Urban Voices talk with #anarchyzen ile söyleşiSabine Küper #anarchyzen is the label of a Turkish Street-artist. During the pandemic days the emptiness of the streets unveils a rich fundus of artworks from Graffiti to complex paintings. They provide a dialogue with the city and its ongoing topics. #anarchyzen is partly using objects in the environment and transforms them creatively. Söyleşi #anarchyzen Talk Cümlere sıkışıp kalmayan bir oluşun yolcusu olarak sanat insanları değiştirici etkileyici bir güce sahip ve insanları birleştiren bi yanı var tıpkı birbirimize çıkan sokaklar gibi… Art is a passenger not limited to words; it has an impressive power that changes people and unites people; just like the streets, which unite us, because we are all walking on their path … Yeldeğirmeni ve istanbulun çeşitli yerlerinde sokak işlerim oldu… gezgin bir yaşantım olduğu için gittiğim bir çok yere bıraktığım izler oluyor… I did street works in Yeldeğirmeni and various parts of Istanbul … there are traces that I left in many places I went, because I am traveling and strolling constantly… Bazen fikir mekanı seçiyor bazen mekan fikri tetikliyor… vapurlar trenler sokak duvarları reklam panoları logar kapakları doğal gaz ve elektrik kutuları baz istasyonları kameralar uyarı afişleri merdivenler okulların cevresi çöp kutuları trafik levhaları ve lambaları vb. her şey ve heryer sanat ile dönüştürmek adına özgür ifade alanım olabiliyor… Sometimes the idea chooses the space, sometimes the space triggers the idea … ferries, trains, street walls, billboards, logar covers, natural gas and electrical boxes, base stations, cameras, warning banners, stairs, garbage boxes close to schools, traffic signs and lamps etc. Any place can be an area of free expression wit artistic tools…... Read more...3D Masks as a New ArmourJulie PetersOvercome the Void of a Plague – The Art of 3D Production In times of material shortage for public goods, artists are often the ones who make the difference, using their creativity, their materials and their solidarity. arthere is an art space in Istanbul, Kadiköy, run by artists who have formed a strong art community. The art centre gathers artists from the Middle East, Turkey and around the world with a management team from Syria, France, and Turkey. Initially founded by and for Syrian artists with difficulties accessing workspace after leaving their country to settle in Istanbul, arthere is a space for artistic creation, away from war and political rivalries. Hosting all sorts of events such as film screenings, installations, performances, workshops and exhibitions, arthere always looks for news ways of promoting creativity and expression, while serving a good cause. That is how Omar Berakdar, initiator and member of arthere, decided to get the machines working. It’s been one week now that the “printing farm” (that’s how he calls the five 3D printers that arthere owns) is working without respite to produce two types of protective equipment against Coronavirus: The first one, a normal triangular plastic mask where a replaceable tissue or filter fit in. Fixed with rubber bands, it is useful for daily situations and easy to clean with an alcoholic disinfectant spray. This mask can be used for medical purposes and successfully replaces the normal ones which should be thrown away every 6 to 8 hours. The second one is a plastic structure supporting a shield for people working in close contact with infected people: in hospitals, supermarkets etc. Those are the “easy ones” that arthere produces the most. They prepare 10 to 20 of them and send them all together to hospitals. They are already in use at hospitals in Bursa and in Gaziantep. The initiative was set up by a community of 3D printer owners (3BoyutluDestek) that drawn more and more attention lately due to the general shortage in available masks for medical staff. The shield’s designs are available online, practical and easy to assemble. When there is need, arthere sends the masks to anybody who asks. But that’s not going to last long… The material needed for the 3D printers are rolls of plastic string. Raw material goes into a tube, gets melted and transformed into a plastic shape. But for the moment, Omar and his team only have a filament called PLA, which is inconvenient because it melts or deforms when heated up to 60°C, common practice in hospitals for disinfecting and cleaning purposes. The material that would be needed is PETG. Since the outbreak of the virus, arthere, as many other places, had to cancel the totality of their program. Being a space for solidarity, for mutual support within the community, making masks was seen as a responsibility. It isn’t only about the masks; it is the position of an art space, an active group of people who want to respond to the crisis. It is possible to support arthere’s initiative by contributing to the required material: PETG filament. It can be sent directly to the art space at the following address: Rasimpasa Mh, Beydagi Sk, 3A, Kadiköy, Istanbul. Or, if more information is needed: Tel. +905380867691 / info@arthereistanbul.com.... Read more...Interview with the artist Elmas DenizIsidoraI’m glad to introduce