Lecture Molla Nasreddin by Slavs and Tatars on the opening 31.8 2011

Station is an open ended project that investigates public space and its politics, and how political discourses changes through space and time.

The project is initiated by Kim Einarsson (Konsthall C, Stockholm) and Adnan Yildiz (Künstlerhaus Stuttgart), and developed in collaboration with Aykan Safoğlu (Berlin/New York based artist) and Lisa Torell (Stockholm based artist).
—
Station is a long-term project based on the idea of moving together in time and space towards a conceptual destination. The project started as a discussion about the contextual references of Konsthall C and was later shaped by curatorial and artistic research around questions of mobility, the transfer of narratives and discourses as well as regulations of the public domain. These discussions can also be applied to the context of the collaborating institution in this project: Künstlerhaus Stuttgart.

The opening evening of the exhibition began with the lecture by artists’ collective Slavs and Tatars: Molla Nasreddin: Embrace Your Antithesis. This lecture  is based on a satirical magazine from the early 1900s that was published in the region between Morocco and Iran. The exhibition also features a series of new works entitled Not Moscow Not Mecca based on the idea of cities as travel destinations. This work also makes reference to two of the grand narratives of the 20th century: Communism and Islam.

Opening of Station C, 31.8 2011
Lisa Torell’s work [ʃ] Sch / sh, The Politics of Public Space explores the regulation of public space and freedom of expression and sets it in relation to the generic art space. The work manipulates and relocates various aesthetic, linguistic and spatial conditions and breaks with the habitual and expected.

Untitled, Aykan Safoglu, 2011

Aykan Safoğlu presents a video work based on a sequence from the Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahis’s Ayneh / The Mirror (1997) in which the main character breaks the fictional spell of the cinematic medium by stepping out of her role, thereby suddenly transforming Tehran’s urban space into a film backdrop and stage.

The background to Sylvia Winkler and Stephan Köperls project, STIEFKIND ZOB / Stepchild Central Bus Station is the relocation of the bus terminal in Stuttgart to the outskirts of the city as a result of the commercialization of the city center.
—
STATION C is the second installment of the larger project Station, which consists of several public events separated in time and place. The project was initiated by Adnan Yildiz (Künstlerhaus Stuttgart) and has been developed by Aykan Safoglu, Kim Einarsson and Lisa Torell.

The content and format will develop as the project progresses. Each part represents a separate chapter and the common thread that runs through the project, holding it together, is the sharing of experiences and events, rather than adherence to a fixed concept. Station is a way to test other forms of collaboration within an exhibition and an art project.

The first part of the project took place in May last year in the form of a film program, The Bus At the Station and an outdoor screening of the Turkish film Otobüs / The Bus (1976, Tunc Okan) at Sergels Torg – a city square in Stockholm where the movie was originally recorded. The film is about a group of Turkish men, who are illegally smuggled into a foreign country and are left to their fates in a bus in the middle of a public square. The director and producer were invited to the screening at Sergels Torg and participated in a subsequent discussion about the film, it’s history and the relevance of screening it in Stockholm more than 30 years after its creation.

This was the basis for the formulation of the project, a process which continued through conversations between Lisa Torell, Aykan Safoglu, Adnan Yildiz and Kim Einarsson. The film raised questions about mobility, alienation and modernity, but their continued discussions came to focus mainly on the transformation of urban space and the shifts and relocations of meaning that occur when political statements and aesthetic strategies are moved between different locations and temporal stages. The exhibition continues until 16th Okt 2011

Künstlerhaus Stuttgart will be the project’s next stop in 2012

The Station, tabloid, 2011

—
Aykan Safoğlu (artist, writer) lives and works in Berlin and NYC. born in Istanbul 1984. BA in “Film” at Istanbul Bilgi University and MA in “Art in Context” at the University of the Arts Berlin. He is currently doing his MFA in Photography at Bard College. Since 2005 he has made several short films, published articles and reviews in various magazines and participated & curated several group shows. He has  been a member of the curatorial collective “ğ”(soft g).

