BLACK FLAG TUR 2016 SERIES

BLACK FLAG TUR 2016 SERIES

Using digital maps and photographs, Serkan TaycanвЂ™s video HydroLab MesopotamiaВ (2018) illustrates what is known and what is being kept secret about the Turkish stateвЂ™s plans for a series of dams and new lakes on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that both eradicate local communities and create a watery border perimeter. There were many artworks addressing sensitive political subjects in the exhibition at the Mor Efrem Monastery, a late 19th-century compound built by the Syriac Patriarch (whose congregants, along with the Armenian community, were almost entirely wiped out or forced out in genocidal purges by Ottoman soldiers and Kurdish militias during World War I). FД±rat ArapoДџluвЂ™s proposal, вЂњInfinite Sight,вЂќ looked at geography, spatial politics and aesthetics NazlД± GГјrlekвЂ™s вЂњBody LanguageвЂќ suggested that the most elemental form of communication comes through the body and Derya YГјcelвЂ™s вЂњBoundaries and ThresholdsвЂќ bridged the two to look at contested spaces.Дespite the intense pressure on public speech these days in Turkey (the Kurdish opposition leader has been jailed since November 2016 government-linked conglomerates now have near-total control of the media more than 100 journalists are currently behind bars for terrorism-related charges tens of thousands of prosecutions have been made for online вЂњinsultsвЂќ of the state and president and vigilante campaigns against students, activists and professors are increasingly common), there is, for now, still some potential for critical conversations through cultural events. To that end, the biennial has three curators and three interwoven concepts that create a dialogue between the artworks and the city. вЂњBeyond WordsвЂќ is the biennialвЂ™s title, and an appropriate one for all that can and cannot be said about what is happening in Turkey and the region. It was a fairly shambolic affair in terms of organization-particularly with the communication of where artworks were located and when performances were happening, as well as the installations of several works-and yet it was almost entirely forgivable given the setting (the two largest venues were dilapidated stone structures, with dusty, crumbling interiors and low doorways) was not in any way equipped for the video projections, multimedia installations, or large groups of Istanbul and Ankara visitors, especially when spring storms inundate the hillside, as it did on the afternoon of the biennialвЂ™s first day.

For the fourth time since 2010-with three yearsвЂ™ interruption, after the third edition in 2014 was postponed for six months as Kurdish fighters and ISISВ battled over the Syrian border city of Kobane-the Mardin Biennial opened on May 4, and runs for one month at ten venues in the city.

The вЂњgreat greenвЂќ sea-which is truly what the Mesopotamian plains resemble from Mardin-leading from modern Turkey through Syria into Iraq and the Gulf, is in deep, tragic sectarian conflict.ДЄnd then there is contemporary art. Syrian women and children sell tissues in the streets. Black armored vehicles patrol the main street between tourist coaches and local buses. Assyrian-made wines, herbal soaps, stone-ground coffee and elaborate jewelry are sold in the shops below ornately detailed stone konaksВ (вЂњmansionsвЂќ), madrasas and mosques, monasteries and churches. The shop signs are in Turkish the shopkeepers and tradesmen greet each other in Kurdish. Just 21 kilometers from the border with Syria, the citadel is a Turkish military base, with a giant illuminated profile of AtatГјrk that is switched on after the evening call-to-prayer. All the beauty, contradictions and pain of the past, present and encroaching future are there. The 4,000-year-old hillside city of Mardin, with golden-stone buildings dating back to the medieval era, overlooks the fertile plains of what was ancient Mesopotamia, and is a spectacular setting for a biennial.

Black flag tur 2016