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Apartman Projesi

www.apartmentproject.com
Address: Seyhbender sokak no 4/ 1, Tünel , Beyoglu
Members: Selda Asal*, Zeren Göktan, Ceren Oykut, Serra Özhan*, Can Turkinan and temporary members due to projects
*: Will be present by the opening.

Apartment Project is an initiative founded in the year 1999 by the artist Selda Asal. It is structured on personal exhibitions and performances as well as workshops. It continues its existence with workshops including Participants from various disciplines and with its sub-groups of 2+1, NBC (no-borders collective) and sound room.

Exhibited Project-1:

Video Screening
Free Fall - 3 min.
Reciprocal Visit - 20 min.
2+1 - 15 min.
every day 12:00-19:00

Reciprocal Visit / Iade-i Ziyaret

Currently the Apartment Project is working on its new project, “Reciprocal Visit”.

The concept of the project was developed by the founder of the initiative and video artist Selda Asal and the curation and organization of the project are undertaken by Serra Özhan. The participating artists include Endam Acar, Selda Asal, Volkan Aslan, Fatma Çiftçi, Zeren Göktan, Deniz Gül, Gözde Ilkin, Ceren Oykut, Gökçe Süvari and Sophia Tabatadze. The first round of this collective project was realized by their visit to Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran in April 2009.

Between the nations and states, which we can term as spaces of identity, there is a second set borders besides the physical borders that stems from the political problems between the states and that turns the physical borders into walls: whether you can pass or not is determined by the nationality on your passport and even a visa cannot help you a bit. This is a political wall that doesn’t let someone from Turkey to pass over to Armenia or vice versa. A similar border wall exists between Armenia and its eastern neighbor Azerbaijan.

Yet there are cultural exchanges that offset all the border stories set up by the states. One of these is the tradition of reciprocal visit. As distinct from Western Europe and as is the case in most Arabic countries and Turkey, the culture of reciprocal visit still exists in Armenia, Iran, Azerbaijan and Georgia. For instance, just like it is the case in Turkey, the visits paid by the neighbors –even those that you are not acquainted with- are regarded as pleasant. It is actually what should be: a “must”. You go over with a box of sweets and say hi.

This project sets off to visit and to receive reciprocal visits in spite of the hostility of these states towards each other, to critically break down the physical, political and intellectual obstacles created by the borders. In this respect, a shared cultural value that makes borders meaningless, the tradition of reciprocal visit forms the basis of our project.

The collective undertook an experimental exercise that was created there and then throughout their journey by bus and train: different ideas emanating from the collective, different experiences brought on by being together and sharing, various narratives using different materials… Participants coming from various disciplines such as photography, video, music, performance, painting and sociology engaged in an experimental workshop consisting of photographs, films and texts created and interactions and talks experienced in places that they passed through and stayed.

The name of the project is “Reciprocal Visit” because it is based on visits to Georgia, Armenia, once more to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran and the reciprocal visits of two artists from each of these countries: this is a familiar word for us and for the artists from these countries. It is a connecting word.

The second round of this project will bring artists from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran to Turkey in July 2009. They will pay us a visit at the Tobacco Depot and the Apartment Project and take part in a two-term workshop. The resulting works will be exhibited at the Tobacco Depot between November 14 and December 19.

Free Fall / Serbest Düşüş

The Apartment Project developed the “Free Fall” project to transform and extend the practice of workshops and to achieve a new level of experience.

This was based on an organization principle where the Participants would not be in physical contact and where the works would develop through dialogues and free falls on a communication network.

The exercise begins with the sending of an image to the project by Selda Asal and continues through the replies in the form of images, texts and sound recordings from some or all of the Participants.

This reciprocal exchange goes on until the end date of “Free Fall” project. While these exchanges go on, a counter works to measure the time of the exchanges to archive the intensity of replies at a certain point in time.

The results can be theoretical, mundane or extremely abstract. But as was stated above, this is an experiment in creating a new breed of workshop. The result will always be a surprise of success or failure.

The exhibited work will be extremely digital one and once someone from the audience starts to read the correspondences, he/she will be able to trace all the exchanges between the Participants in real time. This will help challenge the reading of the audience: multiple readings will make everything ever more complicated or ever simpler.

Sei ein Traum! / Be a dream! / Bir rüya ol!…. is the 10th of the projects consisting of video films, sound installations and music videos realized by Selda Asal since the year 2007 with teenagers from Turkey, Germany, Denmark, France, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Iran. All videos have different titles, but conceptually they all focus on difficulties and dreams.

This project named “Sei ein Traum” was realized with the collaboration of pupils between the ages of 16 and 18 from the school Kurt-Löwenstein in Berlin Neukölln, who participated in a workshop between the 18th of May and the 26th of June. Selda Asal worked with these youngsters on texts focusing on dreams and difficulties and then prepared a new collage text from parts of what they have written. This collage text forms the lyrics of the rap music video.

In June, the music of the video was produced with the collaboration of Serdar Ateşer and the final work was filmed as a music video by Selda Asal. The video is six minutes long.

2+1

2+1 is a sub-group of the Apartment Project. It comprises Selda Asal, Ceren Oykut and Serdar Ateşer. All the members of this trio continue to pursue their artistic careers independently, creating both personal projects and projects with groups other than 2+1.

2+1 conducted two workshops in Lille in February 2009; one with a group of 15 year-olds from Paul Verlain High School and one with a group of young rappers between the ages of 20 and 22 at Maison Folie Moulen.

Ceren Oykut reconstructed the pictures drawn by the youngsters in Paul Verlain High School, representing dreams and realities, in her own studio.

Selda Asal conducted a text exercise with both groups on dreams and difficulties and these texts formed the pieces of a collage text by Selda Asal. With the collaboration of the musician Serdar Ateşer, these texts were turned into lyrics of two rap songs and they together started working on two separate rap videos to be filmed and edited by Selda Asal. The titles of these videos are “I Dream But…” and “Next Turn”.

Exhibited Project-2

Video Screening
'Bir rüya ol!’/ be a dream!
every day 12:00-19:00

Digital Film
concept+camera+post production: Selda Asal
Music Production: Serdar Ateser
2009, Berlin
6 min.

Sei ein Traum! / Be a dream! / Bir rüya ol!…. is the 10th of the projects consisting of video films, sound installations and music videos realized by Selda Asal since the year 2007 with teenagers from Turkey, Germany, Denmark, France, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Iran. All videos have different titles, but conceptually they all focus on difficulties and dreams.

This project named “Sei ein Traum” was realized with the collaboration of pupils between the ages of 16 and 18 from the school Kurt-Löwenstein in Berlin Neukölln, who participated in a workshop between the 18th of May and the 26th of June. Selda Asal worked with these youngsters on texts focusing on dreams and difficulties and then prepared a new collage text from parts of what they have written. This collage text forms the lyrics of the rap music video.

In June, the music of the video was produced with the collaboration of Serdar Ateşer and the final work was filmed as a music video by Selda Asal. The video is six minutes long.

free fall

2+1