SAHA Studio | September-December 2022 Public Program

Studio Get-Together with Atıf Akın 
17 September 2022, Saturday, 18.00

Atıf Akın opens his atelier at SAHA Studio, where he has been working since June 2022, to the visitors of the 17th Istanbul Biennial on Saturday, September 17, 2022, between 18.00-20.00.
Starting from the idea that the artist's studio is not only a space for research and production, but also a stage for various encounters and interactions that can inspire or direct these productions, Akın imagines SAHA Studio as a meeting place; he invites the audience to explore his atelier, which includes a selection of his previous works and clues from the biennial project exhibited at Müze Gazhane, and on this occasion, to celebrate the research and production process he completed in Turkey after 11 years, accompanied by his fellows and peers along with Eren Şenkardeş's DJ performance.

World Weather Network Talks #1 
24 September 2022, Saturday, 15.00
Sibel Horada, Aslıhan Demirtaş, Çelenk Bafra, İlksen Mavituna

The first of the World Weather Network talk series organized at SAHA Studio in parallel to the 17th Istanbul Biennial, centers around the recent past of the contemporary art scene and possible scenarios of its future.
We are living at a time when topics of ecology and climate crisis come forward as a high-priority issue in contemporary art. Works and initiatives of art that show concern for the crises the planet earth grapples with, soar in recent years, finding a context in the Anthropocene. What were the outcomes of this discernment concurrently evident in and outside of Turkey to date; what other prospects are there? Where should one look to detect the limitations of the affinity amongst art, ecology, and activism? What sorts of grounds for dialogue should we build
With the participation of Sibel Horada, Aslıhan Demirtaş, Çelenk Bafra, and İlksen Mavituna, this panel addresses the context of activism that affiliates art with ecological crises, the actors of this contexture, and the new positions that the response to the crisis would entail. 

*The event is held in Turkish.

On Residencies: Delfina Foundation
1 October 2022, Saturday, 15.00
Aaron Cezar, Sena Başöz, Dicle Beştaş

Delfina Foundation aims to foster creative practices and new dialogues internationally through the residency programs, exhibitions, and public programs run in London since 2007. As part of the collaboration with the Delfina Foundation since 2013, SAHA supports the participation of researchers, artists, and curators from Turkey to these programs in London. The founding director of the Delfina Foundation, Aaron Cezar meets the audience in Istanbul, where he comes for the SAHA Advisory Board meeting, and tells about the foundation's programs and objectives that evolved over the years. In this framework, artist Sena Başöz who developed a performance project in collaboration with Delfina Foundation in London where she was a resident twice between 2020-2022 and Dicle Beştaş who was invited to Delfina's curatorial program this summer as the programmer of Loading in Diyarbakır speak of their projects and experiences.

*The event is held in English.

WWN Talks #2
In Reality, Everything Is In The Air
8 October 2022, Saturday, 15.00
Merve Akar Akgün (Art Unlimited), Merve Ünsal (m-est.org), Özge Ersoy (m-est.org; online participation)

The conversation between the editors of Art Unlimited and m-est.org will take as a point of departure the series of texts that m-est.org has been working on with the invitation of SAHA as part of the World Weather Network. With the artist texts published as part of the series, m-est.org focuses on artistic production that deals with weather forecasts and the high and low pressures of the cities we live and produce in. The discussion will focus on transformation, crisis, and fabulations of futures at the intersection of publishing and visual arts.

*The event is held in Turkish.

WWN Talks #3
8 October 2022, Saturday, 17.00
Elmas Deniz

One of the artists of SAHA Studio's June-December 2022 term, Elmas Deniz’s concept-driven works explore the intersections and points of entanglement between economics and nature. At the third part of the WWN Talks series, Deniz sheds light on her artistic practice by focusing on the human-nature relationship, how the idea of nature is shaped by different value systems throughout history, and today's ecological concerns.

*The event is held in Turkish.