Lisa Torell is interested in the social and political changes of public
space and freedom of speech. She studies the aesthetics and language of
spatial and contextual conditions in order to both elucidate them and to
bring them down to something we could all be part of or relate to.

Slavs and Tatars define their practice as the study and creation of factional polemics and intimacies devoted to an area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia. www.slavsandtatars.com

In Sylvia Winkler (Austria) and Stephan Köperl (West-Germany) collaborative artistic practice hay have carried out “interventions in urban space” since 1997. They document these using video, photography or text. The  temporary interventions are developed specifically for each situation and are always the result of observations they make on location and then combine the work with their individual personalities and backgrounds. www.winkler-koeperl.net/

______________________________________________________
Thursday . 31.03.11 8:00pm . RACIALIZED AND GENDERED BODIES 

Bodybuilder Study (Pose, Strike, Lift, Carry)
(Rachel Rampleman, 2010) 8 min
This documentary essay about female body-builders consists of archival footage, and celebrates the female body by combining the poetry of bodies in motion with close-ups of athletes in the heat of competition. Rampleman is reluctant to impose interpretations of motives or psychology, and the result can seem opaque, even insistently undramatic.

Tongues Untied
(Marlon Riggs, 1989) 55 min
Blending documentary footage with personal account and fiction, Tongues Untied is an attempt to depict the specificity of black gay identity. In addition to detailing US black gay culture, Riggs discusses the development of his own identity and coping with the deaths of many friends to AIDS.

Looking for Langston
(Isaac Julien, 1989) 52 min
Shot in black and white, Looking for Langston combines authentic archival footage of Harlem in the 1920s with scripted scenes to produce a non-linear impressionistic story celebrating black gay identity and desire during the artistic and cultural period known as the Harlem Renaissance in New York.

Hoist
(Matthew Barney, 2005) 15 min
Hoist describes the encounter between the ‘Green Man’ and a deforestation Caterpillar truck under which he is suspended. Imagined as the ultimate strap-on, the truck is the physical fetish that allows the expectations of pain, danger and gratification to be transformed into psychosexual prosthetic.

______________________________________________________

Tuesday . 05.04.11 8:00pm . EROTIC PERFORMANCE AND ECSTASY

Flaming Creatures
(Jack Smith, 1963) 45 min
An American experimental film that was seized by the police at its premiere due to its surreal and graphic depiction of sexuality, the film features an array of transvestites, hermaphrodites, drag shows, a sexually ambiguous vampire and a drug orgy.

Dyketactics
(Barbara Hammer, 1974) 4 min
One of the first lesbian lovemaking films made by a lesbian, Dyketactics explores aesthetic connecting sight and touch. Touch precedes sight ontologically, and, in lesbian perception according to Hammer.

Community Action Center
(A.K. Burns & A.L. Steiner, 2010) 69 min
A sociosexual video that incorporates the erotics of a community where the personal is not only political, but sexual. The film is a committed collective work with A.L. Steiner & A.K. Burns.

______________________________________________________

Thursday . 07.04.11 8:00pm . PORTRAITS OF FANTASY AND MUSIC

Tony Conrad, DreaMinimalist
(Marie Losier, 2008) 26 min
Filmmaker, composer, musician and conceptual artist, Tony Conrad has exerted immeasurable influence on the avant-garde film and music scenes.This film explores Conrad’s life playing with costumes, practicing his violin, cooking pickled films, performing at Tonics in NYC, and his involvement with Flaming Creatures.

Pink Narcissus
(James Bidgood, 1971) 71 min
Between visits from his keeper, or john, a handsome male prostitute, alone in his apartment, lounges fantasizing about worlds where he is the central character. Shot with bright, otherworldly lighting, the film’s creator was at first a mystery and there were rumors that Andy Warhol was behind it.

13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests
(Andy Warhol, Musik by Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips, 1964) 60 min
Shot between 1964 and 1966 at Warhol’s Factory studio in NYC, Warhol’s classic silent film portraits of beautiful people like Nico, Lou Reed and Edie Sedgwick, are now put to beautiful music.

