About a month ago, by the power given to me by google search and email, i met an amazing person named Dano Alexander.

In a nutshell, for Dano everything about this project started with his blog, www.istanbulstreetstyle.com, on which he featured photographs of the many interesting figures on the streets of istanbul. He really captures the uniqueness of these figures without getting caught up on who they are, where they come from or where and how they get their clothes. The most important thing is that these people are capable of freely expressing themselves all the superficial details aside..
To make the long story short, the idea behind the blog gets bigger and bigger and ends up becoming a monthly event called Sahane* in which i as well am involved as a curator/art director.
Our first Sahane* event happened recently at the Hall. Now that I have mentioned the Hall, I need to give a little more detail about the space cause its even more sahane… The Hall is an event space located behind Emek Sinemasi, which used to be a church. Magnet Istanbul took this beautiful structure and turned it into an amazing event arena with multiple rooms, gallery space, main dance floor and etc.. So we really had to give its worth to this space and i truly believe that we did. Within the show, there were two catwalks that 12 extremely talented emerging fashion designers displayed their collections. Along with that the gallery space featured 25 new and established artists (photographers, illustrators, painters, stylists, painters, conceptual artists), which added up to about 200 pieces of beautiful artwork. Besides all the art and fashion, there was also Ari Alpert’s stencil performance, a live cooking show by Dilara Erbay, the creative showcase Magicbox and many more!

There is a lot I can say about this event but it wouldn’t do the justice.. Istanbul has been longing for events like this for a long time.. Come visit us at our May 12th show and share the experience…

If you are an artist reading this you can contact us at istanbulstreetstyle@gmail.com, preferably with a link to ur portfolio.

Those of you who missed this show, please see the continuation of this show at the Levi’s Gallery in Beyoglu.

banu-n-between

8-bit polka-dot, jungle pop, casual sex, oldschool tarabya, gabber for kids, generative components, self taken cleavage shots of hot skanky emo girls, happy hardcore halucinations, boring blowjobs and speed metal soundscapes

YES it is quite obvious … Art Fag is back in the DJ booth at Babylon. Accompanied by Stereo Total and Plastik Vis. (visuals)

TONIGHT (15 march 2007) 22:00 Babylon 15 YTL (or 10YTL as a student)

Well what to say… I’m back in the low and flat lands of the Netherlands again. Still suspended between here and Istanbul, not landed yet, not really touched down. Of course practically nothing changed in ‘Dutchia’, and besides that I’m not back in my old home yet and still living from my suitcase. So it still feels somewhat like i’m on the move. Well maybe this in between condition is a good rehab from my Istanbul drug. Although it still feels a bit like a ‘cold turkey’.

A few days before I left and I put my last visiting friends into a taxi to the airport, I had a chat with a psychology student in the Chill Out Hostel. We talked about Istanbul how I liked it etc.. Bottom line we agreed that Istanbul was an amplifier of feelings. The poetic and romantic character of the city mixed with the merciless energy of modernity makes that, when you feel good, you feel on top of the world and when you feel down, you feel like you’re almost in the gutter. And guess what that is exactly what drugs do right… So for my very pleasant Istnabul habit … addiction is pleasantly lurking around the corner.

Transmediale is an annual festival for digital art and culture and this year I was lucky enough to experience it for the first time.

The festival’s 07 theme was unfinished and from Unfinished Cities to Unfinishing Creations it has addressed many progressing outcomes of our very unfinished digital/cyber/urban culture. First of all, I should say, as a first time visitor, Berlin and Akademie der Kunste was the perfect spot for the event.The city itself has just got so much to offer…

Ok.. tuning to the subject now..

