On Thursday we had a breakfast meeting with Ruth Ur, Esra Otzemir from the British Council office in Istanbul and with Louise Wright from the British Council Offices in London at the Mamara café on Taksim Square. They reiterated how the British Council’s focus has shifted from being purely about exporting British based artists abroad to embrace a more collaborative approach between organisations in the UK and abroad. They also reiterated their interest in supporting strategic projects rather than one off low-budget projects. They were particularly interested in promoting Turkey and its culture as an accession state to the EU especially in light of its status as capital of culture in 2010.
We then went to meet Oyku Ozsoy, Programme Coordinator at the temporary Platform Garanti offices on the main street in Beyoglu. Platform Garanti is undergoing capital development and will merge with Garanti Gallery which focuses on design and architecture. She told us about their exhibitions programme, the residency programme and their archive of Turkish and international artists and organisations. She also spoke about the international partnerships they have developed. She then introduced us to three of the artist in residents, Bas van Beek (NL), Mark Aerial Waller (UK) and Kilian Ruthemann (CH).
After a couple of hours of spare time we went to the private view at Santralistanbul on the Bilgi University campus in the north of the city. The exhibition was called Light Illumination and Electricity and was curated by Basak Senova with a performance at 19:00 by the composer, singer and choreographer Adham Hafez.
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3 comments:
what amazing artist spaces.... very jealous
This was a really interesting day for me personally. It was great to connect with the British Council and hear about the structure of 2010. Particularly when working within the structure of 2008 in Liverpool at the moment and planning commissions and events for Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture. It has given me some ideas that I would like to pursue with linking with Turish artists and organisations in 2008 and 2010...
Platform Garanti was also really interesting and their archive was extremely impressive - a resource I wish we had at our fingertips here. The studio spaces and generous residencies were the most striking part of the organisation. Talking to Oyku you felt that there was a spirit of open information sharing in terms of the residency and a commitment to trying to network visiting artists into the fabric of the arts community to get the best experience of the city.
Finally towards the end of the day I was bowled over by the enormous space of Santri Istanbul - really exciting new space in the city.
It was great meeting with The British Council...it seemed to open doors that i hadn't thought of...and it's something that The Royal Standard will almost certainly pursue in the future.
I loved the spaces at Platform, really great. And brilliant opportunities for the artists involved.
It was really nice going to Santral Istanbul in the evening. A great show and a brilliant venue! But it also great seeing a lot of the people again that we'd met and been introduced to during the week.
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