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Friday . 29.04.11 8:00pm . A QUEER PORTRAIT OF AMERICA

A Fire in My Belly (Film in Progress)
(David Wojnarowicz, 1986-87) 13 min
A leading artist of the 1980s, David Wojnarowicz is known for the richly aesthetic and strongly activist works that he made in response to the AIDS crisis. This poetic, unfinished work was created in part as a tribute to his friend, colleague and lover, Peter Hujar, who died of AIDS.

Lecture by Jonathon David Katz
(Curator of the Exhibit Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture)
An excerpt of A Fire in My Belly was removed from an exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery following protests by a religious group and conservative politicians. The curator of this exhibit will discuss this event and the politics of queer art and censorship in the US.

Scorpio Rising
(Kenneth Anger, 1964) 30 min
Featuring themes of leather-clad bikers, the occult, Jesus and Nazis, police arrested the theatre manager for obscenity when this film was screened in LA in 1964. Its camp appropriation of popular culture included innovative use of pop music, the erotic cult of James Dean, and Sunday Comics.

ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE . RETROSPEKTIVE
Ausstellung / Exhibition . 22.1.–1.5.2011
Täglich von 11 bis 20 Uhr / Daily from 11 am to 8 pm
Oranienburger Str. 35/36 . 10117 Berlin
Tel / Fon +49.30.28 09 19 25 . info@co-berlin.com
www.co-berlin.com
Ausstellung / Exhibition 10 / 5 Euro
Veranstaltungen / Events 5 / 3 Euro*
8 Veranstaltungen / 8 Events 30 / 20 Euro*
Katalog / Catalogue 29,80 Euro
*Hartz IV-Empfänger haben freien Eintritt. / Free admission
for recipients of Hartz IV.

That Tortured Feeling

After more than seven years, our 44th president declared an end to the Iraq War on August 31, 2010—but fear, anger—and arguably the war itself—rages on. Though the films of this program were shot prior to the declaration, the fear, anger and cynicism presented are just as relevant as they were on August 30, 2010. These films are not just about the current war in Iraq. They reference a range of wars, periods and atrocities. . . Not simply protest works, some like Gay Pool Party juxtapose the martial and the serene, while others (such as Inititation and The Dance) offer a harrowing window on torture and violence in a mysterious context. Still others such as Was Für Material!, suspend conventional expectations, narrative norms and political orthodoxy by leaving judgment of the actions and characters to the viewer, leading to unexpected sympathies and questions.

Curated by the Festival Programming Committee. TRT: 87 min.

Gay Pool Party 1968

Rudy Lemcke

2009, USA, video, color, sound, 4 min. NY Premiere
Scenes from a decadent pool party full of bare chests, sunshine, swimming pools, cocktails and fun are intercut with stirring archival images of social unrest from the 60s.

Anti-Itiraflar Vol. 1

Aykan Safoğlu

2007, Turkey, video, color, sound, 3 min. US Premiere
Against a rainbow flag backdrop, a gay suicide bomber bids farewell.

The Dance

Bandit Queen

2007, Canada, video, color, sound, 4 min. US Premiere
Lo-res images (suggesting surveillance or documentation) are poetically edited in this meditation on the torture at Abu Ghraib, where women are both victims and perpetrators of organized violence. “But the Abu Ghraib photographs are an event in themselves…they make it clear that the east and the west are joined intimately and unwillingly, in a diabolical pas de deux of violence and death: joined in image and reality, as perpetrators and voyeurs.” —Susie Linfield, Dissent Magazine

Three Minutes

Jenn Garrison

2009, USA, video, color, sound, 4 min.
Two women, resisting an unnamed despotic regime, race through a war-torn city to spend three minutes together. Once reunited, they’re able to let their inhibitions go wild through romantic choreog- raphy … but for only three minutes.

Blue Movie (Afghanistan)

Jeanne Hilary

2010, USA, video, color, sound, 11 min.
World Premiere
A chilling look at the relationship between eroticism and violence. Blue Movie combines blue illustrated images with still photographs taken in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002.

Featuring MIX’s own Luc Goodhart.
Text by Jean Genet & Georges Bataille.