In this year’s Transmediale I got to hear Orhan Esen’s presentation within the Unfinished Cities conference. Mr Esen is the co-writer and co-editor of the book ‘Self Service City: Istanbul. His book is “a book that gathers analyses, essays, reports and images about Istanbul – not least in view of Western European metropolises in which the autonomous appropriation of urban spaces is similarly excluded from the prevailing pictures of an urban civitas”(Transmediale, 44). In his speech, he mainly talked about the gated communities of Istanbul such as Kemer Country (formerly known as Gokturk village), and why the demand is so increasingly high for this segregated living style of the upper class. He pointed out many things such as the need of security, exclusivity, suburban life, and more hands on nature experience. He also mentioned the marketing strategies of these big property management companies who claim that they don’t only sell you a house but apparently introduce you to a new and better life style as well. This is all open to various arguments but listening to his speech i couldn’t help but ask myself the most inevitable question. Considering the extreme ends of architectural examples (gecekondus vs. gated communities and skyscrapers) we have here; is this city’s expansion so out of control to feed the needs of the increasing population that we don’t worry about fixing it but just keep building on the damage? Unfortunately, i think the answer is pretty obvious to that and it only underlines how we ended up with this abstract fusion of architecture as a result of Istanbul’s socioeconomic imbalance, but complaining is the easy part. Actually changing things will be and is the most challenging part for our generation. These dilemmas exist in most metropolises but Istanbul is one of the only few that has survived beautifully for over 3000 years, and i know me, you and a lot more will work hard to keep it that way!

Apart from the subject related most to this blog, Transmediale housed many more interesting conferences, video screenings, interactive projects, and brilliant art installations. I’ll strongly suggest to those who are into contemporary digital culture and practices to keep an eye on this festival. www.transmediale.de

For more photos of Transmediale, visit http://web.mac.com/banuny/iWeb/Site/Transmediale%2007.html

Banu-n-between

Jake Olson is a 28 year old American living in Adana Turkey. He has lived in Turkey for 2-1/2 years where he met his wife Rana (a Turk of Arab Orthodox origin.) Jake’s interests include exploring Adana and the surrounding area, reading, Outdoor adventures, pursuing his spiritual life, ultimate Frisbee, learning Turkish, making new friends, writing for his blog, and traveling. Jake and Rana are living out their first years of marriage in Adana. He’s currently teaches and authors The Foreign Perspective (ForeignPerspective.wordpress.com); a blog about life as an American in Adana .

So, you’re living in Adana. My friends said Adana? What would someone want to do Andana! …. So I understand you got married with a Turkish girl. How did that happen? and how did it result in you ending up in Adana.

I originally came to Turkey on a summer adventure where the focus was spending a few weeks experiencing life in a different country. One of the values of the program was to visit a place where there aren’t a lot of other foreigners (tourists.) Adana fit that criteria. It’s not exactly a tourist magnet. Of course, we also saw Efes, Istanbul, Cappidocia, etc, but the focus was living in Adana. That summer trip motivated me to try to come stay for a year in Adana. During that year, I met Rana, and stayed to see what would happen. Before I knew it, we were married. We decided to stay in Adana because it’s ours. (i.e. Antakya is hers, America is mine, but Adana is ours.) It’s where we met, so it’s a great place for us to start our lives together.

What do you like about the ‘Turkish way of (daily) life’?

I love the fact that neighborhoods are still a living reality. They say in Turkey that you don’t rent/buy a home, but the neighborhood. It’s true. My neighborhood has been a big part of my experience. I leave the house and chat with people everywhere. I’m often offered tea by people working at neighboring businesses, other families in the building drop off extra food sometimes. In fact, today I just picked up some Lahmacun at the local oven, we dropped off the meat, and they cooked the lahmacun. They all know me by name there, it’s great. Most people here care what’s going on around them, most specifically about the people around them. You feel this most as a foreigner because you’re reached out to even more.

That you’re also a Turkish speaker gives you quite some more insights into the Turkish culture. Have you discovered some remarkable similarities with your own cultural background from the States?

Oh yea. Most of the core motivations in life seem to be the same. The more readily you can understand the language, the easier it is to see that we’re all a lot alike. We all want to be loved by a few and accepted by the crowd. Most of us believe that a better job or more money would make us happier, (even though we see many examples to the contrary.) We all have deep prejudices about others that are hard to change, and very few people are satisfied with life the way it is. The reality of who we are as people doesn’t change much from Turkish to American culture. When you can’t speak to people, Turks all seem so different, but when you can sit and talk in Turkish, you see more similarities than differences.

Have you come across Turkish cultural things that you just couldn’t get your head around, things you just couldn’t grasp?

I’m still struggling to understand what place religion has in peoples’ daily lives. You see marks of Islam everywhere. In some senses there is deep allegiance to the national religion, and in other senses there seems to be a deep distrust and rejection of it. An interesting paradox is in the total disdain for pork and the blanket acceptance of alcohol use.

