miscellaneous

3Feet Gallery is opening soon. Stay tuned!

Videolab Project, in collaboration with Fonlad and VideoChannel
July 3, 2010

This session is part of SITU’ARTE, promoted by Galeria Ícone, and it consists in a multidimensional event, intersecting different art forms: theatre, graffiti, photography, painting, drawing, music, performance and video.

Artists: Fonlad: Arthur Tuoto (Brazil), Andres Weber (Sweden), Caterina Davinio (Italy), Gruppo Sinestético (Italy),  Osvaldo Cibils (Uruguay), Steven Hoskins (USA); Videolab: Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli (EUA),  Artur Varela (Portugal), Arzu Ozkal (Turquia), David Phillips & Paul Rowley (Irlanda/EUA), Diane Timmins (Reino Unido), Jean-Gabriel Périot (França), Joshua Bryan (Reino Unido), Laetitia Bourget (França), Nick Jordan (Reino Unido), Paulo Bernaschina e Sérgio Gomes (Portugal), Tito Guedes de Carvalho e Manuel Ogando (Portugal); VideoChannel (Alemanha): Bill Domonkos (EUA), Deinse Hood (EUA), Alexander Mouton (EUA), James Woodward ((EUA), Constantin Hartenstein (Germany), Dennis Summers (EUA), Jennifer Schwed (EUA), Rajorshi Ghosh (EUA)

Cura Bodrum is a project of Iz Oztat and Emincan Alemdaroglu, founded in 2008. It is an international residency program aiming to bring artists, researchers, writers, etc… from around the world together provide them a space for brainstorming, collaborating, producing and sharing… Patrick Lichty and I were invited to give a workshop on interventionist media art practices (see previous entry). Read about this year’s program, participants and many more on Cura Blog.

I had an amazing 10 days during my visit. Although, it was remarkably difficult to focus on work knowing the gorgeous Aegean was just there, we were able to produce a lot.

I did a trial run for a new piece I am working on. With most of the Cura residents, we went to one of the ‘largest coffeehouse companies of the US’, which is becoming more and more popular among the Turkish youth. We went in the coffeeshop one by one in 3 minute intervals and ordered turkish coffee –to make one takes about 3mins. The guys working at the place had to make turkish coffee but nothing else for almost 30mins. Even though the machine temporarily broke down, they managed to meet the demand. The most interesting part for me was that none of the coffeeshop people commented on the absurdity of the situation, although they sensed something unusual was going on. To me, this is a study on how corporations and the setting comes with them control human interaction. In a regular/local Turkish shop one would rarely see a ‘big welcoming smile’ on the cashier’s face, because you would know the person isn’t really happy about the position, and customer happiness isn’t really his/her biggest concern. Anyways, these guys were able to keep the big smile and avoid questions as written in their ‘corporate guide to creating a profitable workplace’.

Nazenin Tokusoglu (a dear friend from high-school) wrote an article for HaberTurk about this year’s program. Click here to view larger.

I am leaving for Turkey to join an artist residency program (Cura/Bordum) in Bodrum, Turkey.

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Free communication is increasingly difficult, as is free critical discourse on global scales. What are the issues that are arising with the coming of increasingly oppressive limits to free speech? How can open dialogues on labor, human rights, freedom of speech, and global sustainability be maintained in a world in which the dreams of utopian networked free communication are being crushed by governments and corporations?

Artists, writers, performers, engineers, designers, activists, squatters, videographers and more are invited to participate in the tactical media workshop at cura bodrum residency during June 11 to 20, 2010 in Bodrum, Turkey.

The workshop led by Arzu Ozkal (me) and Patrick Lichty will introduce interventionist media art practices addressing contemporary issues in the public sphere. Burak Arikan will introduce network mapping processes and tools. The goal is to understand and intervene in the symbolic order through various tactics and media, and to synthesize viable critical projects for creation at the workshop or after.

More pics here!

An exhibition of the work of thirteen artists whose work addresses environmental issues. Using a variety of media from photography and video, to performance and installation the selected art works provide insights into land use, biodiversity and the recent controversy over genetically modified foods in Turkey.

Opening Reception: May 28, 2010 | 3-6pm
Exhibition can be viewed till June 2, 2010.

Location: George Jones Memorial Farm
1.9 miles east on State Route 511, Oberlin, Ohio
The exhibition is curated by Arzu Ozkal and Nanette Yannuzzi-Macias.

Artists:
Yeni Anıt, Nazan Azeri, Burçak Bingol, Genco Gülan, Güneli Gün, Erhan Muratoğlu, Suat Öğüt, Ethem Özgüven, İz Öztat & Dikran Taş, A. Tufan Palalı, Mark Slankard, Eden Ünlüata.

http://www.reliefvalve-subap.info/

>> Read all blog posts by Eleanor LeBeau:

>> See images from the opening reception:

Diyarbakir 2029 is an online exhibition of drawings by students of Hurriyet Primary School in Diyarbakir/Turkey, co-organized by Arzu Ozkal and Ramazan Demir.

http://diyarbakir2029.net

My interest in the area has started after meeting Aycan, a twelve year-old girl from Diyarbakir through a website http://www.kardesinisec.com/ that supports low-income students from all around Turkey. As I began exchanging mails with Aycan, I started to learn details about her daily life and the living conditions of her family. To extend my research, I contacted the principal of her school and started to collect information about her schoolmates’ economic conditions, as well as the challenges the school and education system in this area face.

Diyarbakir 2029 is the first project came out of ongoing conversations with Aycan’s school. We asked children to create artworks representing the daily life from their perspective. With this exhibition, we are hoping to capture the everyday realities of being a student in contemporary Diyarbakir and raise awareness to how these children and their future are being affected from the political controversies in the region.

The drawings are available for a suggested donation of $25. Funds raised will be used to purchase supplies for the students in need.

I’ve just finished writing a book review of Mike Mandel and Chantal Zakari’s new book The State of Ata: The Contested Imagery of Power in Turkey, for the next issue of Photoworks Magazine.  I recommend highly.

Special thanks to Patrick Lichty for his editorial assistance.

February 27, 2010, from 5:00 until 10:00pm at Hart Crane Park in the Flats.

“This is the first annual Brite Winter Festival. The goal is to hold an annual festival that gets people out of the house and into our rich urban landscapes to have fun and meet new people. Such an event also acts as an economic stimulus for the surrounding neighborhood and businesses. We believe in Cleveland, and in the richness of the organizations in our community. Brite Winter offers opportunities for collaborations between organizations with diverse purposes: urban design, academia, arts and entertainment, local businesses, and economic development. By partnering with Pop Up City, the host of successful events such as Leap Night and the Bridge Project, we are building on past successes to create something new together. “

The Festival will feature an archive of subjective cartography paired with an interactive mapping installation, curated and designed by Austin Kotting of the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.