May 28–November 27, 2016
Sale d’Armi Nord
Arsenale
Venice
Italy
Curators: Feride Çiçekoğlu, Mehmet Kütükçüoğlu, Ertuğ Uçar
Curatorial collaborators: Cemal Emden, Namık Erkal
Exhibition team: Hüner Aldemir, Caner Bilgin, Hande Ciğerli, Gökçen Erkılıç, Nazlı Tümerdem, Yiğit Yalgın
Exhibition team assistants: Serdar Albaz, Yiğitalp Behram, Ceren Kaya, Sima Muhammedli, Burak Sancakdar
Commissioner: Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV)
The Pavilion of Turkey at the 15th Venice International Architecture Biennale (May 28–November 27, 2016, Sale d’Armi, Arsenale) will feature the project Darzanà. Curated by Feride Çiçekoğlu, Mehmet Kütükçüoğlu and Ertuğ Uçar, with curatorial collaborators Cemal Emden and Namık Erkal, the exhibition team of Darzanà consists of Hüner Aldemir, Caner Bilgin, Hande Ciğerli, Gökçen Erkılıç, Nazlı Tümerdem and Yiğit Yalgın.
Darzanà refers to the common origin of the words “tersane” in Turkish, and “arsenale” in Italian, both meaning naval shipyard. Beyond its shared etymological origin in “Lingua Franca,” the word also denotes the architecture of the maritime world—that of the port cities and the naval architecture of ships—forming a bridge or a “vessel” between different building cultures of the Mediterranean. On the waterfronts of the Middle Sea there is an intermediary architectural history that can be referred to as an “Architectura Franca.”
More tangibly, Darzanà aims to display a part of the Mediterranean “Architectura Franca” formed of various encounters between the arsenals of Istanbul and Venice from the past to the present. The Ottoman imperial arsenal on the Golden Horn, partly in diminishing use, partly evacuated and deteriorating, is one of many “frontiers” in present day Istanbul, not only because it is on the waterfront, but also because it has the potential of becoming a battlefront between different urban actors. Venice and Istanbul, the twin harbors of the past with comparable populations and similar architectural heritage, have drifted apart, one to become a well-preserved museum city coping with problems of outgoing migration and the other into a pulsating mega-city suffering from continuous incoming migration. Is it possible to initiate an architectural dialogue between the two? How can the two arsenals reflect their historic experiences to the wider debates on architectural fronts?
A “vessel,” perhaps the last to be built in a deserted and desolate “volti” (shipshed) of Istanbul arsenal, will be cut in to pieces, to travel to Venice and then to be re-mounted in Sale d’Armi, in a volti of similar proportions. This vessel will carry the memories of a common heritage, initiating an encounter and possibly transforming the frontiers of the past and present into thresholds and zones of negotiation for projections of future.
To accompany the exhibition a book will be published, edited by Feride Çiçekoğlu and featuring texts by Namık Erkal and Vera Costantini and photographs by Cemal Emden. The book will be available in two editions, English and Turkish, at the opening of the International Architecture Exhibition and will later be distributed by Yapı Kredi Publications in selected bookstores. The book and the exhibition’s visual identity are designed by Bülent Erkmen. A tote bag will be designed by Hüner Aldemir.
The Pavilion of Turkey at the 15th Venice International Architecture Biennale is coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), co-sponsored by Schüco Turkey and VitrA, and realised with the production support of Competenza, the contribution of AKDO and under the auspices of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Republic of Turkey. The Pavilion of Turkey is located at the Sale d’Armi at the Arsenale, for a 20 years residency from 2014 to 2034, thanks to the contributions of 21 supporters who have made this possible.
For further information: www.iksv.org/en
For press images: www.iksvphoto.com
For press inquiries please contact:
Elif Obdan Gürkan – Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV)
elif.obdan [at] iksv.org / media [at] iksv.org
Press Office at Caro Communications
Marta Bogna-Drew: marta [at] carocommunications.com / T +44 (0) 207 7139388