You choose a Turkish woman to be your spouse, could you say anything in general (hard… but it’s always fun to generalize , right?) that you love about Turkish women?
As foreigners, we develop quick stereotypes about Turkish women; over emotional, irrational, submissive, etc. Marrying a woman who is level-headed, rational and assertive has made me reconsider my stereotypes to say the least. I will say though that my wife brings a deep loyalty and a depth of emotion into the relationship that I think is directly linked to her Turkishness. I love those things about her.

You’ve been quite a while now in Turkey, what was one of the hardest things to get accustomed to?

I think that by far the biggest adjustment has been adjusting to life without a car and without cheap gas prices. In American a big expression of my freedom was the freedom with which I got in the car and did anything I wanted any time I wanted, on my schedule. In Turkey, I’m constantly adjusting to the schedule of the masses, the bus/train/etc. schedule. It’s been a big adjustment.

And what was the easiest ?

In general everything gets a lot easier when you stop expecting things to be similar to life in your native country. When I stopped judging things by what I was used to, I started getting used to things the way they are here, at that point, you start to accept the good with the bad. For example, if you expect Nescafe (instant coffee) to taste like the standard coffee in America, you’ll be sorely disappointed, but if you see it as a different beverage (not coffee) it’s fine.

What do you miss?

My family, winter, snow, my church, my friends, disc golf, clean cities, having a car, the wide assortment of microbrews and coffee shops we have in the states, pork.

The States are always in the news, especially if it concerns geopolitics. you’re an American. What kind of question do you sometimes get from Turks in the context of current affairs, where the US plays a dominant role?

I’m constantly asked about Bush and the war in Iraq. The thing that troubles me most about the way the questions are asked is the fact that people are all too willing to believe that others (Bush, his administration, the army, etc.) are willfully doing harm to others. Everybody knows Iraq is a mess and that many horrible mistakes have been made, but I don’t think anyone is intentionally doing evil over there. Of course, America’s denial of the problems and mistakes doesn’t help the world forgive them though.

I really appreciate though that people are open to me as an American person even though they are frustrated and angry with American foreign policy.

Here in Istanbul, the people around me tend to look more Westwards and don’t like to be associated with ‘the Middle East’. How is this in Adana?

I would say that it’s almost exactly the same. People I meet still believe what Ataturk taught about Turkey, namely that it’s aspirations and allegiances should be toward the West, not towards the Middle East.

Over they years you probably also learned Turkey has quite a complicated history and still is a complicated case of a nation state. What do you think has been one of the most positive developments you’ve seen over the past two years.

Wow, I wish I had something to say. I think the problems here are worked out over decades, not years. Anything that changes in 2 years is superficial at best. One thing I continually remind myself of when Turkey’s progress seems slow is that when Ataturk died in 1938, 75% of the population was illiterate (90% of women.) In 2000 93.5 % of men and 76.5% of women could read and write. That’s a pretty fast march to modernity. Not much changes in 2 years, but a lot has changed in the last 80.

And what has been negative?

I wish I could say that I see Turkey getting more stable, but the more I learn about Turkey, the more I realize that economic and social catastrophes come and go regularly. My biggest concern about living here long term is related to the constant threat things like earthquakes, military takeovers and financial crises. It seems like these people and this country needs stability.

What hold’s the near future for you in Adana?

We’ve decided to spend the first phase of our married life here (5 or so years.) If I can find a niche where I can keep doing work I enjoy for a livable wage, I think we’ll be here for a long long time.

We”ll that’s it I guess. Thanks a lot.

#1

First I’m proud to annouce that Difüzyon will rock Istanbul with another dörtyüzsaniye. This second edition comes after the -above expectations- successful first edition at SekSek. The first one was such a succes, that SekSek was to small to house the audience. So sadely we had to send people home. That chance won’t be so big this time cause we’ll be hosting dörtyüzsaniye numero 2 in Studio Live. The please is big enough to house, let’s say 1000 people. Check out there pics on the website it’s a great venue just off Istiklal. Keep checking the Difüzyon site for updates and also if you (still) don’t have a clue what this dörtyüzsaniye thing is.

#2

We’ll I think I don’t need to say much about this one. I’ll be screening it at my School, the Architecture Faculty of ITU a.k.a Taşkışla together with Sleep[less] Taşkışla, check their website for more info.

#3

We’ll this is the most scary one 1st of February, Art Fag (a.k.a me with mi compadre Caglar) we’ll play back2back @ Babylon, before and after Alec Empire (Atari Teenage Riot)
We’ll play some Dirty Electro, Minimal Italo Disco, 8-bit Polkadot and other weird shit from our digital archives.

