Cura Bodrum Residency

cura çorbası/ tunç ali çam'dan

2011-10-26T11:26:00.000+03:00

cura çorbası

1 kırmızı lahana,
2-3 domates,
2-3 patates,
2-3 kabak,
bir parça taze zencefil ( dozuna dikkat, yakıcı ;)
doğranır,
yumuşayana kadar kaynatılır,
blenderdan geçirilir,
1 kaşık un bir kasede azar azar çorba eklenerek çırpılır,
çorbaya eklenip çırparak bir süre kaynatılır,
zeytinyağı, tuz, biber, kuru kereviz yaprağı...
afiyet olsun :)

KUZEY DEFTERLERİ

2011-10-22T22:24:00.000+03:00

"...şimdi bile bu notların üzerinden son bir kez geçerken gerçekten herşey tıpatıp böyle miydi diye sorarken yakalıyorum kendimi, bu bir tarih çalışması değil, mikro-tarih bile değil. açıklanması zor bir önseziyle yakalanmaya çalışılmış bir kişisel tarih parçası belki. çünkü bütün bu notlardan kısa bir süre sonra bütün bu tarih kaybedildi..."

Lale Müldür 1992

GÜNEBAKANLARI KORUMAKLA UĞRAŞIYORUM

2011-10-22T21:57:00.000+03:00

Bu söyleşi için telefon ettiğinizden beş-on dakka sonra, epiy 'sportif' bir olay geçti başımdan. Bizim Dragos'taki evin yanında boş bir arsa var, önü resmen çöplük, kibarlara yani. Çoğu ecnebi olmakla üzere konserve kutuları, Amerikan çaputları falan-filan... aşağı mahallelerden gelen çolun-çocuğun talanından arta kalsa da hayli bir yekun. Çöplük resmetmeyi aklına takmış ressamlara salık veririm, renkli mi renki, civciv mi civciv bir konu... Arsanın başka bir yararı daha var, gerileri bekçilerin ineklerine otlak. Baharın ne güzeldi inekler, yemyeşil otların arasında hışır hışır. Şimdilerde başları darda, sararmış dikenler içinde. Aksilik bu ya, ben de duvarın dibine günebakanlar diktiydim şirinlik olsun diye. Güneşiliğini severim onların. Mallar, haklılar gerçi, musallat oldular benim sarı sıcaklarıma. Sığırtmaç da, domuzluğundan herhal, hayvanları kaçırmışlığa yatıyor. Olan bizim günebakanlara oluyor.Dedim a, tam telefon ettikten sonra siz, bi baktık, bir dana güneşten yediği yetmemiş gibi , bahçeye dalmış, ordan burdan hırsızlayıp diktiğim çiçeklere abanmış. Çıkarabilirsen çıkar. Hötzöt, taş, sopa, attık fıkarayı dışarı. Açtım sonra telefonu Kooperatifin bekçilerine, "Önümüzde çiğnedi bir otomobil bir danayı, gelin alın" diye. Can havliyle toplaştı bekçi arkadaşlar ya, yaralı dana yok ortada. arasın dursunlar gayrı... Bu uzun öyküden çıkardığım kıssa mı ne? Şairliğinizi nasıl sürdürüyorsunuz?" diye soruyorsunuz ya, ona yanıt bu! Bu ara ben, kardeşler, davarlara karşı günebakanları korumakla uğraşıyorum...

Yeterince ciddi olmadı mı bu yanıt dersiniz? Varsın, olmasın!... Ben şiiri ciddiye almıyorum ki zaten, yeter ki şiir beni ciddiye alsın! Davetsiz misafirdir, pat diye gelir o, ya bir afrika menekşesini, ya ölen delikanlıyı bahane eder, oturur karşıma, kaldırabilirsen kaldır artık. Baudelaire öyle demiş ya: "Esin dediğin gelmesine nasıl olsa gelir, güçlük onu sepetlemektedir..."

Bekleyen belasını da, mevlasını da bulur, demişler. Şiir ki hem beladır, hem mevla, o halde beklemeyi bileceksiniz! Yalnız, beklediğinizi çaktırmadan. Sözgelimi; Taksim Meydanı'nın (eskiden ama) ordaki saatin altında sevgilinizi bekler gibi, ortada dolana dolana, ıslık çala çal... hava alıyormuşsunuz sanki... Saatler saati beklersiniz, gelmez kafir... Ne yapalım, bu sefer olmadı, bidaha sefere...

CAN YÜCEL 1991

SAKIZLI LORLU KURABIYE

2011-10-20T12:13:00.003+03:00

Tijen İnaltong ve halamın tarifinden...

1/4 su bardağı zeytinyağı
250 gr tatlı lor peyniri
1 su bardağı toz şeker
2 yumurta
1 çay kaşığı karbonat
2 su bardağı un
2 parça damla sakızı
2 çorba kaşığı susam

zeytinyağı, lor, şeker ve yumurtaları (birinin akını ayırıp) karıştırın. karbonat ve un ekleyip yoğurun. hamur yapışmaz hale gelene kadar un ekleyin. sakızı dövüp ekleyin. şekil verdiğiniz kurabiyeleri yumurta akına bandırıp susama değdirin. 180 derece fırında 30 35 dakika kadar pişirn.

cura bodrum residency 2011

2011-10-08T16:59:00.007+03:00

Providing sanctuary to writers

2010-10-20T01:00:00.002+03:00

freeDimensional (fD) supports culture in the service of free expression, justice and equality. To this end we nominate culture workers-in-distress to artist residencies that have vacant space for accommodation. fD recently nominated two poets to stay at cura bodrum. Here is what one of them says about the experience so far:

"Bodrum is just wonderful. very beautiful and peaceful environment, full of inspirations...

it will surely affect the play we are working. I haven't been this productive for [the] last two or three years."

2010-07-14T23:48:00.000+03:00

Cura Bodrum 2010 - Video from Steven Paige on Vimeo.

how far is the coast? how deep is the Aegean?

2010-07-05T11:19:00.008+03:00

Burcu Yağız Yançatarol and İz Oztat

Goings On in Beirut

2010-06-30T13:46:00.002+03:00

Goings On is a temporary platform that encourages creative exchange between independent practitioners. The aim is to facilitate communication about site specific and locally generated knowledge in a friendly and conducive environment. Goings On brings together practitioners for critical debate and exchange, providing opportunities for participants to reflect on their own practice while staying informed by a wider context. Goings On consists of project presentations, moderated discussions and collaborative group work as well as sharing meals and hanging out together.

Participants: Pikene på Broen (Norway), Kultivator (Sweden), rum46 (Denmark), El Hervidero (Spain), All Art Now, (Syria), Samandal (Lebanon), Makan House (Jordan), Medrar (Egypt), Cura (Turkey) and more.

"Space makers Beirut"
Public presentations by invited guests from Beirut, Friday June 25 at 6pm. Ceasar Namour (Recto Verso gallery) Christine Tohme (Ashkal Alwan) and Jadmur collective

"Space as Support"
Public presentations by invited guests, Sunday June 27 at 3pm. Pikene på Broen (Norway), Kultivator (Sweden), rum46 (Denmark), El Hervidero (Spain), All Art Now, (Syria), Samandal (Lebanon), Interruptions (Jordan), Medrar (Egypt), Cura Bodrum residency (Turkey) Music performance and drinks. All welcome!

