23 Oct İSTANBUL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

Daire İstanbul Artist-in-Residence program was realized in October 15 -22, 2019 in the historical Hasköy Wool Thread Factory. Four participating artists-in-residence and two İstanbul based artists turned the place into an artists’ co-working space for the duration of the program. Senior artist İnci Eviner took a mentoring role in the process and Ahmet Mansuroğlu, Buse Mutan, Umut Azad Akkel and Zekiye Buğurcu were the participating artists selected through the open call. All the participating artists-in-residence created site-specific artwork on the authentic context of the Hasköy Wool Thread Factory.

Ahmet Mansuroğlu produced semantic and formal layered works by combining the eastern calligraphic elements and the western art education he acquired in the context of picture-writing dualism. He represented the East-West hybridization, which is felt most intensely in İstanbul.

Buse Mutan created a three-dimensional effect on the two-dimensional surface in her installation where she used the yarns produced at the Hasköy Wool Thread Factory, creating a dynamic image through the positioning of the yarns and the contrast of the preferred colors. With the tension stemming from this dynamism, she aimed to reactivate the factory that has stopped production. The intervention made by Mutan around the water accumulated on the floor of the space was an installation where she used contrasting ropes with gradient transitions to bring out amorphous shapes and three-dimensionality.

The work of Umut Azad Akkel emerged from his observations in the private spaces created in public spaces on the streets of Beyoğlu. Akkel tried to think about the hypocrisy that exists at the intersection of street and sexuality.

Zekiye Buğurcu made a fusain mural on an inner wall of the factory where she questioned the reflex of everything that continues to breathe in the face of the dominating, demolishing, rebuilding and eliminating power of human creativity.

İstanbul based artists also participated in workshop and creation processes: Gonca Gümüşayak and Merey Şenocak (sound design) realized a sound-body performance that listened to the spirit of the Hasköy Wool Wool Thread Factory. The translucent installation of Sevgi Aka that covered the unused, dark and passive area in the factory aimed to activate the dark side that we could not reach, through the leaking light it generated.

On the 22^nd of October, the last day of the workshop, the process and artwork were shared with the public through an “open studio” event. Among the visitors were representatives of the İstanbul Biennial and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.