So see you around, ciao!

I finally finished ‘The New Turkey’ by Chris Morris a book I bought at the start of my stay here in Turkey in an effort to grasp what Turkey is about. Although it’s still hard to exactally put your finger on it, Morris gives to the western outsider quite some handles to get a good start. Without taking position in favor of the Kemmalist point of view (as one might easily expect from a foreigner).

I finished the book a month ago or so (2006), but last weekend my ‘quest’ for understanding Turkey has been crowned with a visit to Anitkabir, the grave of Ataturk in Ankara. A visit to this monument makes you deeply realize what Turkey as a nation state means and how it’s people relate to it. A friend of mine putted it like this; Where Western Europe experienced evolution followed by revolution, in Turkey it was the other way around. First revolution and after that, up to today and tomorrow, Turkey is experiencing an evolutionary process of coming to terms with this. In that sense Ataturk really is pivotal in what Turkey is. When the Ottoman empire demised and was defeated in the First World War, and the Turkish Republic (founded in 1923) in the Second. The European Alied forces where all to eager to devide the lands of the former Ottoman empire among themselves. Through the Turkish Independence wars, Turkey re-conquered much of it’s land up unto it’s current borders. After that Ataturk ruled as an Enlightened (in the French meaning of the word) dictator and put through so many reforms in such a staggering pace that, even if people would want to resist to one form legistlation put through the other one was already in the making. Ataturk founded a republic and a people and left an enormous legacy.This is everywhere, from simply encountering his portret at a local restaurant to the language Turks speak, write and the names they have. What it means te be Turk is pratically founded by one man. You won’t realize it fully untill you go to Anitkabir. As a western European you’ll probably feel uneasy, walking through an architecture strongly resembaling Albert Speer’s, wandering by panoramic battle scenes of the Independence War, accompanied with sounds of gunshots and screams, this all carried on the proud pulse of pompous classical music themes. All this is bordering to the best national socialist propaganda. But this is different, although the legacy of Ataturk is maybe not shared by everyone, as Turk you also need to ‘believe’ in what this man represents, because he practically constitutes identity of the Turkish people (this is important because there is really no such thing as a Turkish ethnic group, practically everyone is of mixed blood and background).

Anitkabir, Ankara

Turkish history maybe starts at Ataturk, but it certainly doesn’t end there. This is also what Morris quite effectively shows. The recent reforms in the perspective of joining the European Union (one day…) and how Turkey will deal with Islam mixed with a western republican democracy is now being put to the test with Tayip Erdogan at the helm. Where the sacred unity of Turks under the flag of the republic has also been a argument much used for violently crushing any sounds countering this (of course reffering to the Kurdish issue) concept, Turkey now is opening up slowly to other sounds, also the ones in a Kurdish tongue.

Now that entering the European Union seems further away than ever since negotiations started. Turkey finds itself (as always) in between, a Europe that has to decide if Turkey really matches with their European ambitions and a Middle East that is in turmoil. Turkey is presented with her final challenges of making the Turkish project a succes if it joins the union or not. It mostly depends on how the hybrid political system will evolve from a democratic-authoritarian-tribal amalgamtion to something close to a republican democracy and how Tukey can make the differences between the “relatively rich progressive west” and “traditional conservative poor east” smaller in terms of education, governance, business and living conditions. If anything is sure, than it is that Turkey is still a nation in the making, a work in progress. In any case I which them all the best with this project, because it’s a beautiful country with wonderfull people…. I know

Together with some students of Taşkışla, the Architecture Faculty of ITU (Istanbul Technical University) we founded Difüzyon (the word means diffusion) and are organizing our first event ‘fourhundredseconds‘:

dörtyüzsaniye
14 katılımcının, seçilmiş bir çalışmalarını projeksiyon eşliğinde 6 dakikada, sundukları tasarım bazlı etkinliktir. Tüm sunumlarla beraber 125 dakika süren dörtyüzsaniye, çeşitli tasarım alanlarını bir araya getirmeyi ve bir kolaj oluşturmayı amaçlar. Böylelikle mimarlık, moda, fotoğraf, video, grafik, endüstriyel tasarım gibi yaratıcı işlerin yer alacağı dörtyüzsaniye’ de kendi işlerinizi tanıtabilir ve diğer bir çok alanla etkileşime geçebilirsiniz.

fourhundredseconds
14 designers, each presenting their projects in 6 minutes and 40 seconds (400 sec). In a saturated one and a half hour, you will get a sample of the full spectrum of Istanbul’s rich creative culture. A common ground for architects designers, artists, culture producers and other creatives to meet, exchange ideas and hopefully some phone numbers.

