Crossing the Bridge: In-situ practises from Turkey

Välkommen till en presentation av två arkitekter, forskare och aktivister; Asli Kiyak Ingin och Merve Gül Özokcu.

Båda är baserade I Istanbul och arbetar på olika sätt med socialt och politiskt engagerade kritiska projekt kopplade till såväl stadsutveckling som landsbygdsfrågor. De undersöker och belyser sociala strukturer och möjligheter för samarbete och organisering.  Merve arbetar med frågor kring omvandlingen av byggnader på landsbygden, kvinnors och barns rum och plats för alternativ utbildning samt återtagande av offentliga rum. Hon använder olika metoder av fältarbete som inkluderar gemensam matlagning och muntlig tradition. Asli arbetar med frågor relaterade till staden, stadsförnyelse och gentrifiering, genom att förespråka hållbara deltagandemodeller för alternativa visioner. Hon har initierat och utvecklat projektet och konceptet Made in Şişhane, som syftar till att undersöka, belysa och värna om hantverkskvarteren i Istanbul.

Asli Kiyak Ingin och Merve Gül Özokcu är båda residensstipendiater på IASPIS, Konstnärsnämndens internationella program för bild och form. Samtalet introduceras och modereras av Annika Björkman och Magnus Ericson, IASPIS. Presentationen arrangeras av IASPIS och Form/Design Center.

 

Merve Gül Özokcu är en Istanbulbaserad arkitekt, forskare och aktivist. Hon har drivit deltagandeprojekt och arbetat med kreativa utvecklingsprojekt i över 10 år. Hennes praktik, tillsammans med kollektivet Architecture for All, syftar till att har en social inverkan på politiskt orienterade problem, att prioritera insatser på plats och gemensamhetsorienterade interventioner samt har ett proaktivt förhållningssätt. Projekten hon medverkat i har fokuserat på frågor kring omvandlingen av byggnader på landsbygden och kvinnors och barns rum och plats för alternativ utbildning samt återtagande av offentliga rum.

Under sin tid som ateljéstipendiat på IASPIS kommer Merve att arbeta med projektet Women Narrative Spaces, som sammanför hennes erfarenhet av intervjuer från ”deltagande-fältarbete” och en forskningsmetod som använder gemensam matlagning och muntlig tradition som verktyg. I den här delen av sin forskning kommer hon att titta på migrations- och kvinnoarkiv och intervjua kvinnor ur den turkiska diasporan i Sverige. Detta är ett försök att ”resa” med dessa kvinnor genom deras geografiska erfarenheter och genom dessa dagliga rutiner undersöka utrymmen av omsorg som kan kopplas till gemensamhet och mat. Den muntliga berättelsen blir ett verktyg genom vilket ekofeministiska perspektiv avslöjar arkitekturens sociala reproduktion. Hennes forskningsmetod utgår från mat och matlagningsvanor och deras relation till platsen. Hon tittar på de minnen av köken som kvinnor varit en del av under sina liv, och hur detta interagerar med och anpassar sig till en ny geografi; vad som delas, hur det överförs till nuet och förhållandet mellan minnet och de dagliga rutinerna av mat och rymd. Hennes avsikt är att dessa samtal ska vara en vägledning för att stärka allmänningar (delning och solidaritetspraxis). Hon ser dokumentationen av rutiner som är ingår i berättelser och anpassningen av förändringarna efter plats och tid som en avkoloniseringspraktik.

Merve Gül Özokcu är deltidslektor på olika universitet och doktorand vid İTÜ Istanbul Technical University. Hon tog sin masterexamen med avhandlingen om Alternative Processes and On-Site Performance in Architecture Education and Practice. Uppsatsen diskuterar ”Hur en alternativ process kan organiseras i arkitekturens premisser”, med begrepp som makt, biopolitik och prekaritet och det system som dessa begrepp verkar i genom språk, diskurs och utbildning. Merve är involverad i många kollektiva projekt som bl.a. ställs ut på Chicago Architecture Biennial, Venice Architecture Biennial, Istanbul Design Biennial, Salt Istanbul, V&A Museum London, MAXXI Rome och ngbk Berlin. Hon medverkande i Svenska institutets projekt Equal Spaces och har varit stipendiat inom IKSV’ program Design Resilience. Hon är en del av forskningskollektivet Arazi Assembly baserat i den sydöstra regionen av Turkiet som betraktar kunskapsproduktion som en form av avkolonisering, omsorg och solidaritet.