98weeks Project Space is located at Naher street (Jisr el hadid), Chalhoub building, n 22 - ground floor, facing Spoiler Center, dead end street at the corner of Anthurium flower, left side, corner bldg.
You can check out at http://98weeks.blogspot.com/

all work no play

2010-06-29T21:44:00.006+03:00

all work no play from Iz Oztat on Vimeo.

http://www.vimeo.com/12934370

cura bodrum 2010 Exhibition and Screening at Daphnis Hotel

2010-06-26T10:27:00.008+03:00

Please visit cura bodrum residency website for details
www.curabodrumresidency.net

2010-06-18T13:26:00.001+03:00

2010-06-18T12:27:00.001+03:00

Katy Moore & Burcak Bingol with their 'gleaned' food

2010-06-18T12:22:00.001+03:00

some grapes to be gleaned

2010-06-18T12:18:00.000+03:00

Burcak Bingol is 'gleaning'

2010-06-17T14:25:00.001+03:00

Burak Arikan presents Network Mapping & Analysis

2010-06-17T14:23:00.001+03:00

Katy Moore is taking notes from the presentation of Burak Arikan

Network Mapping by Burak Arikan

2010-06-17T02:25:00.008+03:00

Here are some pictures from the network mapping introduction by burak and everyone making their own maps

2010-06-16T16:48:00.000+03:00

2010-06-16T16:44:00.001+03:00

tactical media

Michel Foucault. Discipline & Punish (1975), Panopticism

2010-06-16T15:41:00.000+03:00

http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html

Some other performance events:

2010-06-16T12:52:00.004+03:00

>> Alfredo Jaar - The Cloud
>> AES+F Project - Islamic Project
>> Haider Hamza - Talk to an Iraqi
>> Keith and Mendi Obedike - Blackness for Sale
>> Tanya Ostojic - Crossing Over
>> CAE - International Campaign for free Alcohol and Tobacco for the Unemployed
>> 16 Beaver Group - No Santa For Hazelton, PA
>> Center for Tactical Magic - Free Occult Services
>> Millie Chen, Andrew Johnson, Paul Vanouse - PED
>> MicroRevolt - Nike blanket
>> Tom Marioni - The act of drinking beer with friends is the highest form of art
>> Chris Barr - Bureau of Workplace Interruptions
>> The Institute for Infinitely Small Things - 57 Things to do for free in Harvard Square

Tactical Media Lecture names/links (revision1)

2010-06-15T19:14:00.000+03:00

Links from Tactical Media: Mass Media and Technology lecture
Mass Media Examples:
Critical Art Ensemble -
RTMark -
YesMen -
Reverend Billy -
Technologically – based Tactical Artists
Shoebox Projector
Josh On- They Rule -
Graffiti Research Lab Laser Tag/Throwies-
Institute for Applied Autonomy – Little Brother/ISee -
Resources:
I will revise this soon.

Cura Bodrum, Day 4

2010-06-15T19:06:00.001+03:00

Day 4
The opening reading was a selection from brazilian playwright and theorist Agusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, dealim mainly with the notions of “Invisible Theatre”, or specxtacle that remains invisible or until the moment of its fulfillment. The concepts were illustrated by numerous examples, but especially schumann's Bread and Puppet Theatre and Chicago's Puppetbike. Coule we wind up parading through the streets???
The first sesion was Patrick's talk about examples of tactical media, including, RTMark, IAA, Critical Art Ensemble, and the Graffiti Research League. The overall idea was to consider mass media engagement in tactical media and technological solutions and potential resources. A lot of the conversation turned to the notion of Second Life as a space of engagement, and the result was that we determined that it defined an interesting context for potential engagement with larger social spaces.
Burak Arikan gave a lecture on network analysis, which is described in his syllabus earlier in the blog.
For the afternoon, Burak led a workshop in network mapping, where Iz Oztat and all the other participants described their philosophical, methodological, and social networks well into the early evening.

Cura Bodrum Day III

2010-06-15T17:45:00.001+03:00

Day III
Today, due to the toll exacted by the experiment in psychogeographic research, we started at 6 PM, discussing the role of collaboration, cooperation, participation, tacit agreement and complicity in collective artworks. This came from multiple conversations dealing with individuals' interests and concerns regarding working with one another, and the conversation spanned nearly an hour and a hel;f.
Next, the workshop participated in a hybrid exercisethat lies betweent he “elevator pitch” (the 30 second description of a project) and “speed daing” Here, the artiss grouped up in twos, and did the following:
1:Take a minute to describe their project,
2:Get Feedback for a minute
3: The other participant piteches their project
4: Feedback is received for it.
5: Switch Partners.
Although the workshop should have gone for 17 iterations of the process, by 10, people were so engaged in talking, Patrick and Ajalea just let the conversation go, and we had dinner.
After dinner, we watched “What would Jesus Buy”, the documentary about Reverend Billy Talen and the Church of Stop Shopping's campaign against the “Shopocalypse”...

Tactical Media Presentation By Patrick Litchy

2010-06-15T17:29:00.002+03:00

Article on Systems Aesthetics by Jack Burnham

2010-06-15T10:20:00.003+03:00

This article came up in conversation with Burak...
http://www.arts.ucsb.edu/faculty/jevbratt/readings/burnham_se.html

Introductions Day II

2010-06-15T09:23:00.005+03:00

Irem from Sinek 8 Publication House visited us!

2010-06-14T23:02:00.005+03:00

Irem is one of the founders of Sinek 8 Publication House, which will be printing books about permaculture, self-organized communities and sustainibility. Irem also makes hand-made books and notebooks. She is also interested in collaborating with artists to make limited addition books.

They live in Gumusluk, Bodrum and distribute their work very effectively through the internet.

To take a look at their work and life, you can visit them at:

http://sineksekiz.wordpress.com/

And here are some links she sent relating to hand-made artist books:
http://www.codexfoundation.org/
http://nieves.ch/

CuraBodrum Day II

2010-06-14T17:34:00.005+03:00

Cura Bodrum Day II
The residency continues, and today began with a discussion of David Morely's notions of home, “Heim”, “Heimat” and the constructions of belonging in regards to identity and space. What creates a sense of home – is it place, people, attachment to objects? What also creates “other-” or “alien-ness”? Burcak Bingol mentioned that otherness is a counterpoint to the self; a reflection of subjectivity.

Following, Iz Oztat led a discussion of issues and expectations that the participants of the residency have, which was captured on paper and then mindmapped by Rebecca Weeks. The map seemed to have concrete issues in contrast (epistemologies) with qualitative ones like altruism, empathy, love and beauty (ontologies). This map was displayed for the remainder of the day.

Participants also contributed to a T-shirt design for the residency, twhich we'll produce in the next couple days.

Lastly, participants had an assignment to go to one of several spots on the Bodrum Peninsula and perform psychogeographic research to determine the terrain of social issues in the area. Guy Debord defined the term psychogeography as the set of practices that show the relations of people to the urban landscape. In this case, each participant was allowed to pick a place on the peninsula and given five hours to find their way back to Bodrum Central district. This employed the Debord's tactic of the derive, or use of wandering to interrogate the landscape. The result included participants infiltrating buildings, playing local pastimes with the population, haircuts, hitchhiking, museums, bars and much more.

We hope that the residents will add comments about their psychogrographic experiments in whatever language they wish here...

2010-06-14T13:59:00.007+03:00

Presentations

Day 2

2010-06-12T19:08:00.000+03:00

CuraBodrum Residency
Day II
For day I of the residency, we started by showing Agnes Varda's “The Gleaners and I “ which introduced valuable issues of ownership, the right to essential resources like food and water, especially when gleaning, even modern practices like dumpster diving, shows how much waste actually occurs, and how this excess has in the past, and can benefit so many.
For the second day of the Curabodrum workshop, we began with a brief introduction to readings on tactical media, including those by Rita Raley. Being that we are in one of the most beautiful places in the world, sometimes I wonder how much of the 2-3 readings per day we'll do. (smiles).
We'll get through it.

We have an amazing number of people (15+) from incredibly diverse backgrounds, and during the first day, we all shared our work, which is about 5-6 hours worth. Absolutely mind-bending, from archive visualization, to cultural interventionism, to institutional satire, social interventionism, and mass media satire. Arzu, Burak, and I are truly lucky to have thrown a party where: 1- people wanted to come, and 2 – such amazing people decided to come.
In addition, today is Global Protest BP day, and we're considering if and what sort of intervention we might like to do as a group to join in. Yesterday, Arzu and I were musing that in such an idyllic place, who could be angry? But this is not the only place on earth. Let's see what we come up with.
Tomorrow, we employ Debord's tools of psychogeography, mainly the derive, to explore the landscape of Bodrum in order to determine the social issues we might like to address. Stay tuned.

