subsidiënten | colofon

Tagcloud: UIT / AAN

Review CCC @ ISTANBUL2010

| 2011-11-10 14:54:38

ON PUBLIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL URBAN SHORES
Most interesting remark by Turkish artists who visited our beach at Tuyap: ‘Sitting on beachchairs with our feet in the sand watching the documentary on the Dutch 17th century painters (‘Dutch Light’) seems ironic.” But it isn’t. The shore is not only a place of superficial pleasures, it is also a public, social and cultural urban hotspot.

 


In September 2009 Jacqueline Heerema/co founder of Satellietgroep participated in the worktrip by Stroom The Hague to Istanbul. During this worktrip 8 organizers of artists run initiatives gained a first insight in the cultural infrastructure of Istanbul. One of the meetings was with Teike Assselbergs, Dutch artist an organizer, who lives and works in Istanbul, She introduced the concept of the Kunst Vlaai/Art Pie for Istanbul 2010, Cultural Capital of Europe. This special edition of the Kunst Vlaai/Art Pie is the first one abroad Amsterdam.
In October 2009 Andries Micke/co founder of Satellietgroep participated in the first Meeting in Istanbul to prepare the Art Pie 2010.
We organized a special citytour with urbanist Orhan Esen (TR) 'Istanbul + the sea. The particular way waterways helped to shape the urbanity in Istanbul'. as a coastal research for future collaboration projects. Nine Dutch architects and urbanists joined our program


Satellietgroep researches the way the sea and waterways influence cities and people.
In The Hague (The Netherlands) one of our projects is BADGAST (Seaside Guest) - an international artists in residence program and Cinema at Sea. At BADGAST we invite artists, scientists, (landscape) architects, urbanists and designers to develop new concepts and strategies focused on a future new approach of the sea and coastal urban areas. BADGAST is located right in he middle of our research area: all aspects of living and working on the shore are there most strongly present: protection from flooding, downgraded fishing and harbour community, a (still) single minded focus on beachtourism as a consumption and commercial tool, urban coastal development strategies that (stlll) focus only on pleasure and leisure, overcrowded summer beaches, derelict wintertimes.

Starting our research on Istanbul, several obvious aspects appeared:
Holland is a flat country, forever dealing with the struggle against the sea. The country is bordered on 2 sides by the sea. We have a huge tradition of conquering land from the sea (man made nature), and our beautiful Dutch Light has inspired artists from the 17th century painters on to contemporary art (Joseph Beuys stated we lost the Dutch light when we closed the Southern Sea with a 32 km dike).
You could state that the Dutch have a frontal relationship with the sea.
Istanbul however is a city built on hills, with sea straits meandering through the city. Due to the differences in heights in the city from all over you seem to notice the space the waterways provide as an urban oasis in a hectic city. The connection is more like in a labyrinth.
There has always been a north – south movement on the Bosporus, with boats distributing goods and culture. Due to commuting, this movement has shifted to the west – east connection.
In all of Holland live 16 million people, in the city of Istanbul 15 – 20 million people.

Both in The Hague as in Istanbul you can feel a huge pressure on the seafront. Somewhere in the urban coastal developments we seem to neglect the public, social and cultural importance of urban life at these seafronts. Both cities show a tendency to focus on strategies that exclude people from the shores. For instance, in The Hague (concerning Scheveningen - the part of the city that lies actually on the seaside) 3 topics are emphasized: Bath, Village, Harbour. In our recent research ‘Op Scheveningen’ Satellietgroep enlarged that scope to 6 cultural topics: Sea, Bath, Village, Harbour, Locals and Guests.

It is interesting to continue our research on Istanbul, where now 3 large ‘voids’ on the cityshore await urban redevelopment. It seems like an open invitation to develop new strategies by artists, urbanists and locals for public and social Interventions, that could open up new vistas on the relationship of the city and inhabitants with the sea and shores. Also, due to the development of the 3rd bridge over the Bosporus and the corresponding enlargement of the city to the north, the coast of the Black Sea will be under pressure…

bg6.jpg
research coastal satellietgroep badgast sea from cultural zandmotor with artist water was new project scheveningen dat artists art zee