Aslı Kıyak İngin är arkitekt, designer, aktivist och utbildare baserad i Istanbul. Hon driver en kritisk designpraktik där hon arbetar inom olika områden som design, arkitektur, urbanism och konst, med projekt som rör sociala, kulturella och ekonomiska frågor relaterade till staden, stadsförnyelse och gentrifiering, genom att förespråka hållbara deltagandemodeller för alternativa visioner. Hon har sedan 2006 initierat och utvecklat projektet och konceptet Made in Şişhane, som syftar till att undersöka, belysa och värna om hantverkskvarteren i Istanbul. Projektet har sedan starten också belyst och diskuterat designens roll i stadsutvecklingen genom olika lokala och internationella evenemang. Hon arbetade också med utvecklingen av metoder för att stoppa rivningsprocessen av Sulukule, en gammal romsk stadsdel i Istanbul. Hon var med och grundade Sulukule Platform och organiserade evenemanget 40 days 40 Nights Sulukule, som syftade till att synliggöra denna process.

Aslı Kıyak İngin har en examen i arkitektur från Mimar Sinan University och har även en examen från Istanbul Technical University med avhandlingen Developing a method for the analysis of formal and spatial structure of traditional cities. Hon har även utbildat sig på Design Culture and Management Certificated Program, vid Istanbul Bilgi University. Hon har arbetat som designer och designchef på Celik Dizayn Company mellan 1998 och 2008. Hon är aktiv inom NGO-området och hon var vicepresident för Istanbuls filial av Industrial Designers Society of Turkey och ordförande för Human Settlement Association. Hon undervisar på deltid vid Istanbul Bilgi-universitetet, fakulteten för arkitektur, avdelningen för industriell design, där hon leder sedan 2013 en designstudiokurs Apprenticeship in Design som kopplar samman studenter och hantverkare i hantverkskvarteren i Istanbul. Andra projekt omfattar Crafting Neighborhood, More than Design, Informal Academy, Masterpiece of Beyoglu, FoodCraft Gaziantep, Open Source: Persembe Bazaar, Objects of Şişhane och stüdyoSUSTAIN. Hennes publikationer inkluderar Istanbul Para-Doxa (Garanti Gallery) and Made in Şişhane Book on Istanbul, small scale production and design; Istanbul; Mustesna Kentin İstisna Hali, och Handmade Urbanism Mapping The Invisible, EU- Roma Gypsies.

Titeln på presentationen syftar på filmen Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul av den turkiske regissören Fatih Akın (2005).

 

 

English

 

Welcome to a presentation and discussion with architectes, researchers and activists Asli Kiyak Ingin and Merve Gül Özokcu.

They are both based in İstanbul and works in different ways with socially and politically engaged critical projects within urban and rural contexts. They research, highlight and engage on site with issues of social structures and possibilities for commons, sharing and solidarity practices. Merve works has partly focused on transformation of rural buildings as women’s and children’s spaces, spaces of alternative education and the re-possession of public spaces. She does participatory fieldwork and oral history research that uses cooking together as a tool. Asli works with issues related to the city, urban regeneration and gentrification, and by advocating sustainable and participatory models for alternative visions. She has initiated and developed the project and concept Made in Şişhane, which aims for safeguarding the craft neighbourhoods in İstanbul.

Asli Kiyak Ingin and Merve Gül Özokcu are currently residency grantholders at IASPIS, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme. The presentation is introduced and moderated by Annika Björkman and Magnus Ericson, IASPIS. The presentation is organised by IASPIS and Form/Design Center.

 

Merve Gül Özokcu is an Istanbul-based architect, researcher and activist. She has been conducting participatory projects and working on creative actions for over 10 years. Her works, along with Architecture for All collective, have a social impact on political-based problems, prioritize on-site and together interventions and adopt a proactive approach, which can be viewed at https://herkesicinmimarlik.org/en/. Projects that she has been she part of have focused on transformation of rural buildings as women’s and children’s spaces, spaces of alternative education and the re-possession of public spaces.

During her IASPIS residency, Merve will be working on her Women Narrative Spaces project, which brings together her experience of the interviews from participatory fieldwork and the oral history research that uses cooking together as a tool starting with her grandmother. In this part of her research, she is working with migrant women, mainly Turkish speaking and from the Turkish diaspora in Stockholm.. This is an attempt to travel with women through their geographies while daily routines reveal spaces of caring and encounter the inherent collective aspects of food. Oral history becomes a tool through which eco-feminist perspectives reveal the social reproduction of architecture. Her research path is starting from eating-cooking habits and their relationship with the place. She is looking into the memories of the cuisines women were a part of in their lives, and how this interacts/adapts with geography. What is shared, how it is transferred to the present and the relationship between memory and the daily routines of food and space. Her intention is that these conversations are a guide to strengthen commons (sharing and solidarity practices). She sees the documenting of routines inherent in stories and the adaptation of the changes by place and time as a decolonization practice.