2010-06-12T14:43:00.000+03:00

2 ada / 2 islands

2010-06-12T14:38:00.002+03:00

beer and sea get people together

2010-06-12T14:31:00.000+03:00

basliiyoooorrrrrr / it staaaarrtts!!

Screening I

2010-06-12T14:11:00.004+03:00

Last night we watched "The Gleaners and I" by Agnes Varda and discussed issues like politics of sampling, private property, control, open source communities, collaboration, the notion of public space (kamusal alan) in Turkey, etc...

Cura Bodrum Day I

2010-06-12T10:48:00.001+03:00

During the day

2010-06-11T17:57:00.002+03:00

Fortress Europe Map, 2009

2010-06-06T21:42:00.007+03:00

Frontex Europe is the European Union agency for external border security. It is responsible for co-ordinating the activities of the national border guards in ensuring the security of the EU's borders with non-member states. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontex

NO TO PAGANI AND NO TO ANY PRISON

2009-11-02T16:10:00.001+02:00

http://blogs.vrahokipos.net/mpineio/2009/11/02/declaration-of-the-occupied-paparisva-building/

Organizing Against Stockholm Program

2009-11-02T16:07:00.001+02:00

http://euro-police.noblogs.org/
http://stockholm.noblogs.org/
http://www.noborder.org/item.php?id=459

Report: boom in "illegal" migrants to Greece

2009-10-16T15:20:00.003+03:00

Report: boom in "illegal" migrants to Greece

Also see: Frontex seeks Turkish Cooperation

Turkish coast guard caught escorting smugglers into Greece

2009-09-24T10:49:00.003+03:00

http://sofiaecho.com/2009/09/21/787733_turkish-coast-guard-caught-escorting-smugglers-into-greece-report

Frontex 'involved' in return of migrants

2009-09-24T10:46:00.002+03:00

http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2009/09/frontex-involved-in-return-of-migrants/65927.aspx

http://www.frontex.europa.eu/newsroom/news_releases/art70.html

European immigration policies: Human rights abuses denounced

2009-09-24T10:45:00.001+03:00

http://en.afrik.com/article16194.html

News from Calais

2009-09-23T14:55:00.004+03:00

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4712976,00.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hundreds-of-police-clear-calais-migrant-camp-1791269.html

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4712976,00.html

Refugees kept in a refugee camp of the Aliens Department in the Istanbul district of Fatih/Kumkapı revolted to draw attention to their poor living con

2009-09-23T14:39:00.001+03:00

http://bianet.org/english/minorities/117175-refugees-protest-no-food-for-us

Italy’s Forced Return of Boat Migrants and Asylum Seekers, Libya’s Mistreatment of Migrants and Asylum Seekers

2009-09-23T14:29:00.002+03:00

http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/09/21/pushed-back-pushed-around

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/09/17/italylibya-migrants-describe-forced-returns-abuse

statewatch/ monitoring the state and civil liberties in Europe

2009-09-23T14:27:00.000+03:00

http://www.statewatch.org/

Joint EU Resettlement Programme

2009-09-23T14:26:00.000+03:00

http://www.consilium.europa.eu//uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/jha/110272.pdf

Bu davada 60 olu var, tutuklu yok

2009-09-23T14:17:00.000+03:00

http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalDetay&ArticleID=955205&Date=20.09.2009&CategoryID=77

Turn off the Stockholm Program

2009-09-19T12:08:00.000+03:00

http://stockholm.noblogs.org/

Projects and Networks Working on Migration from the Art World

2009-09-19T11:06:00.003+03:00

http://www.geobodies.org/

http://www.kilpper-projects.net/blog/?p=195

http://dev.xeno.no/

http://subtopia.blogspot.com/2008/01/floating-prisons-and-other-miniature.html

Communiqué from Mytilini/Lesvos, August 2009

2009-09-19T11:05:00.000+03:00

“From Lesvos to an unknown land”: this was the response given by Mr X. at the NoBorder Camp in Mytilini, when asked where he planned to go after his arrival in Athens. Mr X. was acting as a spokesperson for a Somalian group, who, along with migrants from Afghanistan and Eritrea, were released from the “Pagani Welcome Centre” shortly before the official start of the NoBorder Camp. Pagani, the “reception centre” of Lesvos; the detention centre with a capacity of 250 people was filled with around 1,000 occupants – men, women and children – in August, when the Camp took place. Needless to say, Pagani was totally over-booked. A video made with a camera smuggled into the centre by one of the transit migrants clearly documents the unbearable conditions in which they were being detained.

In Mytilini a farewell party was thrown for migrants released from the centre. NoBorder activists, other transit migrants and locals from Mytilini accompanied those leaving on their way to the ferry for Athens. A moment in which hope and uncertainty, confidence and lack of prospects, comfort and anxiety was compressed and condensed. A moment in which the strategy of European border politics to render transit migrants invisible was broken through by the migrants themselves, with solidarity from activists.

Along with the border control agency Frontex, Pagani attracted much anger and frustration. Around 500 migrants were released from the centre with papers following considerable pressure from NoBorder activists. These papers, however, only grant recipients 30 days habitation in Greece. In this time migrants are expected to organize their return to their native country. It goes without saying that many use this time to recover, to contact relatives and friends, maybe to earn some money, and to further plot out the route to their goal destinations in Europe or elsewhere. This time is used to figure out what opportunities can be found in the coming journey – or to figure out if it is better to stay put. It is used to realize the potentiality of “life plans”. Each step is a step into an “unknown land”.

Tarifa, a small town previously known only to fans of kite surfing and tuna fishing. Ceuta and Melilla, footnotes to the Spanish history of colonisation. The Canaries, Europe’s biggest tanning salon. Lampedusa: an unknown. Lesvos, a small tourist island, an exemplary observation point for the playing out of European population policies; one of the many archipelagos of migration and the hope for a better life.
“The right to hope. To many, the borders seem like the gateways to paradise. Before the borders, lies a flaming moat, which needs to be conquered; Europe is the castle surrounded by the castle moat. The first contact with those that have managed to get there always reveals the same story: they tell us that this is paradise. We all want to see this paradise. We insist on our right to be allowed to see this, on our right to have a chance” (Tarek, transit migrant).

Today each of these places produces breaking news in the European media. The hotspots for the detention of Europe’s arriving migrants. Places where the bodies of those who have died crossing the seas wash up on the shore. Places of detention and places of transit. Small towns with 10 – 20,000 residents, towns that are militarized by camps and border police. Small towns onto which the social problems and implications of European migration politics get pushed. The externalisation of the camp, of deportation, finds its continuation here. On the negotiation tables of Europe’s metropolitan cities agreements such as the Dublin II are consolidated, which legalise these barbarities. The abjection of Pagani is the displacement of these politics onto the edges of Europe.

Shut down Pagani. No ifs, no buts. Disarm the ships and helicopters of Frontex. No ifs, no buts. Issue the release papers; release the children, the women and the men. No ifs, no buts.

“Our whole continent is searching for hope. The hope to escape from misery through migration, this hope is the air that we breathe, a music that is always there, a whole culture. The idea of migration was born in us while we were still young. All over the world children dream. When you ask a child here ‘what would you like to be when you grow up – doctor, professor or pilot’, then the child answers: ‘I will become a migrant’. Someone who has left the country is worth more than everyone else” (Tarek, transit migrant).

We belong to the first generation to witness the disappearence of boomgates in the European Union. The first generation for whom it has become everyday – everything but normal or self evident – to grow up in multinational, postcolonial, ghettoised, multilinguistic milieus. We have seen that the desire for free movement can tear down iron curtains. We have grown up with globalisation, with the internet and computers, with mobile phones, with interrail, with journeys home over the Autoput and human compassion that spans across borders. We have come of age with the wars in the Balkans, with the wars in Somalia, Rwanda and in the Sudan, in Afgahnistan and in Iraq. We have also grown up with those wars that we repress in our everyday lives. We have come up against new borders that run through our cities and countries. The presence of terror as justification for control, for the retraction of civil rights, for detention, internment and intervention is the mantra of our times. Our life is the change and the transformation: the death of the old social order, the uprising of Precarity, and the enormous question mark hanging over the future.

