Unveiling My City
Save the date
The public unveiling of projects by; Andreas Fogarasi, Minna Henriksson, Joanna Rajkowska,Mark Wallinger and Clemens von Wedemeyer in five different cities across Turkey will be held between October 20th and 24th, 2010.
www.mycity.eu.com
www.benimkentim.org/ediary
Projects by;
Andreas Fogarasi, “Panorama (the Right of View)” in Istanbul
Minna Henriksson, “The one who loves tells the truth” in Trabzon
Joanna Rajkowska, “Walter Benjamin in Konya” in Konya
Mark Wallinger, “Sinema Amnesia” in Canakkale
Clemens von Wedemeyer, “Sun Cinema” in Mardin
Five artists have been invited to develop unique projects, each for a different city in Turkey. The public unveiling of these five site-specific works in five different cities across Turkey will be held in between October 20th and 24th, 2010.
Opening Programme:
Wednesday 20 October – arrival in Istanbul
Thursday 21 – Friday 22 October, opening tour to project cities
Saturday 23 October, Istanbul opening – end of tour
Sunday 24 October – departure from Istanbul
(The detailed programme of opening activities will be available on the website from Monday 16 August onwards. If you have travel and accommodation inquiries please contact: arts.mycity@britishcouncil.org)
Austrian artist Andreas Fogarasi’s panorama-structure is designed to provide different cultural and socio-political views of the city and will be positioned in very different neighbourhoods in Istanbul. Minna Henriksson from Finland has been co-ordinating comprehensive research with young people from Trabzon to allow for a multi-facetted expression of their viewpoints on how their city is and should be perceived. Joanna Rajkowska from Poland explores the complex relationship between tradition and modernity in the city of Konya by using a text by Walter Benjamin “The Task of the Translator” in translation into Ottoman Turkish as used before the adoption of the Latin alphabet. British artist Mark Wallinger’s ‘Sinema Amnesia’ is a video installation at the narrowest point of the Dardanelles strait, making a poignant reference to both the ancient and modern history of the city while Clemens von Wedemeyer from Germany has developed a sculptural open-air cinema at the border of the old city of Mardin overlooking the Mesopotamian plain. His film about the sun and the city of Mardin will be among the first films to be shown there.
RESIDENCIES IN EUROPE
In addition to these city-specific commissions, a residency programme in collaboration with some of Europe’s leading cultural institutions is hosting five of Turkey’s leading and emerging contemporary artists. The artists were selected by an international jury as the result of an open call for applications. The artists and the host institutions of the residencies are:
Caner Aslan, DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm
Isil Egrikavuk, Dortmund Hartware MedienKunstVerein & Künstlerhaus
Leyla Gediz, HIAP – Helsinki International Artist-in-residence Programme / FRAME
Günes Terkol, London Gasworks: Exhibitions, International Residencies & Studios
Can Altay, Centrum Sztuki Wspólczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski Warszawa
Gülsün Karamustafa, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
As part of the EU Civil Society Dialogue: Cultural Bridges Programme, My City has been designed and delivered by the British Council in partnership with Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center and Anadolu Kültür (Anatolian Culture), a leading independent cultural policy organization. The project is funded by the European Commission and the British Council and led by a dedicated team at the British Council in Istanbul. Artists from Europe have been nominated for My City by a panel of acclaimed international curators who made the selection together with British Council and Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center; Andrea Schlieker (United Kingdom), curatorial adviser for My City and Curator of Folkestone Triennial, Brigitte Franzen (Germany), Director, Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen, Mika Hannula (Finland), University of Gothenburg/ freelance curator, Sebastian Cichocki (Poland) Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw and Silvia Eiblmayr (Austria) Co-curator Austrian Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2009.
The project aims to bring contemporary art and culture to the heart of the dialogue between Europe and Turkey. At the core of the project, the five European artists listed above have been commissioned to create site-specific works in five Turkish cities which are distinguished by great cultural wealth and diversity and which markedly differ in their history, culture and social patterns. Each artist was assigned one of the five cities after careful deliberation by the international jury and the partner organisations. Since the start of the project in 2009 the artists have been visiting their cities to engage with their communities, getting to know the places and histories which have inspired the works they will be presenting.
Programme and Further Reading
To follow the details of the programme, the schedule for openings in each city and the calendar of events, you can visit the My City e–diary at www.benimkentim.org/e-diary. The e-diary is also a source where you can read specially commissioned articles on public art by authors from Turkey and Europe, together with comments and articles by local correspondents in the cities that are part of the project.
