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ISTANBUL ALPHABET from çokçok to zikzak
February 17 - April 9, 2012
17 February through 9 April, 2012
Opening: 16 February, 2012
çokçok is a Turkish expression that means "an insatiable hunger for more". The exhibition ISTANBUL ALPHABET from çokçok to zikzak partakes of the special quality of the Museum der Dinge: the exploration of the culture of everyday objects.
|  | | Photo: Anna Pannekoek
| The focus is on the çokçok collection accumulated by the curators, Max Borka and Anna Pannekoek,
during a sojourn of 100 days in Istanbul. This collection developed in
part from the things that the designers and artists left and the
interventions that they performed in the curators' home in Istanbul. And
in part it consists of objects, sounds and images that Anna Pannekoek
collected while wandering through the city, in a situationist and
Istanbulite way: meandering, guided by intuition and chance.
"The
point is not to look for high-quality designer or brand-name products,
but for objects that are at the other end of the scale: everyday
products that seem to have been in existence for an eternity without
ever having received much attention. Naturally these objects were
designed too, but not by just one person. Users have adapted and shaped
these things to their needs from generation to generation. Although many
of these objects are ugly, ordinary and commonplace compared with and
measured against the official rules of design, their beauty is
undeniable. They are expressions of a collective consciousness that is
unbelievably rich.
|  | | Objects from the "çokçok collection", 2010, plastics and other materials / Photo: Anna Pannekoek
| These objects are found everywhere, but especially in
big cities, and most of all in Istanbul, because they play an important
part in the lives of the Istanbulites themselves, as means of survival.
Istanbul has become the world's model of a self-organized city in which
millions of unregistered inhabitants have to reinvent their lives day
in and day out. These objects are a great help in this process." Anna
Pannekoek
The exhibition is rounded out with the works of artists
such as Nezaket Ekici, and with products of Istanbul's burgeoning
contemporary design scene, whose methods and forms tend in the same
direction as the anonymous everyday objects in the çokçok
collection. The comparison brings to light what the Western design
scene has lost: the ability to invent something out of nothing, for
example; ad-hoc solutions; improvisation.
|  | | "Mustafa", Ali Bakova, 2009
| ISTANBUL ALPHABET is
the second in a series of exhibitions on Istanbul. Each part of the
series will appear in new forms. Challenging and surprising, but at the
same time highly entertaining, the exhibition in the Museum der Dinge combines the essay and the encyclopaedia, the snapshot and the three-minute song.
Taking
the museum as a place of negotiation, the curators will receive
visitors in the exhibition, offer them tea, and invite them to discuss
Istanbul, now Europe's largest city. As a link between Asia and Europe,
Istanbul has always managed to bridge differences that seemed
irreconcilable, like those between East and West or between the
religious and the secular.
Invited designers, design studios and artists:
Erdem Akan & maybedesign / Refik Anadol / Ali Bakova / Alper Böler / Ela Cindoruk / Karel De Backer/ Nezaket Ekici / Ömer Ozan Erdogan & Creative Bonanza / Gürsan Ergil / Aykut Erol / Arzu Firuz & Paul Huber / GAEAforms (Tugrul Gövsa & Pinar Yar) / Serhan Gürkan / ilio & Demirden Design (Nil Deniz, Demir Obuz, Mehtap Obuz, Sema Obuz) / Meriç Kara / Asli Kiyak Ingin & Made in Sishane / Defne Koz / Mashallah. Design, Hande Akcayli, Murat Kocyigit / Tamer Nakisci / Nerdworking / Koray Özgen / Kunter Sekercioglu and others
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