“We are all victim to the lies and promises of television. We believe in these success stories. When thousands of people fail to migrate successfully, but one person does – we don’t look at the stories of the thousands, we look at the story of one. The question is never raised of what s/he does over there, if s/he collects garbage or sells drugs. You only see what s/he has, when s/he returns: a car, branded clothing, a real life. The people smugglers profit from this, they promise you what you want to hear. We call them the sellers of dreams” (Tarek, transit migrant).

Many of us see the desiring gazes focused on the red passports of the European Union. We are aware of Schengen’s blessing of us and its curse on others. Do you believe that we are not enraged by these conditions, that we position ourselves as the profiteers of this system? Do you think that we don’t see how these insidious border regimes make the travels of transit migrants more and more dangerous with every passing day? Does anyone really believe that the coming citizens of Europe, in the most truthful sense of the word, do not use their hands to work, do not use their understanding to think, do not use their masses to assemble, just because migration is made illegal? Everybody knows that this work, this exploitation and this mobility, is the basis that allows the European constitution to function.

“The cat hunts the mouse and the mouse is always faster. And so are we, always. Migration existed since ever, since the beginning of human existence and why should that end now? In Africa nothing is changing actually. So our families sent us on the journey, which changed us so much that we are not able to go back. I came here by accident. And it is the best journey ever. The track has been the best experience of my life” (Jean-Marie, transit migrant).

What we want is simple. We want the right to travel in safety. The legal codification of these pathways. The normal state of arrival and travel instead of a constant state of exception. So that everyone can arrive, unpack their suitcase in peace and become a citizen of Europe, if they so desire.

Citizens of Europa 2009:
Frank John (Communist book-keeper and freelancer, Hamburg), Efthimia Panagiotidis (Sociologist, lecturer “Lehrkraft für besondere Aufgaben”, Uni- Hamburg, transit e.V.), Arndt Neumann (Historian, Hamburg), Irene Hatzidimou (Organiser ver.di, Hamburg/Hannover), Gerda Heck (Research centre for intercultural studies, Uni Köln), Lena Oswald (Political scientist, Hamburg), Meike Bergmann (Manager dock europe GmbH), Vassilis Tsianos (Sociologist, Associate Professor Uni Hamburg), Miriam Edding (Member of the Board of ‘Foundation DO’, Hamburg), Jan-Ole Arps (Political scientist, Berlin), Ole Bonnemeier (Doctor, Hamburg), Andreas Georgiadis (independent Master mechanic), Christoph Breitsprecher (Linguist, lecturer/research assistant, Uni Hamburg), Anja Kanngieser (Cultural Geographer/research assistant, Melbourne/Hamburg), Aida Ibrahim (Student, Uni Hamburg), Marion von Osten (Cultural producer, Professor Vienna, transit e.V. Berlin), Peter Spillmann (Cultural producer, Labor K3000/Zürich, transit e.V.), Marianne Pieper (Sociologist, Professor Hamburg), Angela Melitopoulos (Filmmaker, transit e.V.), Athansios Marvakis (Associate Professor Aristotele University Thessaloniki), Petra Barz (Manager dock europe GmbH), Daniela Lausberg (Pädagogin, Forschungsstelle für interkulturelle Studien, Uni Köln), Michael Koenen(Student, Uni Köln), Mark Terkessidis (Journalist, Berlin), Karin Cudak (Studentin, Uni Köln), Erika Schulze (Sozialwissenschaftlerin, Forschungsstelle für interkulturelle Studien, Uni Köln), Susanne Spindler (Sozialwissenschaftlerin, Professorin, Darmstadt), Ugur Tekin (Sozialwissenschaftler, Forschungsstelle für interkulturelle Studien, Uni Köln), Indra Röglin (Studentin, Uni Köln), Andreas Hollender (Graphiker, Köln), Christiane Hess (Historikerin, Hamburg/Bielefeld), Despina Altinoglou (Lehrerin, Hamburg), Eleni Altinoglou (Mytilini), Peter Holzwarth, Angelika Hipp (EU - project management; Neue Arbeit Zollern-Achalm e.V.), Valery Alzaga (unionist den haag/berlin), Nadine Gevret (historian, hamburg), Angela rein (educationist, Tübingen)
...who wants to sign, write to redaktion@offlimits.de

Resistanbul

2009-09-11T07:19:00.000+03:00

http://resistanbul.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/we-are-looking-forward-to-seeing-you-at-the-bonfire-of-resistance/

latest news from calais

2009-09-10T09:35:00.000+03:00

http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/

Aegean coast mobilizing against Frontex

2009-09-10T09:26:00.002+03:00

http://no-racism.net/article/2655/

http://www.migrantsingreece.org/news.asp?chkEN=on&categ=&sbmt=%C1%ED%E1%ED%DD%F9%F3%E7
http://www.kayiki.net/file/kayiki.html
http://www.stgm.org.tr/docs/1226055515Multeci-Der_Stajyer2.pdf
http://birdsofimmigrants.jogspace.net/

cura bodrum 2009 hakkinda Lara Fresko'nun Iz Oztat ile yaptigi roportaj Boltart'ta

2009-09-07T13:02:00.002+03:00

http://www.boltart.net/cura-bodrum-deneyimin-kutsal-cesmesiyle-fildisi-kule-arasinda/

Sea as Territory/ Floating Prisons and Detention Centers

2009-08-28T07:52:00.000+03:00

http://pipeline.gasworks.org.uk/2009/07/02/floating-prisons-and-other-miniature-prefabricated-islands-of-carceral-territoriality/

Frontex in the Meditteranean

2009-08-26T18:28:00.001+03:00

http://lesvos09.antira.info/2009/08/frontex-in-the-mediterranean/#more-452

Midilli'de No Borders Kampi/ No Borders Camp in Lesvos

2009-07-29T13:51:00.005+03:00

http://lesvos09.antira.info/

Turkiye kiyilarindan Ege Denizindeki Yunan Adalarina ve Yunanistan'a gecmeye calisan multecilere karsi sertlesen, insan haklarina karsi kosullarin tartisilacagi ve adadaki gozalti merkezinde eylemlerin duzenlenecegi bir kamp (25 - 31 Agustos)

* multecilik durumu yaratan yeni emperyalizm politikalarina karsi
* sinir idaresi ve baski+kontrol pratiklerine karsi
* gocun suclastirilmasina karsi
* gozalti merkezleri ve gocmen/ multecilerin insan haklarinin ihlaline karsi
* gocmen emeginin somurulmesine karsi

Kahire Misafir Programlari Sempozyumu Uzerine Dusunceler/ Afterthoughts on the Cairo Residency Symposium

2009-05-12T19:19:00.004+03:00

http://www.boltart.net/uluslararasi-subeler-yerel-inisiyatifler-ya-da-henuz-hayal-edemedigimiz-alternatifler/

International Branches, Local Initiatives, Or A Structure We Cannot Imagine Yet

Cairo Residency Symposium was organized by Townhouse Gallery and Fonds BKVB at the end of March 2009 and supported by the main funding institutions in Europe. Its stated aim was “to discuss in depth the significance and possibilities of cultural exchange in residency centers between artists from Europe, the Middle East and Africa”. It unraveled in the form of keynote speeches, case studies and group discussions. The structure allowed for voices of funders, institutions and to some extent artists to be heard, regarding the existence of international residency network. The location of the meeting allowed for more horizontal dialogues to emerge and alternative views to be heard, which could have remained unarticulated in another climate.

Our host, William Wells welcomed his guests proudly to Townhouse Gallery, which proves to be a very successful institution with a strong impact on the development of contemporary art practice in Egypt and on choosing “the work to be picked up and shown in the international arena”. They also run multiple outreach programs tailored to local needs.

