My City
Art and Public Space: May Symposium
8th and 15th May 2010
Istanbul Technical University
Faculty of Architecture, Conference room no:127, Taşkışla Caddesi No:1, Taksim
May 15th
garajistanbul
Tomtom Mah. Yeni Çarşı Caddesi, Kaymakam Reşat Bey sok. no:11a Galatasaray, Beyoğlu
As part of the My City project a group of international artists, writers, curators and museum professionals whose work relates to the subject of public art will meet for the symposium “Art and Public Space: May Symposium” to be held in Istanbul. The conversation will cover concerns and ideas about temporary monuments and the value of public squares, the production of new public cultural spaces, unauthorised public interventions and public art biennials.
The two-part symposium will take place on consecutive Saturdays – the 8th and 15th May – with participants:
Dave Beech [member of the artist collective Freee, freelance writer, London], Dieter Bogner [Art Historian (PhD), exhibition curator, museum planner, author, university lecturer and collector of site specific contemporary art, Vienna], Luchezar Boyadjiev [artist, Sofia], Katrina Brown [Director of The Common Guild, Glasgow], Fulya Erdemci [Director of SKOR, Stichting Kunst en Openbare Ruimte (Foundation Art and Public Space), Amsterdam], Martin Fritz [freelance curator, consultant and writer, Vienna], Teresa Gleadowe [independent writer, editor and curator, London], Bilge Kalfa [imkanmekan, Istanbul], Julie Lomax [ Head of Visual Arts Organisation, Arts Council England, London], Lauren Ross [Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Curator and Director of Arts Programs at Friends of the High Line, New York], Krzysztof Wodiczko [artist, Cambridge, MA], Zeynep Yasa Yaman [Art Historian, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Art History, Ankara]
Art and Public Space: May Symposium, part I
Dieter Bogner, Katrina Brown, Julie Lomax, Teresa Gleadowe, Fulya Erdemci, Bilge Kalfa
Saturday May 8th
10:40-17:00
Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Architecture, Conference room no:127, Taşkışla Caddesi No:1, Taksim
Art and Public Space: May Symposium, part II
Krzysztof Wodiczko, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Zeynep Yasa Yaman, Dave Beech, Martin Fritz, Lauren Ross
Saturday May 15th
10:40-17:00
garajistanbul, Tomtom Mah. Yeni Çarşı Caddesi, Kaymakam Reşat Bey sok. no:11a Galatasaray, Beyoğlu
About My City:
Istanbul is currently celebrating its selection as European Capital of Culture 2010. To mark this important event the initiative My City was launched as part of the European Commission’s Cultural Bridges Programme with the aim to establish partnerships between cultural actors in Turkey and Europe and to reciprocally raise cultural awareness.
My City brings five prominent European artists to Turkey to each develop a unique work of public art for a specific city to be inaugurated in September 2010. In addition to Istanbul, the cities include Çanakkale, Mardin, Trabzon and Konya, and together they represent the diversity of the country, both geographically and demographically. The artists are: Andreas Fogarasi, Austria (Istanbul); Clemens von Wedemeyer, Germany (Mardin); Joanna Rajkowska, Poland (Konya); Mark Wallinger, UK (Çanakkale); Mina Henriksson, Finland (Trabzon). At the same time, several of Turkey’s leading artists will be given the opportunity to share their recent works at some of Europe’s leading cultural venues. Artists from Turkey participating in residency programmes in Europe are Can Altay, Centrum Sztuki Wspólczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw; Caner Aslan, Berliner Künstlerprogramm, Berlin; Gülsün Karamustafa / Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna; Güneş Terkol, Gasworks: Exhibitions, International Residencies & Studios, London; Işıl Eğrikavuk, Hartware MedienKunstVerein & Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Dortmund and Leyla Gediz, HIAP and Näyttelyvaihtokeskus FRAME, Helsinki.
Artists from Europe have been nominated for My City by a panel of acclaimed international curators; Andrea Schlieker (UK), curatorial adviser for My City and Curator of Folkestone Triennial, Brigitte Franzen (DE), Director, Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen, Mika Hannula (FI), University of Gothenburg/ freelance curator, Sebastian Cichocki (PL) Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw and Silvia Eiblmayr (AT) Co-curator Austrian Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2009 and selected together with British Council and Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center.
My City has been conceived by the British Council in collaboration with local partners Anadolu Kültür and Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center. The project is funded by the European Commission and the British Council and led by a dedicated team at the British Council in İstanbul.