Merve is a part-time lecturer in various universities and a PhD candidate at İTÜ Istanbul Technical University. She got her master degree with the thesis on Alternative Processes and On-Site Performance in Architecture Education and Practice. The thesis discusses ”How an alternative process can be organized in the premises of architecture”, with concepts such as power, biopolitics and precarity and the system in which these concepts operate through language/discourse and education. Merve is involved in many collective projects that are exhibited such as Chicago Architecture Biennial, Venice Architecture Biennial, Istanbul Design Biennial, Salt Istanbul, V&A Museum London, MAXXI Rome and ngbk Berlin. She was a participating artist at the Swedish institute’s Equal Spaces project and a grant holder of IKSV Design Resilience programme. She is a part of the research collective, Arazi Assembly (http://araziassembly.org/) based in the Southeast region of Turkey which considers knowledge production as a form of decolonization, care and solidarity.

Aslı Kıyak İngin is an architect, designer, activist and educator based in Istanbul. She is running a critical design practice. She works in various fields such as design, craft, architecture, urbanism and art, with projects concerned with social, cultural and economic issues related to the city, against to the top down urban transformation and gentrification developments, and by advocating sustainable and participatory models for alternative visions. She has since 2006 initiated and developed the project and concept Made in Şişhane, which aims for safeguarding the craft neighbourhoods in Istanbul. The project has since the beginning also highlighted and discussed the role of design in the urban development through various local and international events. Made in Sishane became the finalist of City to City Barcelona FAD Award 2016 Learning Initiatives in The City.  She also worked on the development of participatory and sustainable practices in order to stop the demolishing process of Sulukule, an old Istanbul and Romani neighbourhood. She was the co-founder of the Sulukule Platform and organised the event 40 days 40 Nights Sulukule, which aimed at making this process visible and creating a dynamic platform to stop the state-led gentrification process.http://sulukulegunlugu.blogspot.com  Aslı Kıyak İngin has a degree in architecture from the Mimar Sinan University and have a post-graduate diploma from Istanbul Technical University with the thesis Developing a method for the analysis of formal and spatial structure of traditional cities. She also attended the Design Culture and Management Certificated Program at the Istanbul Bilgi University.  She has worked as a designer and design manager at Celik Dizayn Lighting Company which is located in Sishane between 1998 and 2008. She is active in the NGO field and she was vice-president of the Istanbul branch of the  Industrial Designers Society of Turkey and president of the Human Settlement Association.

She is teaching part time at the Istanbul Bilgi University, Faculty of Architecture, Industrial Design Department where she offered a design studio course Apprenticeship in Design that connect the students and craftspeople in the craft neighbourhoods in Istanbul since 2013. Her other studio course at the same university is about design for sustainability through working with the different localities. She was the workshop tutor at University of Thessaly, Post Industrial Design Master Program and has directed the studios about fishermen and food craft system in Volos, Greece. She was the academic coordinator of Masterpiece of Beyoglu Project which is lead a new model that the traditional and informal master-apprentice training system is attached to the formal education system with a contemporary way. She took part in the team who developed a design course with and for the craftspeople from more than 20 craft branches in ISMEK (Lifelong Learning Centre of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality) and she worked as a mentor to lead them develop innovative craft products. She took place with the project Crafting Neighborhood in the first Istanbul Design Biennial, Adhocracy Exhibition, 2012 (https://craftingneighborhoods.wordpress.com/). She took part in the academy program of Second Istanbul Design Biennial with the project Informal Academy which leads a program around and between the craft neighbourhoods and design biennial, 2014; She took a part in the exhibition of Vitra Contemporary Architecture Series 3: Dreams to Realities: Projections on Education, 2014. She won mansion prize with the project Craft Based Regeneration Model: Jewellery Quartier with an interdisciplinary group from designers, academicians, craftspeople and NGO’s for the competition Future Istanbul: Alternative Proposals for the Future of Istanbul, 2012; She is the jury member of Actors of Urban Change Project Competition, Robert Bosch Foundation, Berlin, 2013-2014. Her some other practice and projects are More than Design, FoodCraft Gaziantep, Open Source: Persembe Bazaar, Objects of Şişhane, stüdyoSUSTAIN. Her publications include Istanbul Para-Doxa, Made in Şişhane Book on Istanbul, small scale production and design, Istanbul; Mustesna Kentin İstisna Hali, Handmade Urbanism, Mapping The Invisible EU- Roma Gypsies.

The title refers to the 2005 film Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul by the Turkish director Fatih Akın.