[rohrpost] Extended Stay//GAF//Istanbul /// oct. 17-22

[Mosh Mosh]

extended stay
Open working space at GAF Istanbul
Oct. 17 – 22.2007
 
 
 
The process of urban, economic, cultural and social change requires to feel,
as well as to define the identity and diversity of place.
extended stay presents ideas and parallel thoughts on public spheres and its
inhabitants, creating an active network, a lived place, a space where
positions meet and produce mechanisms of independent, non-bureaucratic and
alternative cultural thinking.
 
extended stay is a model initiative by Berlin-based artist Bettina Allamoda
of the trans-disciplinary postgraduate course Art in Context at University
of Arts Berlin, introducing a temporary open working space for artistic
research and production in Istanbul in collaboration with GAF and Serkan Öz
. The space will be used to bring together, develop and display on-site
artistic production, interventions in public space through participation,
planned to expand existing official exchange modalities beyond the Biennial
period, the City Partnership Year Berlin - Istanbul 2009 and even Istanbul
Cultural Capital 2010.
 
The objective is to convey the format of hostel life as a liberated society
within society collaboratively creating a new approach of laboratory-like
network and establishing a non-virtual mindmap. As such, we intend to expand
our own research agenda practiced between Berlin and Istanbul since October
2006 and actively examine different social and cultural settings; sometimes
challenging localised ones. Focussing on the changing status of tourism and
travel and the ways tourist landscapes, tourism practices, hospitality and
how host-guest relations are shaped, extended stay offers strategies for the
stranger, considering migration, alienation and the new ways in which
foreigners must deal with the visited places.
 
Hostel Life by Julia Kapelle (D) is an ongoing on-site research with
Istanbul residents in transitory spaces. „Living-by-Doing“, she has created
an extensive local network – creatively participating in the vast
possibilities of survival a hostel in the Turkish metropolis has to offer.
With Feels like home Sofia Bempeza (GR) offers a temporary private
property-ownership to the public/people. By choosing four different
locations in Istanbul the project aims to explore ways of understanding
urban reality, residents and their relation to public space compared to
Berlin. Considering and accepting each place’s particularities, the
intervention proposes a debate on urban conditions and aims to redefine the
pursuit of privacy within public spheres. Kristin Möller (D) questions
collective memory and representation within media in Escape Beyoğlu: a
series of investigative walks to Sultanahamet and Kağithane.
Introducing/Using found images by Istanbul-based photographers well
documented between 1850 and the turn of the 20th century brought from Berlin
library collections, she challenges passers-by/participants to explore the
myth of old/past Istanbul times, while searching for these lost or maybe
still existing sites. Through the processes of globalization city space
worldwide has been transformed into a depersonalized landscape, lacking
connection to the people living in it. With Capturing Istanbul Branka
Pavlovic (SRB) attempts to reverse this commodity – to preserve and make
visible the places defined by our personal stories. She follows 8 locals in
Istanbul, records their stories and takes pictures along the way as a means
of capturing a very intimate view, which can not be found in any guides or
map -representing and recreating the city of Istanbul through the eyes of
it’s inhabitants. Scouting concealed layers, some common urban situation
might turn into an adventurous trip whilst viewing it from different angles:
Viola Thiele/ Silke Bauer (A/D) invite a group of locals, temporary
inhabitants and guests for Urban Workout. Join them on a special field-trip
through the cityscape. Equipped with a custom designed utility bag, the
group will be sent out to collect their points of view and investigate the
city from new perspectives: taking photos, collecting objects, drawing,
writing, talking, reshaping the usage of public space. Taking back their
catch to the GAF extended stay base, the participants may collaborate in
compiling an alternate city guide from their gathered material, a collection
of shared and individual thoughts and ideas, spotting the city as a mental
workout-parcours.
 
The international character of the group (including participants from
Serbia, Greece, Austria besides Germany and Turkey) encourages a
multi-layered understanding of the city as host: This perhaps collective
‘foreignness’ as a basis of cultural production suggests that relations
between places and people could be long developed and communicated.
 
Schedule
 
oct. 17-22nd daily 18-20:00
Julia Kapelle: Hostel Life: screening
Branka Pavlovic: Capturing Istanbul: the making of
is open the public daily (18-21.10) from 18-20:00.
Please bring a photo of your favorite non-place in Istanbul and be a part of
the project! 
 
oct. 18th 
Sofia Bempeza: Feels like home! 1. intervention 13-15:00 galata kulesi
Viola Thiele: Urban Workout: scout field trip. open dinner at GAF 20:30
 
oct. 19th
Sofia Bempeza: Feels like home! 2. intervention 13-15:00
osmanbey-metrostation/cummhuriyet caddesi
Viola Thiele: Urban Workout: field trip. 1. scout walk
 
oct. 20th
Kristin Möller: Escape Beyoğlu. 1. walk kağithane, GAF 12:00
Viola Thiele: Urban Workout: field trip. 2. scout walk
 
oct. 21st
Sofia Bempeza: Feels like home!  3. intervention 13-15:00 şişli
Kristin Möller: Escape Beyoğlu: 2. walk Sultanahmet, GAF 12:00
 
oct. 22nd
Sofia Bempeza: Feels like home! 4. intervention 13-15:00 Taksim/Istiklal
open group presentation and special guests, GAF 19:00
 
Be our guest! open group presentation & special guests, GAF 19:00
 
with special thanks to: Orhan Ersen, Selda Asal, Feride Cicekoğlu, Umut
Ulus, Katja Jedermann, Michael Fehr, Klaus Mantze, Serkan Öz & everybody at
GAF!
 
oct. 23rd
20:00 at GAF: ''SHE'' performance/show by Serkan Öz
Try to see Istanbul from their eyes…
 
 


 
Institute for Art in Context
Fine Art Department
University of Arts Berlin
Tel:+49 30 3185 2960
www.kunstimkontext.udk-berlin.de <http://www.kunstimkontext.udk-berlin.de>
    
 
 
GAF
Hüseyin Ağa Mahallesi Top Çekenler Sok. No:3 
Beyoğlu / İstanbul
Tel: +90 212 244 06 77
www.gaf-istanbul.org <http://www.gaf-istanbul.org>
 

http://www.mosh-mosh.com
http://www.myspace.com/moshmosh2000

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