PERŞEMBE 19:30, 21.12.2006, GİRİŞ ÜCRETSİZ
Seksek Taksim, Sakızağa Cad. Yoğurtçu İş Merkezi No:19 K:4

Difüzyon Nedir?

Difüzyon kent, mimarlık, moda, güncel ve amatörün altını çizen bir etkinlik grubudur. Yaratıcı kültürü arar ve bir araya gelmesini amaçlar. Oluşturduğu kolajın, tasarım çevresinin özgün değerlerini tanımlaması ve bir birleriyle verimli ilişkilere geçmesini umar.

Temel olarak Taşkışla çevresinin bir araya getirdiği profesyoneller ve öğrencilerin içinden çıkan bir grubun hevesli birlikteliğidir difüzyon. Bu organizasyon ise yapı olarak tabandan yayılan ve açık kaynak bir düzeni benimser.

What is Difüzyon?

Difüzyon is not an official organisational body, The organization is characterized by an D.I.Y (Do-it-yourself) attitude and a ‘bottom-up’ and/or ‘open source’ approach. Difüzyon is an open ended project, fueled by the initiative of young creativesives

Besides Istanbul I have also been in Beirut, Lebanon:

As a part of the Archis team I was in there gathered with architects, designers and artists from Beirut and from the Netherlands the Pearl Foundation and Partizan Publik. We where in Beirut for an event titled: Unbuilt Beirut, or more broadly Unbuilt Lebanon. After some field trips to the Southern suburbs, and the South of Lebanon in and around Bint Jbeil, we addressed aftermath of what architects, designers and artists can do in the aftermath of violence, destruction, political division and very little perspective of immediate improvement. After the horror of war and disorienting denial there is more need for creative power than ever, to defuse the explosive society of Lebanon, to find common ground, common space and place. Establish platforms for dialogue, and shared perspective to aim for. The creative intellectuals of the society are key players in generating common space and perspective through generating concepts, practices and images beyond the imagination of a society in distress. Now on the Unbuilt blog, we are gathering these creative works so badly needed.Together with Archis I was in Beirut gathered with architects, designers and artists from Beirut and from the Netherlands the Pearl Foundation and Partizan Publik. We where in Beirut for an event titled: Unbuilt Beirut, later enlarged to Unbuilt Lebanon. After some field trips to the Southern suburbs, and the South of Lebanon in and around Bint Jbeil, we addressed aftermath of what architects, designers and artists can do in the aftermath of violence, destruction, political division and very little perspective of immediate improvement. After the horror of war and disorienting denial there is more need for creative power than ever, to disfuse the the explosive society of Lebanon, to find common ground, common space and place. Establish platforms for dialogue, and shared perspective to aim for. The creative intellectuals of the society are key players in generating common space an perspective through generating concepts, practices and images beyond the imagination of a society in distress. Now on the Unbuilt blog, we are gathering these creative works so badly needed.

There are also some pictures: on flickr

Being also a DJ I have to write something on music. One of the first things that ‘suprised’ me more or less was hearing some song I recently discovered while I was still back in Holland. I am talking about some songs from the Bucovina Club series by German DJ Shantel, these Balkan beats on steroids with Gypsy horns was blasting out of the loudspeakers of one of the record shops on Istiklal (Ada Müzik if I remember correctly). I was suprised because in Holland I played this music and it’s totally new to the audience. But after a while I figured out gypsy music has quite a position here in music culture, and the Turks love it. As always the music of the Roma is influences by the region where they reside. Instruments change, their place within local culture is always different. The Roma where already in Constantinople since 1050 and have from there spread to the Balkans, eastern Europe and all the way to France and Spain influencing Jazz (Django Reinhardt) and Flamenco.

In Turkey, Gypsy music plays a prominent part in the nightlife, for instance the Fasıl music, gypsy music played with clarinet, darbuka and violin. Selim Sesler is a good introduction to this, he is always playing a few days a week in one of the bars (Tuesdays on the rooftop of Araf, Balo Sokak) around Beyoğlu. I had a chance to see him in Babylon recently.