Lexter ter Braak from Fonds BKVB provided the first insights into the mind of “the funder”. He informed us about artists not wanting to go to “the best in the West anymore” but instead preferring “residencies in non-Western countries to discover and explore other cultures”. He structured his speech around the metaphor of mirror neurons, proven to exist in human beings by a neurologist recently. He explained that “they reflect the activities of others in the brain”, thus “we love to imitate and synchronize”. He linked this phenomenon to artist residencies, suggesting their existence allows for “seeing, feeling and understanding”. With this scientific explanation, he legitimized the existence of the whole artist residency system.

Bassam el Baroni, a writer, curator and co-founder of ACAF (Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum) was the chosen voice of “the host”, moderating the flow of the symposium in the next two days. He made it clear from the outset that the interest in the region was a post 9/11 condition, which is not only reflected by increased funding for residency programs in the region but also by major regional shows curated in the West. He walked on a cotton thread keeping his critique insistent, while making his anxiety over his role felt. He set the tone of criticism by suggesting that the residency network and our desire to construct, maintain, support and participate in it is an impulse to carry on the failed cosmopolitan project. He also referred to Boris Buden’s text “Criticism without Crisis: Crisis without Criticism” , not only to suggest the crisis inherent in this system but also to point out the necessity to reflect on the conditions of production in the art world.

Chris Keulemans, a writer and a “host to be”, gave a beautiful speech about the complexities of hospitality. He suggested, “True hospitality will be given without expectation of return”. He evoked the colonial past so gracefully, “Europeans came as uninvited guests, not only overstayed but occupied the whole house, mistreated its inhabitants and got rich out of it all”. He asked if hospitality as a traditional value would disappear. Although traces of it were felt in the next few days, it seems like institutions need a more solid language to explain their efforts in words such as expectations, evaluations and benefits.

“Voice of the artist” was a rarity in the symposium represented by Mahoud Khaled, who delivered one of the case studies “Mobility and Stability: The Dynamics of Losing and Finding Locations in an Artist’s Career”. He referred to the residency system as “part of the necessary lifestyle of a contemporary artist”. He talked about his four residency experiences and reflected on how they met his specific needs at certain times in his career. “Good living and working conditions” was mentioned multiple times, making us realize these are unusual qualities, especially in the South. He referred to the state of being a guest but his was a notion very much defined by institutional expectations and the professional needs of the artist.

Alessio Antoniolli of Gasworks and Triangle Arts Trust talked about the “Post-Residency Period”, which was unlucky. They fund so many of the artist-run initiatives in the region for emerging artists that he could have offered a lot more in sharing his experience in that direction than restating some experiences with resident artists. He referred to the residency system as “rare, expansive and a lot of work” but emphasized its crucial role in helping artists evolve. This was taken up in the Q&A session by artist Lara Baladi, who criticized this language as “infantilizing”.

Case studies presented by four different institutions proved that it is impossible to speak about a single model and that the structure of the institutions should be articulated based on local context. In her presentation “Residencies Around Urban Matters”, Marilyn Bell from Doul’Art in Cameroon explained their strategy of working, in which an artist is invited for a short stay of approximately one week and is invited back again whenever they come up with a project proposal to be realized. Goddy Leye, who is an artist also working in Douala, started the initiative “Art Bakery” not to get depressed and out of his own needs. He saw the lack of education and infrastructure, which led him to develop the portfolio program geared towards producing and presenting artwork. Meskerem Assegued presented her utopian vision for Zoma Contemporary Art Center in the ancient village of Harla, Ethiopia. Resident architects and builders, who will use local construction methods, will construct the center. They are working in close contact with villagers and tailoring the program to their needs.

The only case study outside the African continent was “Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center” from Istanbul, Turkey. The center was started by Vasif Kortun soon after 9/11, when people were already looking at the city. He defined Istanbul as “ a flux city, which does not remember having been the capital of an Empire but feels it”. The center was even more specifically contextualized on Istiklal Street, which has been historically politicized and still is the site of most public demonstrations. From the start, he aimed at creating an “A League” institution and worked towards this vision as his negotiating power with funders increased. He emphasized the necessity of choosing the resident artist from a shortlist that is prepared by the partner institution most likely in Europe. He insisted on a local decision-making mechanism that can create the alchemy between the right artists and the city. Developing regional residency programs for artists from the Balkans and the Middle East has been a priority for Platform and Kortun emphasized the role they played in strengthening the networks and developments in the region. Platform set a unique example in tailoring the institution to the local needs, while determining how the local art scene will become part of the international art world.

The next speaker was Mouktar Kocache from Ford Foundation with his speech “Evaluation as a Funder and Host”. He shared the experience of working hard to include artist groups and foundations supporting art, in a conference of community based foundations working on social justice. They were the least prepared and most demanding among the participants. He called for the necessity of developing the knowledge and tools in the sector that will allow them to “remain at the table”. Chus Martinez raised an important point in the Q&A session about the power of funding institutions in defining the content of production.

Two ideas were central to the discussions; mobility and migration. Todd Lester from freedimensional, which is an international network that advances social justice by hosting activists in art spaces, introduced a perspective that is neglected by most of the people working in the field. He insisted on elongating the mobility discourse to other vocations. Although artistic mobility is central to the residency system, the concept of mobility was not dissected to reveal its relationship to many other contemporary debates about power and post-fordist working conditions. Thus, it is necessary to approach artistic mobility with some caution, questioning its connections with an expanding market and other flows such as capital, oil, information, labor, refugees and tourists. Still, I would like to end with a positive evocation of mobility as “a freedom from constraint, from the methods of confinement and conformity that nation-states, academies and other orthodoxies practice.”

Migration seems to be the main current that makes the whole system move. Let’s recognize the contradiction from the outset: Why is there a language of diversity and tolerance in the cultural field, while the harsh political language of Europe’s closed-door policy emerges when we start speaking about borders and security issues? As Jakob Myschetzky from Inklusion stated, many Europeans are retiring and newcomers are needed as a workforce. It is necessary to include the new people by using creative means. And of course, newcomers are not only arriving because they are needed. There is an accelerating increase in migration to Europe motivated by economic, political and professional realities “at home”. Most of the funding from Europe for arts and culture is focused on finding ways to deal with, mediate the increasing diversity within Europe. One of the participants drew attention to the fact that many regional exhibitions shown in the West are closely linked to migration processes and issues of integration. And Bassam asked, “Are we peeping into the culture of the minority through the artist?”

From all the ideas that have been voiced, some tendencies and shifts became apparent: Instead of exporting giant institutions that are expensive to maintain, foundations are leaning towards supporting individual artists with their specific needs. Local initiatives are already articulating the necessary models that function well and influence the formation of the art scene in their contexts. Support for regional networks and exchange should increase for constructing a truly international art world. We shall see how the results of the meeting manifest themselves as cultural policy at a global level.

Iz Oztat

Dear cura,

2008-11-24T15:06:00.003+02:00

VIEW FROM MY WORKPLACE AT THE ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
IN BELGRADE/SERBIA NOVEMBER 2008

Yours,
Nina

Cura Bodrum, Beyond a residency of sorts by Javier Toscano

2008-11-04T08:54:00.000+02:00

The double sense of cura refers to care for something as concern, absorption in the world, but also care in the sense of devotion.
Martin Heidegger

