Hosted by the Contemporary Art Society in Istanbul
Programmed with independent curator and art critic Fatos Ustek
Friday 11th September 2009 4pm to 6pm at the Cezayir, Hayriye Caddesi 12, Galatasaray.
The official opening of the Biennial will take place on the 11th September at 8pm we will move on to this after this event.
Presentations – Discussions – Cocktails
We invite you to join us, just prior to the official opening of the Biennial, to participate or simply to listen in on a discussion that will provide an insight in to the evolving arts ecology in the city of Istanbul from the perspective of key Turkish artists.
The Biennial brings a quickened pace, focus of attention and sense of expectation. These are all reasons why the 11th Istanbul Biennial can expect throngs of visitors this September. Such hiatus often makes invisible the everyday context within which the Biennial sits. The artist’s community in Istanbul and in the region is growing ever stronger and increasingly visible. The Biennial has played a vital role, as have other individuals, groups and institutions.
For Everyday to Hiatus and Back, Fatos Ustek has asked a number of artists living in Istanbul to join us. All are active producers; initiators of art spaces, magazines and events. Leading the discussion, artists, Gulsun Karamustafa and Ahmet Ogut will outline their views and experience. We aim to generate a discussion that will enable us to look back on what has taken place and to look forward to anticipate what the future might hold.
Fatos Ustek
It is significant to stop for a moment and scrutinise exactly what you are being surrounded by. Biennials increase the quest of interest in the local dynamics of art production, but tend only to generate snapshots of perception. In electing to take this moment to stop, I find that I am not interested in a linear, single-sided presentation of a status quo, but in an engagement with ideas and in the production of information that is formed through mutual involvement in discussion. To gather, with the shared intention to interrogate and to produce in depth information is essential to enable the continuous folding/unfolding of the unfamiliar, common, sensible or the nonsensical.
In inviting a range of artists to contribute, and in specifically asking Gulsun Karamustafa and Ahmet Ogut to lead the discussion, I aim to bring two important artistic positions:- Gulsun Karamustafa is one of the prominent figures of Contemporary Art in Turkey, she exhibits worldwide and has an excellent perspective on the strands of contemporary art practice taking place in Turkey and how this resonates abroad. Ahmet Ogut is part of a new generation of artists, he has held an increasingly visible position in the international arena in the last five years and perhaps is the youngest artist to have represented Turkey at the Venice Biennale. His view will provide us with some very interesting analyses of the present and considerations of what he thinks the future may hold.
Fatos Ustek, Curator and Art Critic from Contemporary Art Society on Vimeo.
This will be the first of two events programmed by the Contemporary Art Society that will focus on the 11th Istanbul Biennial and ask questions about how we gather information and develop networks that will be productive in the future.
The second event will take place in at ICA in London on the 30th September 2009.
This event has been organised as part of the Contemporary Art Society’s National Network. The only UK wide membership programme for arts professionals that focuses on the many issues that lie at the heart of our work in growing, sustaining and using public collections of contemporary art. The National Network offers a programme of conferences, seminars, events and national and international research trips: bringing experts together we enable the expertise to grow – working with museums and galleries within the complex and ever shifting ecology of contemporary art.
For more information visit www.contemporaryartsociety.org/national-programmes/