Was Für Material!

Mark Ther

2004, Czech Republic, video, color, sound, 17 min.
Gay love lives of the Hitler Youth. Tonguing the flame. Running through the fields, Nazi flag in hand. Pissing on crosses and licking it off. They are happy to know each other.

Initiation. 1, Vegemite

Paul Gunn

2010, USA/Australia, video, color, sound, 24 min World Premiere
Initiation. 1, vegemite combines the format of Al Qaeda prisoner of war video with enactments of fraternity, military and gang initiation rituals in an exploration of methods of entry to limited access groups.

See Something, Say Something

Jerry Tartaglia

2010, USA, 8mm, 16mm, video, color, sound, 20 min. World Premiere
This is the second installment of the film cycle “The Way of The World,” the first part of which, The Mystery School, was completed in 2009. Using manipulated multiple projections and live performance, the film begins with a brief FBI Warning, after which the Pope (Pauline VI), visits America in 16mm and with the help of a new audio track, clarifies the foundations of our Imperial system. Later, American soldiers enacting the “Saga of Western Man” burn civilian villages while superimposed gay porn unmasks the sublimated sexual energy that prevents them from asking or telling. In the live action segment the filmmaker attempts to communicate directly with the audience, but succumbs to the temptation of academic sanitation. See Something, Say Something takes the experiment from the passive re-reading of heterocentric imagery of The Mystery School into a proactive re-contextualizing of the fetishes of hetero-sanctity. See Something, Say Something is a live, real time, moving image projection that employs 16mm film, digital video/audio, super8 film and live action. The presentation at MIX includes Tyler Arcaro, John Schlegel and Sean Michael Kirk.

Adnan Yıldız and Aykan Safoğlu
Berlin/Istanbul based curatorial collective  will present their first project, “AH OH” (Non Gallery, İstanbul June/July 2010) -an exhibition that is designed to develop a critical dialogue between LGBT organizations and contemporary art practitioners in Turkey. Questioning some terms such as community, artistic dialogue, curatorial grammar, group identity, social responsibility, critical knowledge, queer identity, political activism… within this experience, will also refer to some historical incidents, local references, and personal histories. Yıldız will also talk about his coming project “Correct me if i’m critical” (Berlin, Fall 2010), which integrates some art spaces and independent organizations as platforms and attachments in order to provide a link to Berlin context.

the presentation will take place in the conference:

