at last some photos from another country @ ifa stuttgart

entrance world map by ashley hunt, the boxes on the pedestals are cevdet erek's rulers.

the opposite is a great video researcj on eurovision by dubravka sekulic. across are javier hinojosa's sketch photos and drawings. faced by jumana manna's song of ascents. the book on pink pedestal is one of the outlets of matilde cassani's architectural research on survival mechanisms of "the different". the exhibition closes by koken ergun's joyful video installation WEDDING.

monsanto'dan haiti'ye sevgilerle

what d'you know? a great blog from sean jacobs

africa is a country

J.G. Ballard-Shanghai Jim

Following J.G. Ballard from Shepperton to Shanghai and back, looking at the scenes of his life which inspired his autobiographical novels. This is a BBC original production which aired in 1991, directed by James Runcie. It chronicles J.G. Ballard's first trip to Shanghai after he first left it in 1946. He discusses his ilfe and his work especially his two autobiographical novels, _Empire of the Sun_ and _The Kindness of Women_. There are also bits there about _Crash_ and _Vermilion Sands_. A must for any J.G. Ballard fan.

tmr in istanbul AH OH

Ming Wong, Angst Essen / Eat Fear, video still, 2008

June 8 – July 10, 2010

Artists: Hasan Aksaygın, Sevim Burak & Elfe Uluç, Patty Chang, iç-mihrak, Oktay İnce (from Karahaber Video Collective), Aykan Safoğlu, Rinus Van de Velde, Ming Wong

curated by

Indicating the binding power of treaties, the Latin phrase Pacta Sunt Servanda* (“Agreements must be kept”or “Contracts must be honored”) provides a discussion ground for the exhibition AH OH that aims to interrogate contemporary forms of social constructions such as promises, loyalty, faith, family, privacy, sexuality and morality. As an exhibition, AH OH brings together a selection of art works that deal with the politics of love, rituals of pleasure, crises of morality as well as the psychoanalytic dynamics of human existence. AH OH seeks to confront visitors with the impossibility of keeping promises, but also the indispensability of having them in our social and moral contracts. On a personal level, the exhibition asks the critical question: “When do we promise, and when do we break promises into pieces in order to reconstruct ourselves?”

A discussion (You should love Zeki Müren!) organized by and the organizers of the 18^th Istanbul LGBT Pride Week as a part of this year’s program aspires to create a queer critical base for further questions and discussions related to the public and private channels of promises, transgressions and alternative forms of social morality.

*Guido Westerwelle, who serves as the German Foreign Minister for Chancellor Merkel’s cabinet visited Turkey in January 2010. During his visit Westerwelle promised Ahde Vefa, the Turkish translation ofPacta Sunt Servanda and, symbolically, the first ‘thing’ Westerwelle learned in Turkish. This political gesture was intended to demonstrate his ongoing support for Turkey’s candidacy for EU membership – a gesture that remains highly opportunistic – but also highlights the irony of his visit given.

is a Berlin/Istanbul based collaboration that works with the performative forms of critical curating and queer politics. The name comes from the Turkish letter “ğ” as yumuşak ge ’soft g’ – the ninth letter of the Turkish alphabet.

usual suspects

http://www.hkw.de/en/programm/2010/berlin_documentary_forum/projekt_detail.php

tate's public response 2 making a living, beni acmadi

A couple of weeks ago, we posted an item on the Editors’ Blog about two open letters addressed to Tate on the occasion of Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary celebrations. One was from the organization Making a Living, criticizing the institution’s treatment of artists during the ‘No Soul for Sale’ event, the other a communique from Liberate Tate calling for Tate to drop its sponsorship agreement with BP.

Here is a brief update regarding the letter from Making a Living. At time of writing, Tate had not made their response to the organization public. However, the museum has since been in touch with frieze, informing us that they were in already in correspondence with Making a Living before ‘No Soul for Sale’. Below is a copy of the letter sent to them by outgoing Tate Modern director Vicente Todoli.

Dear Making a Living

Thank you for your reply and for your open letter outlining your specific concerns. In keeping with the original project in New York in 2009, No Soul For Sale is a convention of not for profit arts organisations who were all invited upon the same basis. The invitation to participants explained that Tate was providing a free platform to organisations to present their work at the event. The festival was free to the public. It was also made clear to them that this would be part of Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary celebrations.

By hosting this project Tate wanted to look outwards at the other models of institution within the art world. It was a celebration of the myriad of organisations and collectives that contribute to our vibrant visual culture. In the original announcement of the event it was expressed that Tate was the host, with the concept of the event being that of the Curators, and the presentations being independently devised by the organisations taking part. The logistics for a large-scale event like this are complex and it was supported by a dedicated team across departments in the organisation. Tate is also a not-for-profit organisation and any funds raised go towards running the gallery.

