Vjoints of Urban Life : Talk at IMC5533

Vjunk Talk // 30th April 2013 @ IMC5533  at 15.30-17.00
İstanbul Manifaturacılar Çarşısı 5. Blok no.5533, next to Atatürk Blv, Unkapanı ISTANBUL

http://www.imc5533.blogspot.com/

I am a visual artist and organizer of an independent real-time audiovisual art festival in Istanbul since 2008. On 14th June 2012 in Tarlabasi, I organized a site specific event for the first time.

For urban renewal, Tarlabasi area has been emptied. For me it used to be a very peaceful place, and still is, only with the remaining life in it. There are local issues discussed by various circles now. Some people are quite rightly against the renewal and transformation. Yet, nobody can do anything; nobody can stop the so-called transformation process.

Some streets are empty now. Buildings are historical and they have beautiful textures. I knew mayer+empl who did site-specific video mappings. I invited them to VJ Fest. They came and with the help of some other friends, we did video mapping, projections and some interactive painting on the walls outside and inside the buildings. This doesn't mean that video artists are
only interested in walls.

Our event and some other events in the following dates were criticized by some. For example, in the link: http://birdirbir.org/tarlabasinda-sanat-yikima-dek-gorulebilir/ the critic seems to argue that the visual arts events in Tarlabasi streets were neither resisting nor reclaiming anything. I disagree. These kinds of events get people together and open possibilities for touching real issues. They can be done anywhere. Of course, people must be there for a meaningful reason. What is a meaningful reason? My reason was to “distribute some sensibles” and show that these kinds of events are possible in Istanbul streets. Not everybody knows that.

Vjunk  2013

https://www.facebook.com/events/112776712225957/
https://www.facebook.com/events/572410789445750/