this raw audio file of conversation with the artist Elmas Deniz, dear friend and colleague that have met a decade ago on the artist in residency program in Istanbul. The interview is about her artwork exhibited at the 16th Istanbul Biennial titled “The Seventh Continent”, lasted from September 14 to November 10, 2019. In her conceptual works, Elmas Deniz calls attention to ecological changes occurring with capitalism and the age of Anthropocene. She examines the changing of the landscape and the deterioration of the nature by humankind. Deniz is showing two works about disappeared flows of water. The first one is a three-dimensional topographic relief of Istanbul, spanning the area from Şişli to Taksim Square. On this relief, lost rivers and creeks are marked on the current roads. Deniz’s other piece centres on a creek near which she grew up, near Bergama. This wall installation, which focusing on the small and insignificant, calls attention to natural and human-caused environmental transformations and extinctions. Interview by Isidora Ficovic, visual artist – isidoravisualart ... Read more...HOW WE LET THE BERLIN WALL FALL TOO EARLY…Thomas BüschWith the “SHLIM-LINE Show” on the 24th of October 89 we (Johannes Beck & Uli M Schueppel, as studio guest Christoph Dreher / Die Haut) produced a show live in the West Berlin Radio100 in which we suddenly announced the fall of the Wall. The whole thing had triggered tremendous reactions – but perhaps not necessarily led to the real fall of the Wall 2 weeks later … or did it? On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of this “SHLIM-LINE SHOW”, as an acoustic journey into a West Berlin night, here for the first time to listen (slightly shortened & sorry, only in German!)... Read more...Soufiane Ababri, Memories of a Solitary CruiseSabine Küper The first solo exhibition in Turkey of Moroccan artist Soufiane Ababri. « Memories of a solitary cruise » at “The Pill” offers an immersive journey into fantasy, western representations, and projections by sensitively avoiding counter-stereotyping. The set-up of the exhibition invites to a kind of shielded Boudoir. The audience has to cross through a thick double-layered brown curtain to enter the exhibition space. “Bedworks” is a title artist Soufiane Ababri invented for his small scaled colorful paintings. Çüneyt Çakırlar, lecturer for film and media studies at Nottingham Trent Universities School of Art and Humanities, underlines: “Ababri swerves from a professionalized and disembodied space of art production to a personal, sexual intimate and affective territory. The bed becomes the studio”. The artist is tired of underlying racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic biases in average societies conscience and in the mainly social pedagogic oriented discourse of political correctness. The value of the esthetics of the memories of a solitary cruise is the mixture of banal daily erotic scenes, satirical quotations of classical idealizing sculpturing features and casual formulated but touching written reflections on home- and homelessness. The Video-scene of the artist in a kitchen brewing coffee has a refreshing anti-exhibitionist touch. The 15th Istanbul Art Biennial in 2017, curated by the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset and entitled “a good neighbor”, had given space to several positions by artist working on queer themes. One of the most impressive positions was Mahmoud Khaled’s Proposal for a House Museum of an Unknown Crying Man (2017). Conceived as a fictional museum, the audience entered a house in the lively neighborhood of Cihangir with an audio guide and discovered that the absent inhabitant of the house was an Egyptian man who moved from Cairo to Istanbul a decade ago. A narrative of queer persecution in Egypt and later in Istanbul is told through this unknown man’s belongings. Soufiane Ababri’s show at The Pill is a valuable continuation of the topic and the metaphor of cruises as an internal journey with a political context. The exhibition-text contextualizes: “The exhibition’s starting point is a public policy polling survey made in the United States in 2015 which found that 30% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats said they support ‘bombing Agrabah’ – the fictional nation of Disney’s Aladdin – the pool emphasis a whopping 41% of Donald Trump voters favor bombing Agrabah adding to the evidence indicating that his support is disproportionately drawn from the least knowledgeable parts of the electorate. This tragi-comic news suddenly reveals the strength of collective belief mechanisms and in this case raises the question of how exoticism influences the way the ‘exotic subject’ is perceived and how he is determined as other. Soufiane Ababri uses parodic tools to deconstruct the multiple layered constructions of what exoticism should be in the eyes of a Western viewer”. This effect isn’t to limit on the Western Viewer. In an age of global manipulation and stupefaction this news would have worked in a lot of places. The current show is extremely recommendable and consolidates the importance of the visionary Gallery in Istanbul’s upcoming district