5th Summer Seminars for Art Curators
Aesthetic Communities and Contextual Translation of Communal Art
August 15-20, 2010
Yerevan and Ijevan, Armenia
PARTICIPANTS:
Elke Krasny (Austria), Armenak Grigoryan (Armenia), Michelle Kasprzak (Netherlands), Karin
Grigoryan (Armenia), Xenia Nikolskaya (Sweden/Egypt), Arevik Grigoryan (Armenia), Patrycja
Rylko (Poland), Marlène Perronet (France), Harutyun Alpetyan (Armenia), Adnan Yildiz and
Aykan Safoğlu (Turkey), Carmen De Michele (Germany), Gor Engoyan (Armenia), Nvard
Yerkanian (Armenia), Natuka Vatsadze (Georgia), Liana Khachatryan (Armenia), Viviana
Checchia (Italy), Sona Melik-Karamyan (Armenia), Ida Hirsenfelder (Slovenia), Pau cata i Marles
(Catalan/Spain), Taguhi Torosyan (Armenia)
VOLUNTEERS AND FREE PARTICIPANTS:
Shoair Mavlian (UK/Australia), Özge Çelikaslan (Turkey), Emanuele Braga (Italy), Maddalena
Fragnito (Italy), Narek Tovmasyan (Armenia)
The Summer Seminars Program, organized by AICA-Armenia in collaboration with the Center for
Contemporary Art in Ljubljana (SCCA-Ljubljana), BM SUMA in Istanbul, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo
and SCCA-Alma-Aty in Kazakhstan, each year brings together international art curators, critics and
theorist to a series of workshops, seminars, lectures and public presentation, which center around
debates on aspects of art criticism, curating, cultural policy and critical practices.
The fifth edition, which will take place in August 15-20th in Yerevan and Ijevan, is structured around
the thematic outline of community art and aesthetic communities. Some of the questions raised, include
the problem of reception and contextual translation of art works produced under different historical
circumstances. In short, how is it possible to recapture or rather representationally translate communal
reception when the embedded specificity of a community has itself undergone a radical transformation?
What is the role of the curator in the perceptual politics that perpetuates through and around a work of
art? Can a work of art intended for a collective optical unconscious in the original context of its
production create new forms of undetermined and situational communities when exposed, represented
and reinterpreted anew? What happens to the work when both its intended message and its addressee
are lost? What becomes of a specific community in which the work is situated? What is the role of the
one –the critic, curator, historian and writer, who exposes, reinterprets and repositions the communal
work?
The Program is structured to accommodate daily lectures by invited specialists such as Victor and
Margarita Tupitsyn, Julian Vigo, Vardan Azatyan and Joanna Warsza as well as round-table
discussions and presentations by the participants. The finalized program will be announced in late
July.
AICA-Armenia, established and registered under the name National Association of Art Critics, was
founded in January 2005. It is the national Armenian brunch of the International Association of Art
Critics. The goal of AICA-Armenia is to reestablish the double responsibility of art criticism, spreading
critical perception on artists and society in respect to art history, in all diversity of its contemporary
expressions. Its activities include organization of conferences, seminars, public discussions, art
historical research; production of critical and theoretical texts in printed and electronic media; defense
of the professional copyright and moral interests of the critics; partnership and networking with
international art organizations and implementation of exchange programs.
ORGANIZERS:
President of AICA-Armenia, co-founder of Summer Seminars for Art Curators
Nazareth Karoyan
Member of AICA-Armenia, co-founder of Summer Seminars for Art Curators
Angela Harutyunyan
Coordination and communication
Marianna Hovhannisyan
PR and Documentation
Karin Grigoryan

SUMMER STUDIO / 10. und 29. August 2010 (English version below)

Im August 2010 ist das Projekt “correct me if i’m critical/summer studio” zu Gast im Konferenzraum des SkulpturenPark_Zentrums/KUNSTrePUBLIK. Die Künstler Aykan Safoglu, Judith Raum, Markus Li Stensrud und Egemen Demirci stellen ihre Arbeiten und Ideen für zukünftige Projekte vor.

PRESENTATITON FOR FUTURE AUDIENCE @ Skulpturen Park_Zentrum/KUNSTrePUBLIK, Konferenzraum, 5. Etage,
Köpenicker Strasse 36-38, Berlin

EPISODE 1 / 10 AUGUST 2010
16:00 Aykan Safoglu, http://www.correctmeifimcritical.org/wordpress/?page_id=353
17:30 Judith Raum, http://judithraum.net/

EPISODE 2/ 28 AUGUST 2010
16:00 Markus Li Stensrud
17:30 Egemen Demirci

CRITICAL PICNIC/ 29 August 2010

Veranstalter: Schwedische Botschaft Berlin
Kuratiert von Adnan Yildiz
In Zusammenarbeit mit SKULPTURENPARK BERLIN_ZENTRUM

Das Projekt correct me if i’m criticalwird gefördert durch Art Council; Konstfästen, Västra Götalandsregionen; Framtidens kultur
Medienpartner: Zitty, Dummy Magazin, Radio Kultur
www.correctmeifimcritical.org

During August 2010, the conference room of Skulpturen Park_Zentrum/KUNSTrePUBLIK will be used by the creative team of “correct me if i’m critical/summer studio” as a meeting place for production/discussion, and it will also host some presentations from promising practices – about their work in progress, and ideas for future. The project “correct me if i’m critical” is organised by the Swedish Embassy Berlin and curated by Adnan Yildiz.

With the contribution of ğ that recently curated the exhibition “Ah Oh” (on view, June 8th-July 10th 2010 at Gallery Non, Istanbul), a panel discussion titled as “You should love Zeki Müren” has been realized at 2:30 pm as a part of the 18th Istanbul LGBT Pride Week program on next Thursday (June 24th) at Garajistanbul. During the discussion, the speakers from contemporary art practice, literature and film studies focused on gender specific issues in relation to sexual orientation and resistance against heteronormativity.

