Transition project
1 August 2013–14 March 2014
Yapı Kredi Cultural Center
161 Istiklal Caddesi
34433 Beyoğlu, Istanbul
Free admission
T + 90 212 252 47 00 (pbx)
www.transitionprojectistanbul.com
Curated by Basak Senova and Fatma Bucak.
The building of Yapı Kredi Cultural Center is going through a comprehensive renovation, ushering significant transformations, which include new galleries, offices, and an archive both for the arts and their publishing facilities. The construction started at the beginning of 2013 and will be completed by 2015. With the implementation of the Transition project during the process of renewal, the building will host a series of live performances, screening programmes, and an exhibition accompanied by a book. The aim of the project is to turn the building, which is under construction, to a platform for discussing and experiencing intersection points between performance and moving image. At the same time, the dynamics of the space will be processed through contemporary art practices.
Transition project is an outcome of a yearlong research and collaboration between an artist, Fatma Bucak, and a curator, Basak Senova. Therefore, the entire project explores the issues that have been crucial for this collaboration and the process. The project brings together artists with different areas of research and artistic approaches to ‘performance,’ the common denominator of the project content. In this respect, artists reflecting on politics of identity, gender, and body through social and psychological aspects with critical approaches are the basis of this project. The last stages of Transition‘s research coincided with the Gezi Park Resistance, which, in May and June 2013, spread all across Turkey. In an inevitable way, the project also entails to discuss the notions of resistance, solidarity and collective life within the framework of its program.
The project has five episodes: Three episodes present live performances and screening programmes with different thematic approaches. A fourth episode provides a discussion platform, which coincides with the 13th Istanbul Biennial. Finally, the fifth episode is dedicated to the exhibition and the book launch.
The project starts in August 2013 and will be completed by March 2014. Throughout the project, for the spatial designs and the architectural applications the curators work together with the architect Emre Erkal.
The participating artists are Ali Cherri, Ana Prvacki, Anahita Razmi, Anna Konik, Bjorn Melhus, Fatma Bucak, Guido van der Werve, Güneş Terkol, Harrold Offeh, Jesper Just, Lida Abdul, Lucy Beech and Edward Thomasson, Maria Jose Arjona, Nicoline van Harskamp, Nigel Rolfe, and Victor Alimpiev.
The project launch will take place on the 1st of August at 7pm, with Ali Cherri’s live performance at Yapı Kredi Cultural Center.
The project was developed in collaboration with the Royal College of Art (London, UK).
For further information, please visit www.transitionprojectistanbul.com.