Balat. The Pill had hosted the show “Animal Farm” by Turkish artist Ferhat Özgür during the time of the 15th Istanbul Biennial. It was brilliantly creating connections to the Dystopian novels of George Orwell and the current stage of politics in Turkey. Showing Soufiane Ababri position now is a fine elaboration of a very central topic in the current political atmosphere, where queer topics are banned from most public spaces. The Tangier-born artist has been living in France for the past 16 years since studying at the National School of Decorative Arts and completing a master’s at Lyon’s School of Fine Arts. “My drawings tell the stories of the communities in which I belong. I am a homosexual North African immigrant who is part of a small middle class in a postcolonial generation. My experiences are central to my drawings and I hope they can highlight some of society’s stigmas,” Soufiane told the London based “It’s nice that-Platform last June. Soufiane Ababri, Memories of a Solitary Cruise. 10.01.-23.02.2019. The Pill, Müselpaşa Cad. No.181, 34087 Balat- Istanbul ... Read more...Inside the InvisibleDavid Siegel“Time appears longer when you cannot see.” A poignant and powerful phrase from the beginning of Kamen Stoyanov’s documentary IN-VISIBLE. The narrator emerges from a railway tunnel into Slovenia much like one of Plato’s chosen cave-dwellers. The perception of time is not the only thing that is about to change. Part-allegory and part-hero’s journey, the film tacks along the course of darkness, discovery, light, and the role of the guide along the way. The classic narrative structure beautifully compliments the documentary’s own exploration of the invisible/visible as clear parallels to darkness/light. The grounding in Ljubljana is a reminder that these are not just concepts reserved for mythology. They are happening everywhere as a kind of everyday yin and yang. Where there is visible, there is invisible. And if there is any truth the the concept, the invisible world is equally counterbalancing the visible once – with equal importance. As the title suggests, there is a path inside the visible. Stoyanov takes us in invisible Ljubljana. We meet two guides in Marko Pogačnik and Taubi in a path of discovery of the hidden Ljubljana. Each a sage in their own way, Stoyanov assumes the role of seeker and transmitter of their wisdom, allowing the two men to speak of an invisible truth. Marko offers a path into a world of metaphysics – dreamlike and symbolic. Taubi, worldly and raw, blends politics and emotions from the deep fringes of urban Ljubljana. The juxtaposition is evocative and enjoyably open-ended, leaving room for personal choice in a journey. There are always decisions to be made in how to regard newly visible places. Far from preachy or patronizing, the film echoes the words of a third guide and another invisible world: “I don’t help anyone. I give you only a place.” -Don Pierino Despite their differences, Taubi, Pogačnik, Pierino, and Stoyanov echo a similar kind of compassion which creates space for what might be found in invisible worlds. Where there is invisible, there is often neglect and suffering that elicits a strong desire to help. But maybe it is as Don Pierino says – rather than trying to help, maybe we could do more with the act of providing a place. Film Trailer: https://vimeo.com/kamenstoyanov/in-visibletrailer For more information visit : www.kamenstoyanov.com... Read more...The Lion, the “Which” and the War ToldDavid SiegelThere is a bit of Darwin to Katharina Swoboda’s lions. An origin of a species of lion, one might say, migrating and changing despite being made of stone. The Lion of Atlanta: a Research Story explores the one of the distant relatives of the Lion of Lucerne, which has made its home in Atlanta, USA since 1894. Swoboda’s film is a purposefully incomplete tapestry. One that is an enchantingly strange patchwork, which captures the lion’s survival and fitness wonderfully following its creation as a monument to confederate soldiers from the American Civil War. The 124 year-old lion’s environment is a fascinating mixture of ghosts, graveyards, changing allegiances, living lions, hollywood elites, and classic literature. The often eerie atmosphere and cuts seem to amplify the disembodied nature of a radically shifting area in a relatively short historical timeline. The Lion of Atlanta must too be disembodied to be properly suited to the space. Further supported by the film’s audio, Swoboda plays with evocative acoustic contrasts. The research story shifts between pop songs and songs of American history. Additionally, the narration moves between European accented English and a native speaker. Two subtle and interesting ways suggesting of the lion’s lineage and changes over time. Lucky for us, there is an upcoming prologue and an epilogue. We look forward to Swoboda’s findings as she travels to distant shores as the lion before her. It leaves us wondering: is she the Lioness and what would Darwin have to say about these transformations? The Lion of Atlanta: a Research Story is currently showing at “Löwen Safari.” The exhibition is curated by Peter Fischer at Kunsthalle