Istanbul is the only city in the world that straddles two continents, thus connecting Orient and Occident. The cultural interrelations between these two regions of the world, as manifested in the city Istanbul and in its interaction with European cities, are important aspects of the extensive exhibition. But the exhibition does not represent the aesthetic perspective of strolling artist-tourists curiously roving through the city; rather, it delves into the city, the megalopolis, as a case study in global processes.
Opening at Martin-Gropius-Bau, July 8th 2005,7 pm
Speakers: Dr. Joachim Sartorius, Director of the Berlin Festspiele – Dr. Thomas Flierl, Senator for Science, Research, and Culture – Fikret Dogan, author
We know that Europe is more than what was. Europe can be what Europeans try to shape in active processes of communication. That this is a difficult, complex process with a wide range of facets is once more revealed in the current discussion about a common constitution. So an important contribution to the public discussion is depicting the role that the city of Istanbul has taken in these interrelationships in its history and what reflection is comprehensible today in art and culture. That Berlin and Istanbul are also tied as partner cities is still too often overlooked or obviously disregarded.
“URBAN REALITIES: Focus Istanbul” is therefore not an exhibition to document or illustrate regional developments by and with artists from a certain region, nor an exhibition to present contemporary Turkish art, but a classic thematic exhibition. It strives for a change of viewpoint, an intersection of glimpses of the city from the outside with those from within the city itself. In the face of the problem of “mental mapping”, it does not seek to merely describe findings, but also to reflect intentions and designs that shift with one’s site.Invitations to take part in the exhibition went to artists with a very wide variety of backgrounds and nationalities – including, of course, artists from Istanbul – who are interested in addressing in their artworks the diversity and heterogeneity of cultures, religions, languages, and ethnic groups in a mega-city like Istanbul. No space is thereby given to superficial exoticisms and orientalisms; instead, the exhibition aims to enable critical artistic dealings with such cliches.
The exhibition combines several interests under the leading question of how heterogeneity and culturally transitory aspects in urban life, in particular having a voice in public issues, can congeal in artistic forms of expression; it asks how artists from Istanbul and other parts of the world answer this and how they respond to rancorous prejudices. Fundamentally, the exhibition regards itself as a transmission instrument to orient international artists and a broad public interested in art toward the impressive and sometimes complicated changes that characterize Istanbul and Turkey in the current process of transformation. The entire ground floor and interior courtyard of the Martin Gropius Building will presentworks by about sixty contemporary painters, sculptors, installation artists, photographers, video artists, sound artists, and filmmakers. More than sixty percent of the works shown were conceived and executed by the artists especially for the theme of the exhibition.
“URBAN REALITIES: Focus Istanbul” is part of a planned Berlin trilogy that, in the coming years, using artistic means, will launch similar comparative investigations of the mega-cities of Cairo and Mexico City. Beginning in March 2006, the exhibition will be shown in the Budapest Art Hall.
“URBAN REALITIES: Focus Istanbul” presents works by:
Rey Akdogan (New York/London/Berlin) Nevin Aladag (Berlin) Marc Bijl (Amsterdam) Katinka Bock (Berlin) Luchezar Boyadjiev (Sofia) Sergej Bratkov (Moskau) Fernando Bryce (Lima/Berlin) Hussein Chalayan (London) Heman Chong (Singapur/ Berlin) Christine de la Garenne (Berlin) Silvina Der-Meguerditchian (Buenos Aires/Berlin) Damien Deroubaix (Paris) Cevdet Erek (Istanbul) Peter Friedl (Berlin) Archie Galentz (Moskau/ Jerewan/ Berlin) Leyla Gediz (Istanbul) Ara Güler (Istanbul) Jens Haaning (Kopenhagen/ Berlin) Eberhard Havekost (Berlin) Minna L. Henriksson (Helsinki) Richard Hoeck (Wien) Olaf Holzapfel (Berlin) Thomas Hornemann (Berlin) Istanbul Palimpsest/ Anna Kalvelage + Mirjam Wolf (Berlin) Ali Kepenek (Berlin) Lina Kim (Sao Paulo/Berlin) Folke Köbberling/ Martin Kaltwasser (Berlin) Serhat Köksal aka 2/5 BZ (Istanbul) Germaine Koh (Toronto) Tamás Komoróczky/ Hajnal Nemeth (Budapest) Valeri Koshlyakov (Moskau/Paris) Lucas Lenglet (Amsterdam) Via Lewandowsky (Berlin) Olaf Metzel (Munich) Serkan Özkaya (Istanbul) Haralampi Oroschakoff (Berlin) Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa (Paris) Lars Ramberg (Oslo/Berlin) Reynold Reynolds (New York) Sebastian Romo (Mexiko City) Sarkis (Paris) Robert Scheipner (Berlin) Cornelia Schleime (Berlin) Wael Shawky (Cairo) Reinhard Stangl (Berlin) Joulia Strauss (St. Petersburg/ Berlin) Asli Sungu (Berlin) Roland Stratmann (Berlin) Evanthia Tsantila (Thessalonika/ Berlin) Nasan Tur (Frankfurt/M.) Sencer Vardarman (Berlin) Costa Vece (Zurich/Berlin) Suse Weber (Berlin) Ute Weiss-Leder (Berlin) Peter Welz (Berlin) Michael Wesely (Berlin) HS Winkler (Berlin) Ina Wudtke (Berlin)
“URBAN REALITIES: Focus Istanbul” is a project of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien GmbH
Curator: Christoph Tannert
