An exhibition at Salt Istanbul and traces of an intervention by a counter-action taking place in March – adding graffiti’s to the empty spaces on the walls within the show.

The exhibition displays a plethora of documentary material presenting along with restaged elements from specific exhibitions that took place in the past in Turkey, especially the 1. Mayıs Sergisi [First May Exhibition] organized by Görsel Sanatçılar Derneği – GSD [Visual Artists Association]. The project will revisit issues of artists’ rights, involvement and collaborations with workers unions, and the function and positioning of art in public space.

A group of young Turkish artists prepared an intervention on March 15 2013 leaving signs on the walls as a gesture of ‘turnabout’ by an act to “turning expressions of the capitalist system and its media culture against itself”.

Decide yourself… between the paradox of an intervention using the spectacle itself, of displaying unspectacular works of art concerning artists rights and art in public space within the frame of a museum and a video connecting these elements in a well known way of daily motions…

SALT Beyoğlu – Istanbul
JANUARY 31 – APRIL 21, 2013

They say there are secret cemeteries beneath the sprawling grounds of the Central State Hospital. They say bodies and pieces of bodies were dumped in trenches after being taken apart in the laboratory. It takes three people to perform an autopsy: someone to do the cutting, another to weigh the organs, and a third to record the results. Blood and other fluids drained through the tiled floor and ran beneath one hundred acres of landscaped gardens before spilling into the White River.

Copper has anti-bacterial properties. Northern light is the best for viewing bacteria through a microscope. There’s much to learn at the little museum in the old pathology building at the defunct hospital. Tumors, trauma, and congenital defects. Degenerative disease and inflammation. Next to a yellowing brain in a jar, a card says, “Patient never displayed peculiar behavior until he was wounded in the head during the Spanish-American war. He became childish but was able to work as a farmer until the age of seventy when he turned violent and institutional supervision became necessary.” Bottles of sulfate of ammonia, benzoic acid, smelling salts, and ‘chemicals’ line the dark wood shelves. Hanging from the walls are dozens of sepia portraits of stern men with beakers and skeletons in the background.

Read the full articel by James A. Reeves at the Bureau of Manufactured History

Ayvansaray/ İstanbul

2013

Berlin Street Art: Snow bunnies are smart – They climb up trees at night, while ordinary rabbits seek their snowy home.

Der Tagesspiegel Berlin

Music for Forgotten Places sends city residents out into their neighborhoods on a strange journey of exploration and discovery. Located at various forgotten sites are small, hand-made wooden signs, each engraved with a title and a phone number. Upon discovering this mysterious object, explorers can call the number and hear a piece of music composed especially for that place.

This project was developed by Oliver Oliver Blank during his Artist-in-Residence period at the Museum of Contemporary Art in A Coruña, Spain. As our cities burgeon and thrive, we can become enveloped in the chaos and thrall. In turn we begin to forget the joy of exploration and the thrill of discovery.

This project is a celebration of non-places – a joyful rediscovery of the cities in which we live. By instilling city residents with a sense of place and encouraging them to find their own perspective, Music for Forgotten Places transforms lost locations into landmarks, and introduces curiosity and surprise into our daily lives.

Visit the project site: www.musicforforgottenplaces.com

Happening for Pınar Selek on March 7th in Istanbul on the occasion of the international womans day.

Selek has been prosecuted over a 15-year period in Turkey in connection to a explosion that occurred at the Spice Bazaar, Istanbul in 1998. Tried and acquitted of all charges on three occasions, her most recent acquittal was amended in November 2012 by the Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 12, which sentenced her to life in prison on January 24, 2013. Selek’s lawyers have appealed the verdict and declared plans to bring her case before the European Court of Human Rights.