Luzern in Switzerland. The video was produced as part of L21 «Lion Monument 21» A Multi-Annual Project by Kunsthalle Luzern 2017-2021, which deals with the Lion Monument in Lucerne. More information on the project can be found at: About L21... Read more...Regular Heroes: William Messner-LoebsDavid SiegelIn less than a week, nearly $10,000 has been raised for a local NGO in Howell, Michigan (USA). The organization is called The Severe Weather Network and it is more than meteorology. They provide coordinated support for the homeless in their region but become a life-or-death service to many during the otherwise deadly winter months. In 2017, Howell documented 1003 cases of homelessness in a city of under 10,000 people. Of the documented cases, 445 were homeless students. The Severe Weather Network has seen a recent surge in funding due to a local news article, social media, and one of the giants of comic book art. But sadly, not for his acclaimed work. For decades, William “Bill” Messner-Loebs (now 69 years old) helped bring marginalized narratives into his runs with mainstream comic characters: DC’s first openly gay character (Pied Piper), a modern version of Wonder Woman (credited in the 2017 film), struggles of victims and the mentally ill (The Maxx), and homelessness (The Flash, Bliss Alley). The last one stings the most, as Bill is no longer raising awareness about homelessness in masterful packagings of visual art and scripting. He is living it. Like homelessness everywhere in the world, it comes with a stigma. But homelessness in America comes with a special kind of cruelty. There is a severe lack of social support systems and a form of self-determination social shame “for not being good enough.” But Bill Messner-Loebs is one of the living masters, a recipient of an Inkpot and a Bill Finger Award (two of the most prestigious awards in comics), which should be a wake up call to any young artist working today. Even the best talents and most reputable careers are not immune to more powerful storms: accidents, vicious forms of capitalism, and sometimes both at the same time. It is even more incredible that Bill has done it all with only one arm. Bill is not the problem. For stories like this, it is a sobering reminder that superheroes don’t exist. Worse still, superpowers with the means to help (Marvel, DC, even the United States of America) consistently turn a blind eye toward enacting meaningful policy around worker security. Lack of compassion at the highest levels is a problem. But regular heroes do exist. And from the outpouring of support on social media and small NGOs like The Severe Weather Network, there is an ever-growing movement of ordinary people who are connecting and willing to say: “We see you. We are here to help.” Watch the news segment on William Messner-Loebs here. Click here for GoFundMe page for The Severe Weather Network organization. If you would like to contact Bill directly, you can email fox2newsdesk@foxtv.com... Read more...Monument at Brandenburger TorThomas BüschInstallation with three buses by Syrian artists Manaf Halbouni at Brandenburger Tor, Berlin. In Aleppo, a similar barricade of three bus wrecks had been erected 2015 as a screen in front of snipers. A symbol of the madness of the Syrian civil war … buses with which citizens should go to work, students to university as a barricade against the enemy. The artwork came under criticism after a photograph suggested that the buses in the Syrian city, which had been destroyed by the civil war, had originally been set up by the Islamic terror group Ahrar Al-Sham. But does it change the symbol of the installation? Responsible for the presentation of the installation is the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, which annually receives around ten million euros in grants from the state of Berlin. On behalf of the theater, the German army had brought the monument with low-loaders from Dresden to Berlin in April. Here it is now until the 26th of November in front of the Brandenburg Tor. Manaf Halbouni left Syria 2009 2 year bfeore the revolution. The temporary installation was opened in the presence of artist Halbouni, Gorki Theater co-director Shermin Langhoff and the patron of the action, Berlin’s cultural senator Klaus Lederer. The sculpture “Monument” was on the Dresden Neumarkt from February to April 2017. There it triggered massive protests. Supporters of the right-wing populist “Pegida” movement and the far-right identity movement saw in the Aleppo buses a provocation. In their view, this was a distraction to the commemoration that commemorates the bombing of the capital of Saxony during the Second World War on 13 February each year. An overview in the foyer of the Maxim Gorki Theater informs about the backgrounds and the reception of “Monument”. There will be an open artist talk with Halbouni on 17 November in the Lichtsaal in the Palais am Festungsgraben, Berlin. The sculpture will remain in front of the Berlin landmark until the 26th of November. 