WWN Talks #4
15 October 2022, Saturday, 15.00
Can Küçük

In his performative presentation taking place at SAHA Studio on October 15th, Can Küçük follows a personal narrative, detailing the physical and social relationships he forms with the atmosphere of his current location. The narrative which he divides into chapters with reference to the basic elements of life, is accompanied by Hatice Yüksel's music.

*The event is held in Turkish.

WWN Talks #5
22 October 2022, Saturday, 15.00
Burcu Yağcıoğlu

In her talk organized as part of the WWN Talk series, Burcu Yağcıoğlu maps the act of stopping and the concept of inertia from different perspectives, and addresses it as an alternative to doing, to motion and change. Presenting her research that spans from the history of laziness to biothermodynamics, thus life's most essential interrelation with stopping and enthropy with images, Yağcıoğlu concludes her artist talk with an analysis of Ursula K. Le Guin's "Lathe of Heaven" from 1971 in terms of the climate crisis and context of motion/stopping. 

*The event is held in Turkish.

Silent University Orientation Program Gathering
29 October 2022, Saturday, 15.00
Ahmet Öğüt, Yelta Köm, Amal Jibril, Suha Nabhan

The Silent University is a solidarity-based knowledge exchange platform by displaced people and forced migrants. In this event, Ahmet Öğüt as the initiator of the Silent University, Yelta Köm as the coordinator of the Silent University Orientation Program, Suha Nabhan and Amal Jinril as the co-founders of Migration Jam and members of the platform present in detail the motivation behind the Silent University, its values, their projects as presented at SAHA Studio in parallel to the 17th Istanbul Biennial, the stories of previous and current branches and beyond.

*The event is held in English.

Ethics of Collecting
2 November 2022, Wednesday, 15.00

Organized at SAHA Studio with the participation of Ethics of Collecting co-founder and SAHA Board Member Haro Cümbüşyan, Chair of Board SAHA Association Füsun Eczacıbaşı, and artist Taner Ceylan, the panel event moderated by British Council Turkey Art Department Director and academician Esra A. Aysun centers on the relationship between collecting and ethics with respect to A Code of Conduct for Contemporary Art Collectors, compiled by the platform.  

Ethics of Collecting is founded by a group of collectors and supporters of art from different geographies in consultation with artists, curators, gallerists, and art institution directors, to create a platform for collectors who care about playing a positive role in the art’s ecosystem. Based on the idea that collectors have ethical responsibilities towards artworks, artists, art professionals, affiliated art institutions, and society in general, Ethics of Collecting has compiled A Code of Conduct for Contemporary Art Collectors.

The members of the platform regard it as a necessary step for the collector community to adopt a regulation that lends ear to the criticisms voiced by different stakeholders in order for the art ecosystem to develop in a healthy and sustainable manner, and underline that this guide is a living document that would be corrected and improved as per the suggestions of all stakeholders. 

In this framework, at the event organized at SAHA Studio on Wednesday, November 2, 2022 at 3 pm, speakers addresses ethical principles and phenomena that are considered critical and decisive in today's field of culture and arts, such as the relationship between artists and collectors, balance of power, patronage, speculation, transparency, publicity, intellectual property, and social responsibility, through their individual perspectives.

*The event is held in Turkish.

Academia: Artistic Praxis, Work of Research, and Suggestions
5 November 2022, Saturday, 15.00
İbrahim Cansızoğlu, Kerem Ozan Bayraktar, Borga Kantürk, Yasemin Nur

Centering on "academia" as both an institution and a concept, the panel event departs from the "Ways of Learning" topic that is brought forward by the 17th Istanbul Biennial as a global issue; it underlines the academia as a phenomenon within the contemporary art milieu based on the fact that a good number of SAHA Studio participants also have academic roles aside from their artistic practices respectively. 
In that context, with İbrahim Cansızoğlu as the moderator and SAHA Studio alumni Yasemin Nur, Borga Kantürk, and Kerem Ozan Bayraktar as speakers, the panel aims to discuss the balance, transitivity, conflict, and other dynamics between these two fields. 