All quiet on the art front. This could be the heading on any newspaper’s section on art & culture at a global scale. And it wouldn’t be that far from reality. Art in our days has lost much of its capacity to question and shock the cultural world mostly due the dullness, conformation, apathy and readiness to comply with the de facto powers (money rattles) from most of the agents involved in its actual operation. These days, the only news that hit the headlines strong is the latest sales record from Damien Hirst at Sotheby’s. (Hurrah, we’re thrilled…)
Along this gloomy series of events, we have been witnesses to a new behavior by many emerging artists, which has surged at an unbelievable rate. I’m speaking here of the artist-in-residence, the new cultural tourist which any of us might find some time or another attending some of the peculiarly exciting artistic in any of our cities. They tend to be friendly, very outgoing, frank and interesting. I myself have met a lot of really fascinating persons this way, and still am friends to some. But what this massive behavior is telling us is that there is not much of a specificity to a residence anymore, that any artistic institution that respects itself has built up a resident program in order to keep up with the trend, and that, as biennales some five years ago, residencies already lost much of their charm to an institutionalized way of making public relations and even a series of diplomatic moves.
Let’s think of it this way. If artists were really critical with their practices, if they would really hit the aching spot with their interventions, bureaucrats would not have them traveling around giving away their unsolicited opinions and developing their pieces, would they? So one of two things must have happened: either bureaucrats and politicians are doing their job unbelievably well, so that there is nothing else to comment on, or art practices have become trendy, fashionable, smooth and easy-going. From the current state of events in the world, I would say the second is true. So we have a first upshot: artists that are really critical, the ones that get involved in social or communitarian issues (if there are still some out there), tend to stay home, kind of grounded, while their confident and charming counterparts tour the world showing little tiny pieces of self-made aesthetic trifles.
Am I being too harsh? Probably, but let’s remember this is a generalization, and in that sense flawed, as any useful generalization, but that it tries to bring out the symptom so that anyone can analyze it according to his or her own needs and understanding.
Anyway, what strikes me beyond this analytical exercise, is that there are indeed, seldom but sometimes, groups of agents that really try to do things in a different way, people that seek to affect their surroundings, individuals that still believe in the creative power of art, in its facility to produce symbolic meaning, and risk it all in order to try to make a change. However enthusiastic, these persons are not heroes and never naïve, they are the utmost realists: they want to take a specific knowledge to its radical achievement: they ask for the impossible because they understand that it is the only manner in which art can justify itself. These are the persons that one seldom sees at residencies because they commit, and an institutional residency is basically a place where an artist stays for some time and then leaves. No commitment necessary.
Such engaged agents are never easy to find. But now, there was a very interesting experiment taking place in southern Turkey this year; an exercise so rich that it pays off to comment on it profusely. A couple of Turkish artists (Iz Oztat and Emincan Alemdaroglu) didn’t just go out to the community in the Bodrum peninsula and tried to start up a new cultural venture. They actually built up a sort of informal residency in which they invited colleagues from around the world in order to start thinking and acting collectively. They looked out for the funds themselves, and risked all their assets into this “creative think tank”, which I prefer to call in order to differentiate it from the colonized description of a simple, institutionalized residency. This creative think tank, a place for cure, be it individually or communally, was set up in the midst of a family house, and if someone is acquainted with Middle-eastern hospitality traits, that means really a lot, it involves the participation of a family circle that plays the role of a host, which opens itself to the guests, profusely and generously. So this creative think tank hosted within a family house behaved really in an odd but enriching way, it really aimed at the healing and restructuring of a decaying practice. Discussions took place, involvement with the community was looked after, creative research was fostered, works were shown and profoundly commented, and direct social action through the production of new art pieces was taken.
The usual questions made by an eyebrow-raiser would be: Did it worked? Was it worth it? Only, for a moment, instead of building up rhetorical answers, we should pause and ask for something else, something deeper and in a different direction, something that really stands in for the glimpse of hope that the experience produced. So, the really engaging questions should be: what does this kind of practice opens up for the art world as a whole? What does it tell about the possible practices of the years to come? What does it bring about by itself? How does it become sustainable? There is no easy and frank answer to this last question, for it is not quite easy to foresee a complex experience turned into a repeatable chore. But we can try to sketch a draft for the rest.
The scheme to bring in a group of people to think and act with a common objective and a creative stance may not by itself solve any of the problems on the community where they decide to set. The idea of producing socially engaging art practices alone may not be enough to produce a new, active subjectivity. The proposal to come closer to the people, to turn them into partners of deeds, may not end up in a more coherent set of cultural performances. And this is because there has never been in art (or for this sake, in any other human activity) a single solution to a series of deep problems. But what took place in Turkey was a huge, intense compilation of all of these. In different degrees, the creative think tank sorted out ways to imagine possibilities, to foster communication practices (and as activist Paulo Freire once suggested: a revolution in communication might be the only revolution needed), and then acted accordingly, all within a restrained budget but with a specific agenda in mind: the actual affectation of the community. The latest challenge might be now to keep it going, so it can display a glimpse of hope for the future. For this is what the creative think tank immediately produces: hopes and dreams that stem from the community itself, and shape it back showing it what it can achieve by itself, and even further with the support of these operators. In one word, socially engaged art practices inspire an understanding of one’s own surroundings and they reassure communities in their own way of world-making, as very few other activities can do. Inasmuch as art practices deal with the creation of symbols, people profit from experiencing their own hopes and dreams turned into symbolic value. But this does not imply any activism of any sort. It comes by through negotiations, through conflict and dialogue, through active engagement. And this is what the people in Turkey could bring in, at least for a start.
In an art world much in need for new political subjectivities and active forms of production of the self, we recquire to approach the lay people who haven’t abandoned their faith in cultural and artistic practices and learn with them how to reciprocaly free ourselves from frivolities, from fraudulent operations that impose class values or cynical attitudes, away from spectacularity and market-like modes of display, and get instead to exercise creativity through critical thinking.
Right now, in the midst of a generalized global economic collapse, we need to rebuild and regain the central function that art used to have within a given society, its spiritual strenght and devotion for the care of one’s own entourage. For it has been this resignification of everyday experiences, turned into gulps of fresh air, which tend to conform ideals and utopias that makes one want to live, to love, to be, and sometimes even to die for. If this energy is still to be found there, it is because it has always been part of a collectivity. How to approach it, nurture oneself from it, perform with it and ultimately build and share one’s own experience through it might be the task for the coming years. At least nowadays, while the financial turmoil keeps fancy collectors away from disruptions in all of these practices, we might find some time to nurture more engaged endeavours that usually need some time to mature. So this year was a great season to start following one promising case, a preview of what the future can bring if a little of hope still remains.

Cura Bodrum Residency in Radikal Cumartesi, 09/13/2008

2008-09-20T23:30:00.002+03:00

Spaces in NY that Mari Spirito works with

2008-09-12T09:06:00.001+03:00

www.participantinc.org

www.artistsai.org/cuchifritos/

www.artistsspace.org

www.303gallery.com

"Zwetschkenfleck"

2008-08-31T14:32:00.001+03:00

Measure: a yoghurt cup

1 cup yoghurt
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sun flower oil

4 eggs
1 package vanilla sugar
1 package backing powder

1kg plums (or apricots or nectarines)

1) seperate the yolk from the albumen
2) whisk stiff the albumen
3) mix yolk + yoghurt + sugar + vanilla sugar
4) add slowly the oil
5) add the flower and the baking powder
6) slowly add the whisk stiff
7) put the dough into a pan and place the plums on top

Bake it with 180degrees at least 25 min.

BON APPETITE!

Privatization of Natural Water Resources/ Mari Spirito

2008-08-23T12:48:00.005+03:00

Mari Spirito is working with organizations taking action against the privatization of natural water resoruces. Here are some links from her related to the issue:

http://www.suplatformu.net/
http://www.flowthefilm.com

www.article31.org
www.blueplanetproject.net

History of Golkoy/ Turkbuku

2008-08-19T14:53:00.004+03:00

These two websites give a brief history of the villages:
http://www.golturkbuku.com/english/tarihce/tarihce1.htm
http://www.turkuaz-guide.net/golkoy.htm

Bodrum Town and Village Populations

2008-08-11T11:25:00.003+03:00

Bodrum Town and Village Populations

CENTER

Bodrum Center 26.297

TOWNS

Bitez 7.792
Göltürkbükü 7.288
Gümüşlük 7.480
Gündoğan 8.021
Konacık 5.074
Mumcular 1.175
Ortakent-Yahşi 6.634
Turgutreis 18.471
Yalı 3.516
Yalıkavak 14.454
TOTAL 79.635

TOWN TOTAL 105.932

VILLAGES

Akyarlar 8.479
Bahçeyakası 659
Çamlık 250
Çömlekçi 630
Dağbelen 385
Dereköy 1.214
Gökpınar 202
Gürece 498
Güvercinlik 2.158
İslamhaneleri 3.185
Kemer 409
Kumköy 336
Mazıky 1.094
Peksimet 2.904
Pınarbelen 917
Sazköy 945
Tepecik 242
Yakaköy 669
Yeniköy 559

VILLAGE TOTAL 25.735
GRAND TOTAL 131.667

Between june and august the population reaches approximately 1.000.000

Statistics taken from
Bodrum Yarimadasinin Cevresel ve Yapısal Gelecegi Sempozyumu, 2008.