17.11.17 : Artist Talk about the Installation “Monument” 6.pm at Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin ... Read more...Drawings of strength and sadnessSabine Küper Murat Başol, Tarık Tolunay and Zeynep Özatalay are part of a group of Cartoonists, who are following central political court cases in Turkey. Since making Photographs is prohibited during trials they are visualizing the ongoing with sketch block and pen. On Social media the drawings are longed for messages about the situation of imprisoned oppositional. International human rights organizations are blaming Turkey to abuse the judiciary system for the suppression of the civil society. Twenty editors and workers of the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, known for its closeness to the oppositional “Republican Party” (CHP), are on trial at the moment for blames of involvements with terror organizations. Ahmet Şık, a Journalist who is for the second time in the past five years hold in custody for month, said during his defense speech, that the real organization is under this roof. He pointed on the Judiciary system being misused for political reasons. Semih Özakça is a primary school teacher who lost his job in the province of Mardin by a decree of the president. The same happened to Nuriye Gülmen, an academic working at the University of Eskişehir in the department of comparative literature studies. Both want to return to their teaching positions. In November 2016 they started to protest with a sitting demonstration in the heart of the capital Ankara that turned into a hunger strike as well. Since their activity was getting a lot of public attention the two of them were detained on the 9th of March 2017 for doing propaganda for terrorism. After a year of hunger strike Nuriye Gülmen is hospitalized. Semih Özakça got released from detention end of October but he is still blamed for doing propaganda for a terror organization. He started using a wheelchair due to his weak health condition. The Cartoonists are not only documenting they are also participating in an act of solidarity to the fate of these prisoners and activists. Since the conventional media is reporting extremely limited under the stage of emergency that was declared after the failed coup d’etat on the 15th of July 2016, the work of the Cartoonists gain central importance. All of them are part of the strong and highly satirical Turkish Cartoonists scene. In the drawings about the court cases they alternated their usual style. The drawings are reflecting the kafkaesque atmosphere of all this trials. Semih Özakça is melting away due to his hunger strike, but his face expression is breathing dignity in these pictures. His wife, Ezra Özakça, is a motive Cartoonist Zeynep Özatalay is embracing with an aura of fragility, innocence and pain, reflecting the iniquity of the ongoing political reality.... Read more...Friday IslandThomas BüschThe Assassination of Guy Debord On May 12th Friday Island will present The Assassination of Guy Debord by Bill Balaskas at European Convention Center Luxembourg (ECCL), Luxembourg. Through his new multi-part work Bill Balaskas will reflect on the current status of Europe, by presenting a participatory installation and a performance at the European Convention Center – the site that hosts the meetings of the Council of the European Union for three months every year. European citizens feel today less politically empowered than ever in recent times. Confidence in democracy and its institutions has been undermined, and this context of demerit constitutes a growing danger for the character of European societies. As developments like ‘Brexit’ are putting under question the collective future of Europe, fighting against the uncritical spectacularization of the public sphere appears as a matter of urgency. However, 50 years after the publication of Guy Debord’s seminal work ‘The Society of the Spectacle’ (1967), European politics seem to be dominated by the image and its manipulation. Debord’s radical beliefs, his role in the student protests of 1968 and his suicide in 1994 made him, for a long time, a rather contentious figure within European political intelligentsia. Yet, as we are experiencing the rapid rise of a post-truth world dominated by spectacle, it has become increasingly hard to contest Debord’s pioneering thought. Bill Balaskas’s staging of ‘The Assassination of Guy Debord’ at the European Convention Center will highlight those conditions of crisis. The artist’s performance will function as a reminder of Debord’s assertions through 73 readings from ‘The Society of the Spectacle’, which will take place from the 73 front-row seats that are regularly occupied by Europe’s leaders. At the same time, the installation in the middle of the conference room will invite the members of the audience to literally devour the EU flag, thus questioning the notion of civic participation and the role of demos in the construction and dismantling of Europe. Friday Island is a series of events committed to create a space and occasions for meetings that generates exchange between artists as well as a public dialogue around a given topic. Open to artists of all disciplines and working with different media, Friday Island offers a platform for experimentation beyond creative processes bound to production and