Artist Talks: Not / Seeing The City
Speakers: Oddviz Collective, Alper Şen from Artıkişler Collective, Serkan Taycan Location: SALT Galata, Istanbul Date: 21 September 2019. Organised as part of Open Space Curatorial Residency Programme
Not / Seeing The City presents a series of talks by three artists/collectives who produce images of Istanbul using the mediums of photography, moving image and photogrammetry. The diverse ways of seeing that accompany these visual technologies offer a possibility to renegotiate the turbulent transformations of an often hostile urban environment. Can the practical and conceptual tools of image-making; such as framing, recording, reproducing, preserving, montaging and rearranging be used in order to reconfigure our relationship to the urban? Having built interdisciplinary methodologies around this question, Oddviz Collective, Serkan Taycan and Alper Şen will share their thoughts through presentations on their art practices concerning the urban dynamics of Istanbul.
If, as Walter Benjamin points out in his seminal essay The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction, a different nature reveals itself to the camera than it does to the naked eye, then perhaps the photographic image can be a starting point in constructing different realities from what is already given. Focusing their cameras on urban matters and collecting images, these artists have created interfaces with which to understand, experience and alter the city.
Oddiz Collective digitally archive the fleeting material memory of the street using 3D photogrammetric modelling, whilst also creating new urban expriences through virtual installations based on this accurate data. Their series "Inventory" (2018) looks at street furniture starting with Kadıköy, the neighbourhood in which they live and work.
Serkan Taycan photographs the aggressive urbanisation at the peripheries of Istanbul, also expanding this into a participatory walking practice in order to facilitate a lived awareness of these urban transformations. His walking route "Between Two Seas" (2013) stretches from the Marmara Sea to the Black Sea, following the proposed site of a 60km long shipping passage.
Artıkişler Collective explore possibilities of collective image production through docuemntary moving-image as a visual research methodology. "The Surplus of Istanbul" (2014-2019), "Istanbul City Hills" ( 2013, with Margherita Moscardini), and "Taşkafa" (2013, with Andrea Lukka Zimmerman) look at the relationships between the city center and the periphery.
Alper Şen (1977, Ankara) completed his studies at ODTÜ University in political sciences and at Ankara University in Radio TV and Cinema. He has since worked with VideA, Cinema for Peace, Film Collective, KozaVisual, NisiMasa and Karahaber. As part of Artıkişler Collective he currently works with Özge Çelikaslan and Pelin Tan on issues of urban regeneration, migration, social struggles, archives and memory.
Oddviz Collective was founded by architect Çağrı Taşkın (1983, Ankara), engineer Sekran Kaptan (1983, Ankara) and artist Erdal Inci (1983, Ankara) in 2016. Documenting urban spaces with photogrammetry, the collective has produced works in Istanbul, Berlin, New York and Venice for their ongoing ‘Inventory’ series. Their first solo exhibit opened at ArtOn in 2018, and they have taken part in international projects such as The Arte Laguna Prize and Plums Audio-Visual Experiments Festival.
Serkan Taycan (1987, Gaziantep) focuses on the dynamics of ecological and urban transformations caused by human activities in his research based art practice. His works have been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Istanbul Biennial, Helsinki Biennial of Photography, Mardin Biennial and Sinopale. He has also taken part in exhibitions at SALT, MAXXI, MuCEM, Istanbul Modern and Malmö Museum, and completed residency programs in Cité Internationale des Arts and Delfina Foundation.