THE EDUCATION IS THE SOLUTION/ Marina García Rodríguez

2008-08-10T19:03:00.000+03:00

THE EDUCATION IS THE SOLUTION

Considering the millions of problems which are affecting the world nowadays, I do belive that the education is the unique and more effective solution to start changing the situation. One of these problems can be found in Gölköy, Bodrum (TR) because of the irresponsible cosume of the local resources by the tourists and the tourist managers. Maybe is a little bit late to recover part of the coast, but not for show next generations how to use and conserve the natural heritage.

One of the most effective methodologies I've ever worked with is the Visual Thinking and I would like to write down some of the webs where you could find more information about it... İt is just one suggestion for beginning:

www.vue.org

Marina García Rodríguez

Tourism and people

2008-08-08T16:17:00.003+03:00

Tourism is said to be the world's largest employer. It plays a crucial role in world economics and has a significant impact on many people's lives - but this economic impact has been relatively little studied. It is also hard to quantify less tangible impacts such as the effects of tourism on local cultures. These impacts can be both positive and negative. For example, in many countries of the South, a culture of beach boys has developed which is in stark contrast to their own traditions and customs and this in turn creates conflict in their societies. On the positive side, tourism can encourage pride in local traditions and support local arts and crafts. Tourism brings income to the local communities and supports employment. It can, however, also cause price hikes, especially in land and food, which may be disproportionate to the earnings of the local people.

more at http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=1113

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM - ELIMINATING POVERTY ???

2008-08-08T16:11:00.003+03:00

Poverty alleviation has become an essential condition for peace, environmental conservation and sustainable development, besides being an ethical obligation in an affluent world, where the divide between poor and rich nations seems to have increased in recent years. According to the UNDP 2006 Annual Report, 2.5 billion people live on less than US$ 2 a day. Despite a growing world economy many people in developing countries are not reaping the potential benefits of globalization.

The potential for tourism to play a significant role in the alleviation of poverty is increasingly recognised by international bodies and national governments. Its geographical expansion and labour intensive nature support a spread of employment and can be particularly relevant in remote and rural areas where many of the poor live. UNWTO statistics show the growing strength of the tourism industry for developing countries. In 2005, international tourism receipts for developing countries (low income, lower and upper middle income countries) amounted to US$ 203 billion. Tourism is one of the major export sectors of developing countries, and is the primary source of foreign exchange earnings in 46 of the 49 Least Developed Countries.

more at http://www.unwto.org/step/index.php

2008-08-04T23:49:00.000+03:00

YURTSUZ DÜNYALILARA SINIRDA UMUT KAMPI - Call for a noborder-Camp in DIKILI close to Izmir, Turkey from 3rd - 7th of September 2008

2008-07-15T20:47:00.002+03:00

Homeless earthlings' camp at the border

YURTSUZ DÜNYALILARA SINIRDA UMUT KAMPI - Call for a noborder-Camp in DIKILI close to Izmir, Turkey from 3rd - 7th of September 2008.

The holiday and skippers' paradise of the Aegean Sea between Greek islands and the Turkish coast has made a name as a passage since the 1980ies. A lot of people escaped the repression of the Turkish military government during the 1980ies using this passage. As an outer border of the EU - sealing off the fortress Europe against unwanted migration, the area turns into a nightmare for people seeking to enter Europe. There are two main-routes for the people coming from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan or from Africa, especially from Somalia and Sudan: the route overland crosses the border between Turkey and Greece or Turkey and Bulgaria, the other one is the sea route, the Aegean coast.

[...]

more at http://no-racism.net/article/2510

Meet At Beşiktaş Square, For Hrant, For Justice

2008-07-07T22:40:00.001+03:00

http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/108139/meet-at-besiktas-square-for-hrant-for-justice

Contemporary Art Works in Ephesus

2008-07-06T23:19:00.003+03:00

Ephesus is a touristic archeological site with the ruins of Graeco-Roman city, which was founded in 1000 B.C. The site is inhabited since 6000 B.C.
While searching of contemporary artworks produced in the region, I realized that two very influential women artists, Gulsun Karamustafa and Hale Tenger, produced site-specific works in Ephesus.

Souvenir/ Gulsun Karamustafa
Installation view, Antique city, Ephesus, 1995
"In 1995, Karamustafa installed a work called "SOUVENIR" at the Temple of Hadrianus in Ephesus. Several years before the scientific excavation of this site got under way in the early twentieht century, an Englishman called J. T. Wood took control of the temple himself and in true colonialist style began excavating it a way that had more to with vandalism and plunderin than with archeology. Karamustafa therefore took a photo-engraving of the Turkish laborers engaged by Wood, enlarged it to life size and then cut out the faces of the laborers to leave only head-shaped holes behind. This panel, which by now looked like something one might find at an amusement park, was then set up directly behind the entrance to the temple where tourists visiting the site used it to take snapshots of each other. By turning a historical document into a tourist parody, Karamustafa was able to tease out the parallels between international tourism and colonialism."
(Barbara Heinrich, My Roses My Reveries, YKY, 2007, p. 70 - 71)

Birth vs. Death/ Hale Tenger
Site-specific installation at Ephesus, Selcuk, 1995
"Tenger had touched upon issues regarding life/death and being/nothingness a year ago in "Birth/ Death" (1995) during "The Imagination of History" exhibition held at Ephesus a year ago; and she had again taken a specific point of reference to delve into the more general antinomy of absence/ presence. By accommodating the ancient sites from Ephesus -therefore a past in full view of the viewer -and the inventory of births and deaths in the district based on records she obtained from Selcuk Registration Directorate -therefore the personal history of past civilizations with the birth/ growth/ death stages of human life and therefore again referring to the concept of transience"
(Ahu Antmen, Stranger WIthin, YKY, 2007,p. 80 - 81)

Public Screening Series

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There will be series of publc screenings that are curated by our participants, Eduardo Thomas and Blanca de La Torre. We are open to suggestions for more screenings.
Eduardo Thomas' selection includes; "Mexico" - dir. Mike Hoolboom, 2007 (Canada), "I am me" - dir. Kathrin Resetartis , 2006 (Austria), "Film" - dir. Samuel Becket , 1943 (USA), "Fronteriladia" - dir. Jesse Lerner & Rubén Ortiz-Torres, 1995 (Mexico/USA), "Habana Solo" - dir. Juan Carlos Alom, 2000 (Cuba), "How little we know of our neighbors" - dir. Rebecca Baron, 2005 (UK), "And thereafter II" - dir. Lee Hosup, 2006 (Korea), "Zoosónico" - dir. Sal Ricalde, 2002 (Mexico), "Lovely Andrea" - dir. Hito Steyerl, 2007 (Germany)

The Pathologies of the Touristic Experience/ Blanca de La Torre
The Pathologies of the Tourist Experience" aims to come up with a reflection about the reality of tourism and other forms of territory recreational appropriations. It also illustrates the popular rituals that with the progressive increase of tourism now appear to be natural to the contemporary consumer. By examining some of the cultural, ecological and economical problems that have arisen as the byproducts of massive tourism, the show arises questions that are not usually discuss in the artistic sphere but are a current reality to make a space for reflection.
Artists considered: Patricia Esquivias (Venezuela), Avelino Sala (Spain), Manuela Viera Gallo (Chile), Itzíar Barrio (Spain), Daniel Seiple (US), Daniel Zimmerman (Germany), Francesco Jodice (Italy), Angie Eng (US), Jani Ruscica (Finland), Montse Arbelo and Joseba Franco (Spain)