marketing logics. The artistic contributions are encouraged to be experimental and critical. They are challenged to question the theme and to suggest out-of-the-box perspectives. The aim is to promote alternative points of view and interpretations of a certain reality, to initiate a debate and an exchange of opinions. Indeed, each theme allows different approaches and readings that are socially and philosophically stimulating. The Assassination of Guy Debord Friday 12 May, 2017 Participatory Installation & Performance: 6 – 8:30 pm FRIDAY ISLAND – ‘Power’ European Convention Center Luxembourg (ECCL) Place de l’ Europe, 4 2311, City of Luxembourg Luxembourg ... Read more...Bad Bags/Good BagsThomas BüschAll around the World Mid of November 2016 the artist Reinhard Wanzke based in Frankfurt, Germany, started his „All around the World in 225 Tagen Tour“. He took with him the art project „Bad Bags/Good Bags“. Central to this art project are seven white leather handbags which he let manufacture in Vietnam in 2007. He took these bags on his journey in order to exhibit them in seven cities. So every station add a new chapter to the art project. The seven handbags are exhibited on every station of his journey and will be filled with local artists work from the city /country he is staying. He started the show in Frankfurt with seven artworks. Each filling one handbag. The handbags are closed. So the artworks are not public to the audience only with there picture title. On the next station, in Kampala (Uganda), then the „Frankfurt works“ were visible to the audience. But the works of the artists from Uganda were hidden by the bags. The next edition was in Sydney. There the works by the artists from Frankfurt and Kampala were visible but the works of the local artist were hidden in the bags. And so on. The bags are filled and empty out through the journey. The next stations were in Kuching, Malaysia, and in Changzhou, China.- The upcoming stations will be in Vancouver and in New York end of June. In July 2017 after my return to Frankfurt there will be an exhibition of all 49 works. Participating artists in Changzhou: Chen Junpeng (CHN) Lin Shengyang (CHN) Wang Hongjun(CHN) Wang Xin (CHN) Zhang Xiaofeng (CHN) Zhouruo Cheng (CHN) Zhu Mingyue (CHN) Kuching Edition: D2k (MYS) Nia Latif (MYS) Sonia Luhong (MYS) Monsthor90 (MYS) Alena Murang (MYS) Paul Sarawak (MYS) Jasmin Zaidi (MYS) The participating artists at the Sydney show: Nichola Gravey (AU-NSW) Anthony Kastanos (AU-NSW) Vicki Knowles, Jayne Reed (AU-TAS) Saha (AU-NT) D Walsh (AU) Reinhard Wanzke (D)/Screw7oose (AU-NSW) Jason Wing (AU-NSW) The participating artists at the Kampala show: Andrew Mayiga Kaggwa in collaboration with Victor and Kenzo (UG) Giovanni Kremer Kiyingi (UG) Amos Musoke (UG) El Seed (UG) Rolands Roldan Tibirusya (UG) Ntwigah Riungu (UG) WASWAD (UG) The participating artists in Frankfurt: Jörn Budesheim (D) Robert Cristinetti (D) Birgit Dunkel (D) Maren Floesser (D) Horst Hamann (D) Thomas Kampe (GB) Dagmar Sippel (F) as a „stand-in“ Stephan von Borstel (D). Follow the Bags ... Read more...Made in TurkiyeThomas Büsch NoLaB presents the exhibition Made in Turkiye until the end of June 2017 at Hasköy Spinning Factory in Istanbul. No LaB is a conceptual Gallery which brings together all kind of artists, upcoming artists and already established artists, to create a common space where they can benefit from each other’s ideas and bond creative relationships. For Made in Turkiye the curators Zeynep Ercan and Ala Onur, founders of NoLaB, are bringing together local and foreign artists, Turkish street artists and Turkish craftsmen and aim to present Turkish tradition with a new artistic touch to the whole world. Like the international art-scene already does, the exhibition is focusing on the combination of old Turkish handcraft and the work of ‘masters’ of art. It opens a critical view on cultural practices and a tradition that expresses the aspiration and dreams of our era in Turkey and want to leave an impact on mainstream cultural values. It use different forms of artistic expression and materials and transform it into a moving environment. At the same time the exhibition wants to show Turkish tradition that disappears more and more in our times, by involving the visitors in a impressive ironical way. Participating artists from abroad are young followers like Chris Wolston, Liz Collins and Amit Baruch; they are working with classical material like copper, textile, leather and glass, and producing artworks that are unusual and fascinating. The exhibition offers a very innovative view on Turkish culture and shows you different interpretations of Turkish tradition, occasionally in a huge humorous way. In the future NoLab wants to bring together local Turkish artists with artists from all over the world and create new projects like as residency programs and still focus on the traditional handcraft in a more artistic way to creating new products. The Exhibition is open Thursday-Sunday 12-7 PM. Kirmizi Minare Sokak, 34445 Beyoglu, 34445 Istanbul. http://nolab.co/ https://www.facebook.com/nolabistanbul/ https://www.instagram.com/nolabistanbul/... Read more...
