects as part of the Istanbul Biennial. She also spoke about the structure of her organisation, how they are funded, their relationship to the Biennial as well as her own practise. During the discussion she showed us some video documentation of their recent projects.

Afterwards they took us to dinner in their local restaurant. This was a good opportunity for the group to meet and relax and find out more about each other’s work.