Babylon, the pop-temple of İstanbul, is also at least once a year host to Shantel, he will be there again the 11th of November.

But Gypsy music is on the rise in mainstream culture. Basement Jaxx has released a compilation of Balkan and Gypsy tracks “Gypsy Beats and Balkan Bangers” (a bit of a Bucovina Club rip-off). And bands like Gogol Bordello from NYC are getting well known. I can name all the names on the Bucovina compilations 1 & 2 but that would be too obvious. Instead something else that could placed in this trend is Russendisko, a returning evening (and 2 compilation albums) at Kaffee Burger in Berlin: eine Tanzveranstaltung, die der osteuropäischen Musik zwischen Zigeuner-Punk, Balalaika-Rock’n’Roll und Klezmer-Ska gewidmet ist. roughly translated: An evening to dance on Eastern European music, from gypsy punk to Balaika Rock’n'Roll and Klezmer-Ska.

This weekend a short detour, from the edge of the European continent to the big island that is (in a special way) part of Europe but above all, its British. Why did I go there? To consume vast amounts of art together with some friends from Holland and Belgium. Besides the Frieze Art Fair there are lots of exhibitions running at probably the 100 plus gallery’s that London counts. So we rented some bikes -yes, we’re Dutch, so what!- and hopped from gallery-to-gallery-to-fair through central London. After so much art, in all its shapes and sizes, you don’t know anymore what art is or supposed to be (even if I ever did before). Especially after wondering around on a crowded, pressingly warm fairground, walking from stand to stand, gallery to gallery. They we’re all there from New York to Hamburg and Beirut trying to sell some artifact.

I wonder if Walter Benjamin could have predicted this phenomenon when he wrote ‘The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ in 1935. At least ‘the exhibition value’ is something that gets an whole other dimension on fair than in a museum. Perhaps Rem Koolhaas’ remark in the talk show at his Serpentine Pavilion (designed together with Cecil Balmond) together with Jeff Koons and Hans Ulrich Obrist last weekend (wasn’t there though but Sam Jacobs was).Koolhaas replied after a list of what art did according to Koons, “Are collectors a fair representation of mankind?” There you have it, problem number one, which is even more present in an art fair than any other exhibition venue.

But lets not go into the ‘what is art’ elaboration, that’s more something for a PhD topic. So just some general observations about the arts.

art work by Julian Opie

There are always a fair share of art that revolves around the play/remixing/twisting with popular imagery and mainstream culture. Often effective I think, especially accessible for non-connoisseurs, although this ‘trick’ is wearing out, it has been around since the Andy Warhol.

There is also a some craftsmanship returning, very hard to capture in a photo, but I have seen some small surrealist oil paintings with a level of detail, and expressive use of the medium which echo’s the renaissance painters. But also innovation of the classic overwhelming sublime paintings of Romanticism. (image above)

And than the object, the immaculate shiny object is always close and attracts people like magpie. From Jeff Koons ‘Cracked Egg’ to this one that I liked most the hammer and sikle lying on a mirroring cube pedestole. Ambiguity of the ideal materialization of a fallen ideology, like a the Platonian shadow in the cave finally gets to see its original from the realm of the gods.

Finally one of the art works that made the biggest impact was one where you totally got immersed in the hidden world of outcasts. The ‘Iron mill’ in London was converted in a overpopulated shabby hotel with rooms populated with prostitutes, refugees, einselgangers, illegals, an electronics dismantling factory hall and some odd excavation site. Only all the inhabitants had left, and the art lovers were poking their nose into a world which blurred the boundaries between reality, the absurd and life in the margins of our society. Imagine yourself flipping through the agenda and checking the working hours of a prostitute’s bedroom.

Closer to home there is still enough inspiration in daily reality for art to protest, revolt and be critical. Gallery Sfeir Semler based in Hamburg as well as in Beirut showed work addressing war-struck Lebanon. The audience was walking over the art (after the first hesitation) which was the urban plan of Beirut cut from foam. This piece by Marwan Rechmaoui, combines the feeling ‘that it is inappropriate to walk on a piece of art’ with destroying a city through bombing it, through sharing the perspective of the bomb or rocket striking from above.

In the future more on Turkish artists for now enjoy the photo report of the London art circus