Steve Fagin will screen his film "Cuba" Tropicola( 85min) on the 29th of August and will talk about his work the next day.
www.stevefagin.net

Gumusluk Akademisi

2008-07-05T23:36:00.006+03:00

Gumusluk Academy is the only residency in Bodrum Peninsula and is one of the very few in Turkey. Each bay around the Bodrum peninsula is very different geographically and culturally. It is located in Gumusluk, the ancient city of Myndos. You can visit their website at
www.gumuslukakademisi.org
and find out more about it. They also have some information of Bodrum.
One of its founders is Latife Tekin, an important writer, who has recently been harrassed by the Karabuk mayor for commenting negatively about the energy policy of the government :
http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/108097/latife-tekin-karabuk-mayor-files-complaint-pen-supports

Politics of Visibility/ Poetics of the Political/ Helena Chavez MacGregor

2008-07-01T21:45:00.012+03:00

Day 1: Politics of Visibility/ Poetics of the Political

Tuesday, July 29/ 18:30-20:00
Presentation
There is not a single or evident relationship between art and politics because these are not stable and fixed territories. Both are spheres in constant change that allows us to imagine different articulations and crossovers. More than trying to determine what can be labeled as "political art", what seems important is to imagine different articulations and crossovers. More than trying to determine what can be labeled as "political art", what seems important is to search the possible meanings of these territories, and to think in which ways the relationship between politics and art establishes different configurations and possibilities of action and reaction. The relationship that I want to point out , as a way to start digging in, is the aesthetic one between politics and art. the intention is to identify the politics of visibility that established the dominant forms of representation and identification in order to question the role of art practices within this structure of experience. Art practices can work to reinforce the established conditions and to maintain the dominant representations, or can create other rearrangements where other meanings, forms and objects can appear. Maybe, the political strength of art practices lies in the poetic potency of creation that confronts the dominant forms of representation. Perhaps in order to think of "political art", we have to think what each specific practice does to the political. Art is a practice that does not only move within some specific politics. It can also be a political practice when it enables action and mobilization. "How to play between politics and the poetical?" can be a question to think of the relationship between art and politics.

Round Table Discussion with......

Wednesday, July 30/ 18:30-20:30
How do we think about the relationship between art and politics?

It is a fact that a trend in contemporary art is to be "engaged" and related with politics. What does this fashion mean? Is the art world the new place for politics? When we identify politics with the state, does art become the substitution for political experience? Is "Political Art" just a market condition? Is it only a game between politics of representation and representation of politics? What can be gained within the art field for the political struggle? Can art practices change the condition of politics? Is any specific enemy to be defeated? How can art practices be political? How can we negotiate between economic conditions and radical practices? What is to be done?

These questions are only a starting point in trying to define where we stand. There are no simple answers or one single truth to corroborate, only meanings to create. The important thing here is to discuss what we can do, and how to think of it. The suggested texts pretend to ceate a common ground to open up the problematic hunting the relationship between art and politics.

Reading List

Inside and Outside the Art Institution: Self-Valorisation and Montage in Contemporary Art/ Marcelo Exposito

http://transform.eipcp.net/transersal/0407/exposito/en

On the Researcher-Militant/ Colectivo Situaciones

http://transform.eipcp.net/transversal/0406/colectivosituaciones/en

Steps for Fleeing from Work to Action

Can artistic work be militant research? A field report in the project "ExArgentina"/ Alice Creischer/ Andreas Siekmann

http://transform.eipcp.net/transversal/0406/crs/en

Notes Whilst Walking on "How to Break the Heart of Empire"/ John Jordan

http://transform.eipcp.net/transversal/1007/jordan/en

The Geopolitics of Pimping/ Suely Rolnik

http://transform.eipcp.net/transversal/1106/rolnik/en

Liar's Poker, Representation of Politics/ Politics of Representation/ Brian Holmes

http://www.curabodrumresidency.net/docs/blog/Liars_Poker.pdf

Ten Theses on Politics/ Jacques Ranciere, 2000

http://www.curabodrumresidency.net/docs/blog/Ten_Theses_on_Politics.pdf

Literature, Politics, Aesthetics: Approaches to Democratic Disagreement/ interviewed by Solange Guenoun and James H. Kavanagh

http://www.curabodrumresidency.net/docs/blog/literature_politics_aesthetics.pdf

Resistence is Surrender/ Slavij Zizek

http://www.curabodrumresidency.net/docs/blog/Resistance_Is_Surrender.pdf

Jacques Ranciere and the Aesthetics of Equality/ Brian Holmes

1. Gun: Gorunurluk Politikalari/ Siyasi Olanin Siirselligi

Sanat ve politika istikrarli ve duragan alanlar olmadigi icin, aralarinda belirli ve tek bir iliski yok. Her ikisi de devamli degisen, farkli eklemlenmeler ve gecisliliklere izin veren alanlar. Neyin "siyasi sanat" oldugunu belirlemekten ziyade, asil onemli olan bu alanlarin muhtemel anlamlarini arastirmak, siyaset ile sanat arasindaki iliskinin nasil farkli yapilanmalar ve etki/ tepki ihtimalleri barindirdigina bakmak. Konuyu derinlemesine incelemeye baslarken, benim dikkat cekmek istedigim, sanat ve siyaset arasindaki estetik iliski. Niyetim, hakim temsil ve aidiyet bicimlerini kuran gorunurluk politikalarini tespit etmek ve sanat pratiginin, deneyim icindeki rolunu sorgulamak. Sanat pratikleri varolan durumu dayatmaya devam edip, hakim temsilleri pekistirebilir, ya da yeni anlam, bicim ve objelerin ortaya cikmasini saglayacak yeni onermeler yaratabilir. Belki, sanat pratiklerinin politik gucu, hakim temsillerle yuzlesebilen siirsel bir kuvvet uygulayabilmesidir. Belki de, "siyasi sanat" hakkinda dusunebilmek icin, her ozgul pratigin siyasi olana etkisini dusunmemiz gerekir. Sanat, sadece bazi ozgul siyasetler icinde haraket eden bir pratik degil. Ayni zamanda seferberlik ve haraketlere olanak tanidiginda siyasi bir pratik de olabilir. Sanat ve politika arasindaki iliskiyi dusunmeye baslamak icin, "Siirsel olanla siyasi olan arasinda nasil oynayacagiz/ gezinecegiz?

Gun 2: Yuvarlak Masa Tartismasi: Sanat ve siyaset arasindaki iliski hakkinda nasil dusunebiliriz?

Guncel sanatta siyaset ile "mesgul olmak" ve ilgilenmek gibi bir egilim ve moda oldugu bir gercek. Bunun moda olmasi ne demek? Sanat dunyasi siyasetin yeni alani mi? Siyaseti devletle ozdeslestrigidigimizde, sanat siyasi deneyimin yerine mi gecer? "Siyasi Sanat" sadece bir piyasa gercegi mi? Bu, temsil politikalari ve siyasetin temsili arasinda bir oyun mu? Sanat alani icinde, siyasi mucadele icin ne gibi kazanimlar olabilir? Sanat pratikleri siyasetin icinde bulundugu durumu degistirebilir mi? Yenilmesi gereken belirli bir dusman var mi? Sanat pratikleri nasil politik olabilir? Ekonomik durum ve radikal pratikler arasinda nasil muzakere edebiliriz? Ne yapilabilir.

Bu sorular, nerede durdugumuzu belirlemek icin sadece bir baslangic noktasi. Basit cevaplar, desteklenecek dogrular degil, uretilecek anlamlar var. Onemli olan, ne yapabilecegimizi tartismak ve yapilabilecekleri dusunmek. Onerilen metinler, sanat ve siyaset arasindaki iliskiyi tartismaya acacak ortak bir zemin olusturur gibi yapiyor.

Possibly

2008-07-01T21:07:00.003+03:00

This blog is created to support a potential dialogue and exchange that may develop between cura bodrum residency participants. I am starting to post some material I have collected as possible content. If you have any suggestions, questions, curiosities... please add.