Participants: Fatih Özgüven, Erden Kosova, Özlem Güçlü
Moderator: Aykan Safoğlu

Fatih Özgüven, Writer

Fatih Özgüven talks about Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu’s “Kiralık Konak” (“A Mension For Rent”), which is a fiction piece that investigates the clash between generational values and norms during the fall of Ottoman Empire. During his presentation, Özgüven  discusses an unspeakable expression of homosexual sensitivity through the decadence and sensitive aspects of its characters.

Erden Kosova, Writer

Sexuality and gender issues have been operating as one of the main bodies of social critique in the field of contemporary arts. Parallel to the rising visibility of anti-normative sexualities, and in relation to the term, ‘artistic persona’, they became primary references of differentiation and pluralism. From the psychology to the politics, the discussion has many diverse layers. The presentation includes some visual material.

Özlem Güçlü, Scholar SOAS London

LGBTT Representations in Contemporary Turkish Cinema: Implications, Opportunities, Boundaries

It would not be that extreme to read the post 80′s era of Turkish cinema as a compensation effort for the male characters having lost their competence. In contemporary Turkish cinema where the comedy of the film is ”handled” by effemination of the male character, the neighbour is called ”faggot” just to emphasise the masculinity of the leading actor, the fear for exceeding the purpose limits of homosociology kills the ”abnormal” at the end of a film, what are the samples coming out freshly in LGBTT representation?
What does the Turkish cinema offer considering its attempts for limiting the potential implications and opportunities just to go through its masculinity crisis while it also has ”a tough side” on the ”happy family” as the houses are packed with crime, lies and violence?This presentation aims at discussing implications, opportunites and boundaries of LGBTT in contemporary Turkish cinema through these questions.

CRITICAL TUESDAY / 27 JULY 2010 (German version below)

15:00 – FILM SCREENING “No Call From Devrim” / Oktay Ince (Karahaber Video Action-Workshop)  @ FELLESHUS der Nordischen Botschaften, Rauchstrasse 1, 10787 Berlin-Tiergarten

The documentary titled “No call from Devrim” by Oktay Ince from Karahaber Video-Action Workshop, consist of interviews on homophobia held with LGBT, witnesses people and organizations. What gives momentum to the film is Devrim’s faith in the Pink Revolution. The film will be introduced by Aykan Safoglu (Kaos GL).

18:00 – TALK “Summertime” @ GALERIE OPDAHL BERLIN, Lindenstrasse 35

Berlin based freelance curator Adnan Yildiz will focus on his research process for the exhibition project “correct me if i’m critical”, and discuss how he is taking this summer as an open-ended process for production and discussion as well as ‘work-holiday’ -and what it actually means …
Questioning the ways of working as a cultural producer and collaborating with different institutional frameworks, he will talk about the political organization of time, time/crisis management, and how Negri’s “Time for Revolution” changed his perspective about his own creative labor. During the talk, Yildiz will also launch the web site for the project “correct me if i’m critical” with its new content, and talk about the coming exhibition (Fall 2010).

CRITICAL TUESDAY / 27. JULI 2010

15.00 Uhr – FILM “No Call From Devrim” / Oktay Ince (Karahaber Video Action-Workshop)  @ FELLESHUS der Nordischen Botschaften, Rauchstrasse 1, 10787 Berlin-Tiergarten

Der Dokumentarfilm “No call from Devrim” von Oktay Ince und dem Karahaber Video-Action Workshop zeigt Interviews über Homophobie mit LGBT, Zeitzeugen und Organisationen. Der ungebrochene Glaube Devrims an die pinke Revolution verleiht dem Film seine Intensität. Mit einer Einführung von Aykan Safoglu (Kaos GL).