We have received a very positive response from many of the participants who have expressed their interest to the Curators in taking part in the event if it is staged for a third time.

Kind regards,

Vicente Todoli

@ yildiz

AFİŞE

4 – 18 haziran 2010

Açılış: 04 Haziran 2010, Cuma
Saat: 17.30 – 20.00
Yer: Yüksel Sabancı Sanat Merkezi

Afişe sergisi, günümüzde üniversitelerin halen özgür ve yaratıcı fikirlerin tartışıldığı mekanlar olduğuna inanan Y.T.Ü. Sanat ve Tasarım Fakültesi’nden yolu geçmiş bir grup sanatçının, fikir alışverişleri, toplantılar, yazışmalar ve okumalar sonucu gerçekleştirdiği bir etkinliktir.

Sergi sadece mevcut durumu tespit ve “afişe” etmek üzerinden kurulmuyor. Sorunu daha geniş bir ölçekte ele almayı, tartışmayı var olan tartışmalara eklemleyecek açık uçlu bir süreci başlatmayı amaçlıyor.

Kent ve dünya ölçeğinde farklı coğrafyalarda bir takım kurumlar, alışkanlıklar, pratikler ve deneyimler, tepeden inmeci yönetişim anlayışı ile hakim piyasacı eğilimlere teslim ediliyor. Bu eğilimler her türlü artı değer, kar, fayda ve verimlilik retoriği eşliğinde kendini meşrulaştırıyor. Bu “yaratıcı yıkım”ın kendini meşrulaştırma yollarının izlerini, Emek Sineması’nın yıkılması sürecinde, Beyoğlu Olgunlaştırma Enstitüsü’nün sessiz sedasız satılması gerekçelerinde, Middlesex Üniversitesi Felsefe Bölümü’nün kapatılmasında, BolognaSüreci olarak adlandırılan, üniversitelerdeki bilgi üretim sürecini neoliberal koşullara göre esnetmeyi amaçlayan programın hedeflerinde sürebiliriz.

Bu meseleleri dert edinen Afişe sergisi, kendi durduğu yerden, sanatın dönüştürücü enerjisini arkasına alarak; ürettiği afişler, açılışta planlanan yemek ve şenlik aracılığı ile herkesi süreci konuşmaya, bu sorumluluğu “neşe”yle paylaşmaya ve söz üretmeye davet ediyor.

Performans: “Modern Zamanlar” Saat: 19.00

Katılımcılar: .-_-., Ahmet Öğüt, Burak Delier, Ekin Saçlıoğlu, Erinç Seymen, Güneş Terkol, İnci Eviner, İz Öztat, Önder Özengi, Özgür Erkök, Seda Hepsev, Sergin Keyder, Şafak Çatalbaş, Zeren Göktan, Zeynep Günsür, Züleyha Altıntaş.

Adres: Yüksel Sabancı Sanat Merkezi,
Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi, Yıldız Kampüsü, Beşiktaş.


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AFİŞE

4 – 18 June 2010

Opening: 04 June 2010, Friday
Date: 17.30 – 20.00
Place: Yüksel Sabancı Sanat Merkezi

Afişe is an event that emerged out of dialogues, meetings, correspondences and readings realized by a group of artists, who inhabit(ed) Y.T.Ü. Art and Design Faculty and believe that there still are places for free expression and creative dialogues.

The exhibition is not structured just around defining and publicizing the current condition. It tries to place the situation in a wider perspective and intends to start an open-ended process of dialogue, which places the problem in a wider context.

Some institutions, habits, practices and experiences, in different geographies at urban and world scale, are subject to top-down governance and prevailing market driven tendencies. These tendencies legitimize themselves through the rhetoric of surplus value, profit, utility and productivity. Legitimization of “creative destruction” can be traced in the process of demolishing Emek Cinema, among the justifications of silently relocating Beyoğlu Olgunlastirma Institute, closing down of Middlesex University Philosophy Department and in the aims of Bologna Process, which restructures knowledge production in service of the neoliberal condition.

Relying on the transformative energy of art, Afişe exhibition takes a position towards the situation. Through posters, a carnival and food at the opening, we invite you to speak about this process, share the responsibility with “joy” and produce discourse about the current condition.

Performance: “Modern Times” Date: 19.00

Participants: .-_-., Ahmet Öğüt, Burak Delier, Ekin Saçlıoğlu, Erinç Seymen, Güneş Terkol, İnci Eviner, İz Öztat, Önder Özengi, Özgür Erkök, Seda Hepsev, Sergin Keyder, Şafak Çatalbaş, Zeren Göktan, Zeynep Günsür, Züleyha Altıntaş.

Adress: Yüksel Sabancı Sanat Merkezi,
Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi, Yıldız Kampüsü, Beşiktaş.