Artist talk with Alexis Fidetzis and İz Öztat moderated by Bilge Emir and Ilgaz Yalçınoğlu

The artistic practice of Alexis Fidetzis and İz Öztat is strongly linked to the topic of identity building and (national) identity in the context of Greece and Turkey. With his perspective on naval trade between Greek and Turkish fishing boats, Alexis Fidetzis’ latest project is reminiscent of the 1990s, when fishermen used to meet in the open seas in order to exchange their catch, so that they would communally benefit from the preferences and pricing of two different markets. In addressing issues of commerce, community and grassroots economy, he is suggesting a utopian resolution. İz Öztat will give an account of how she occupies multiple subject positions in her practice. She will articulate her artistic research methodologies which incorporate fiction, the concepts of ‘haunting’ and ‘channeling’, collaboration and contractual negotiations, referring to the contexts in which they take shape.

In a panel discussion, the topic of identity will be further discussed in a regional and national context, examining the possibilities of constructing an identity beyond nationality and religion. Moreover, we will raise the question of how to position oneself in relation to the concept of a so-called ‘European identity’, which itself is strongly shaped by the West. 

İz Öztat lives and works in Istanbul. She performs in multiple fields, such as making, gathering, writing, translating, hosting and mediating. Her work deals with the return of the repressed past in the present, potentials of fiction in challenging official narratives and ideological implications of display. She is a member of BAÇOY KOOP, a group for collective, independent publishing.

Alexis Fidetzis is an artist based in Athens, Greece, where he was born in 1987. He holds a BFA in painting from the Athens School of Fine Arts and an MFA from the Pratt Institute in New York City where he explored research based art focusing on art and geopolitics. His art is mainly based on historical research.

The screening will be followed by an artist talk and a discussion with Persefoni Myrtsou on the topic of being a Greek immigrant in Turkey.

Maltepe Gelinleri | The Brides of Maltepe explores the verbal transcriptions of relationships and confessions from four families in Greece, Turkey and Germany. In a genealogically tense Greek-Turkish environment, Eva Giannakopoulou and Persefoni Myrtsou share their lives between these three countries. As observers and circumstantial protagonists making use of rigorous methodology, they attempt an introspective process, examining the stereotypical and prevailing structures of transnational love and maverick forms of partnership.

Persefoni Myrtsou was born in Thessaloniki and is a practising visual artist and cultural anthropologist. She studied Fine Arts at Glasgow School of Art and later at the Institute for Art in Context at the UdK Berlin. Persefoni has exhibited and performed in multiple settings. She currently lives and works in Istanbul and regularly travels to Berlin and Thessaloniki.

Persefoni Myrtsou was born in Thessaloniki and is a practising visual artist and cultural anthropologist. She studied Fine Arts at Glasgow School of Art and later at the Institute for Art in Context at the UdK Berlin. Persefoni has exhibited and performed in multiple settings. She currently lives and works in Istanbul and regularly travels to Berlin and Thessaloniki.

In her lecture, Aspasia Anogiati will discuss the story of an instrument, the origins of which have been lost in the course of time. The story of the ‘Kemençe’ (in Turkey) or ‘Lyra’ (in Greece) is an example of how people inhabiting the same area, sharing similar landscape impressions, singing and dancing to the same melodies, have almost everything in common, no matter what their passports or their religions say, or which words they use in their language. There is a common language connecting people, and music is an important aspect of it.

Aspasia Anogiati is a trained actress, musicologist and musician. She graduated from the Drama School of The Athens Conservatory and later got a degree in Politiki Lyra from the Technical University of Epirus. She has taught theatre and music in different public schools and institutions, and is still an active musician in the field of traditional music of the East Mediterranean (lyre and singing).

For her first Central-European activist action in the heart of Berlin, Ayşenur Babuna invites all critical and reflective souls of the city to a phantasmagoric, ultra-Southeast European performative lecture-party. Together we will seek to address urgent questions such as: is the anthropological gaze just the cover-up for cultural appropropriation? Can we talk about Euro-Arabesque after European Islam? Can only Western artists be good colonialists and ethnographers? Is the humanitarian perspective the only way the make sense of politics, art and culture? And does the Global South know it is the Global South? Ayşenur is looking forward to discuss all these critical issues with her fantastic Berliner flock.

Ayşenur Babuna is a feminist entrepreneur and Islamic activist from Turkey working on different intercultural and interreligious projects under the umbrella of a strong internationally networked Sisterhood. Post-human female embodiments, marginal Islamic feminisms and ambiguous configurations of queerness, femininity and sexualism are contradicted, supplemented and subverted by culturalist totalitarian fantasies, Neo-Ottoman exceptionalism and romantic notions of resistance and autonomy. Ayşenur never repeats her site- and context-specific actions and is occasionally a fictional persona.

www.aysenurbabuna.com, https://www.facebook.com/aysenurbabuna

At her presentation, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan will be showing a selection of works related with the notions of aquatic nature of memory in reference to absence, invisibility and visibility within the framework of space and history relationship. Viron Erol Vert will talk about his current work "All Borders are Within Us". With this work as a reference, he will speak on life practices within immigration, cultural identification and social transformation. 

Lecture: Art, Dispossession and the Writing of Post-Ottoman Art Histories

Banu Karacas lecture on ‘​Art, Dispossession and the Writing of Post-Ottoman Art Histories’ discusses ​how nationalism and the politics of dispossession have shaped historical artistic narratives and how, in the process, artworks have been made illegible.  

Panel discussion:

In a panel discussion, the artists/academics will discuss questions on being a minority in Greece and Turkey and also the identification of Elladitis/a and Turkish.

Banu Karaca (PhD) works at the intersection of political anthropology and critical theory, art and aesthetics, nationalism and cultural policy, museums and feminist memory studies. Her recent publications interrogate the freedom of expression in the arts, the visualization of gendered memories of war and political violence, and visual literacy. She is currently EUME Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin. Her ongoing research investigates how dispossessed and “lost” artworks have shaped the writing of Post-Ottoman art histories.

Viron Erol Vert, born in Germany, lives and works between Istanbul and Berlin. He studied Clothing Design at HTW Berlin and the Department for Visual Art at the Royal Academy in Antwerp. Vert graduated from his master class in Fashion Design at the HTW and at the Department for Experimental Surface at the KHB in Berlin with mentionable honor.

Hera Büyüktaşcıyan lives and works in Istanbul. She studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Marmara University. She uses the concepts of absence and invisibility to create an imaginary connection between identity, memory, space and time through invisible and forgotten aspects of history.

Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli will give a short presentation on the history and structure of Ottoman Gölge Oyunu (Shadow Puppetry). 

In this workshop, bi'bak will turn into a temporary shadow theatre to revisit an Ottoman shadow puppet cast. It consists of Jews and queers, Arabs, dandies, belly dancers, Armenians, Opium addicts, witches, European and Anatolian stereotypes. The artists invite the audience to make new monsters and shadow puppets, while investigating how nationalist ideology affects the characters in the shadow theatre.

Closing event begins at 19:00

Birgit Auf der Lauer has been working together with Caspar Pauli since 2010. They are interested in the aesthetic and political aspects of urban and rural areas. After detailed research, they work with different forms of expression such as installation, drawing and performance. They regularly receive funding and awards for their work. Together with the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum in Berlin, they run the Kanuclub for Urban Exploration.