18.00 Uhr – TALK “Summertime” @ GALERIE OPDAHL BERLIN, Lindenstrasse 35

Der in Berlin lebende freischaffende Kurator Adnan Yildiz präsentiert den Arbeitsprozess für das Ausstellungsprojekt “correct me if i’m critical” und wie er den Sommer für offene Diskussionen, für die Produktion der Ausstellung und als Arbeits-Urlaub nutzen wird – und was das bedeutet …
Er hinterfragt dabei seine Arbeitsformen als freier Kulturproduzent und Kooperationspartner in unterschiedlichen institutionellen Zusammenhängen. Adnan Yildiz wird über die politische Organsation von Zeit sprechen, Zeit- und Krisenmanagement und wie Antonio Negris “Time for Revolution” seine Sicht auf die eigene kreative Arbeit verändert hat. Während seines Vortrags wird Yildiz die neue Website von “correct me if i’m critical” vorstellen über die kommende Ausstellung sprechen (September – November 2010).

Weitere Informationen finden Sie auf www.correctmeifimcritical.org

voguing

by aykan safoğlu

My M.A. thesis ” A form migrates: the floral wallpaper and its rededications in the homosexual Istanbul of 80s” is a product of artistic research that I carried out in museums and gay
spaces in Istanbul in March 2010. In this research I focused on the floral wallpaper from
the 1980s and the ways in which it was used in homosexual circles of Istanbul.
The motifs of the wallpaper represented those political and social acts that were
quintessential for the majority society of the 1980s in Istanbul. Characteristics of this society
were heterosexuality, family and tradition centered on the patriarch. Ironically, the
floral wallpaper experienced a new meaning in the context of the homo and transgender
world—gender specific and performative.
The artistic part of my thesis is the installation “Voguing,” which utilizes the wallpaper motif
of the 1980s living room from Istanbul. The wallpaper consists of two motifs, the
plant mimosa pudica, which reacts to physical contact, and Barthes’ book “Fragments of a Lover’s
Discourse”. Both motifs are woven together and form a new wallpaper.
The title of the artistic work “Voguing” refers to the dance form which developed in the
ball houses of New York in the homo and transgender scene in the 1980s. In this dance,
poses and moves were intentionally exaggerated.
The illustration of mimosa pudica in the installation should be understood as a metaphor
for this exaggeration.

(photos are taken by can sungu& annika rixen)

thanks to gülay, adnan, keanan, can

Participants: Fatih Özgüven, Erden Kosova, Özlem Güçlü
Moderator: Aykan Safoğlu

Fatih Özgüven, Writer

Fatih Özgüven will talk about Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu’s “Kiralık Konak” (“A Mension For Rent”), which is a fiction piece that investigates the clash between generational values and norms during the fall of Ottoman Empire. During his presentation, Özgüven will discuss an unspeakable expression of homosexual sensitivity through the decadence and sensitive aspects of its characters.

Erden Kosova, Writer

Sexuality and gender issues have been operating as one of the main bodies of social critique in the field of contemporary arts. Parallel to the rising visibility of anti-normative sexualities, and in relation to the term, ‘artistic persona’, they became primary references of differentiation and pluralism. From the psychology to the politics, the discussion has many diverse layers. The presentation will also include some visual material.

Özlem Güçlü, Scholar SOAS London

LGBTT Representations in Contemporary Turkish Cinema: Implications, Opportunities, Boundaries

It would not be that extreme to read the post 80′s era of Turkish cinema as a compensation effort for the male characters having lost their competence. In contemporary Turkish cinema where the comedy of the film is ”handled” by effemination of the male character, the neighbour is called ”faggot” just to emphasise the masculinity of the leading actor, the fear for exceeding the purpose limits of homosociology kills the ”abnormal” at the end of a film, what are the samples coming out freshly in LGBTT representation?
What does the Turkish cinema offer considering its attempts for limiting the potential implications and opportunities just to go through its masculinity crisis while it also has ”a tough side” on the ”happy family” as the houses are packed with crime, lies and violence?This presentation aims at discussing implications, opportunites and boundaries of LGBTT in contemporary Turkish cinema through these questions.

* from the poem “Merhaba Canım” of Arkadaş Zekai Özger