*The event is held in Turkish.

Film Screening: The Story Won't Die
Presented by the Silent University Orientation Program and Migration Jam
9 November 2022, Wednesday, 6 pm

The Story Won’t Die, from Award-winning filmmaker David Henry Gerson, produced by Sundance Award-winner Odessa Rae (Navalny)، is an inspiring, timely look at a creative young generation of Syrian artists, using their work to protest and process the aftermath of what is currently the world’s largest and longest displacement of people since World War II. 

Celebrated creative personalities of the Syrian uprising use their art to rise in the revolution and endure in exile in this new documentary reflecting on a battle for peace, justice, and freedom of expression. The film is an uplifting and humanizing look at what it means to be a refugee in today’s world, offering inspiring and hopeful vantages of a creative response to the chaos of war.

* Free Entrance. The screening is in English. 

On Residencies: Artworks
12 November 2022, Saturday, 15.00
Eirini Fountedaki

As part of SAHA's collaboration with the Athens-based ARTWORKS, the second ARTWORKS fellow in residence at SAHA Studio, Eirini Fountedaki shares the outcomes of her research conducted in Istanbul during October-November 2022 period as well as her experiences as a curator at the residency programs in these two cities.

*The event is held in English.

Reframing Narratives on Migration
Silent University Orientation Program in collaboration with Migration Jam
10 December 2022, Saturday 2PM

What are the mainstream narratives on migration in Turkey today? How are they shaped? What are the impacts of these narratives on the lives of refugees, migrants, and locals? And how can we reframe these narratives?

In this panel, the panelists dive into these questions with academics and students from different universities in Istanbul who are linked to the field of migration. The panel discussion focuses on narratives related to migration, the current impact of these narratives on the lives of refugees and migrants residing in Turkey, and how the academic field can play a role in countering or reframing these narratives.

Panelists:
Yeşim Hancı-Kaya - PhD student at Columbia University
Gülşah Kurt - UNSW Post-doctoral Research Fellow
Leyla Savsar - An assistant professor at Istinye University
Moderator: Esma Güzin Yarıcı - Master student Sabancı University
Host: Suha Nabhan - Co-founder of Migration Jam
Special guest: Janis Janowsky - Strategic Director of INSMS

*The event is held in English.

Film Screening: Al Compas
Presented by the Silent University Orientation Program and Migration Jam
17 Aralık 2022, Saturday, 2 pm

Al compás, a portrait of Bahaa Al Jomaa and Yazan Ibrahim, two Arab artists who, through music, merge different worlds while embracing and exploring different realities - between Lebanon and Spain, Palestine and the Golan Heights.

Although living away from their respective home lands, they strive to fulfill their essence and passion for life through the music they make and share, be it as a form of resistance or as a tool to explore the world and to manifest and share their incredible talent. Quoting Yazan, "These stories seem to be similar because most of these people have made the same physical journey. But the essence of each is very different. What is their real story? Beyond what they had to go through to get to where they are now."

Final Studio Gathering with Atıf Akın | Faculty Meeting
5 January 2023, Thursday at 6 pm 

Atıf Akın organizes a gathering on 5 January 2023, Thursday at 6 pm as his final event at SAHA Studio, where he worked during June-December 2022 period. 

Masquerading a faculty meeting, hence the eponymous title, the event revolves around the participatory publication and exhibition project titled THE UNIVERSITY_A PROJECT, which is developed during the artist’s residency at SAHA Studio. Considering the universities as global utopias in the post-modern world, Akın constructs a meeting set-up, inviting artists and academicians who problematized the relationships between art, design, architecture, and academia in various epistemological frameworks in the course of their careers, to develop the critical discourse on academia and to reimagine the notion of university.

Participants:
Atıf Akın
Burak Delier
Cevdet Erek
Güven İncirlioğlu
Mona Mahall
Aslı Serbest

*The event is held in Turkish