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UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
ISTANBUL ALPHABET from çokçok to zikzak17 February through 9 April, 2012
Opening: 16 February, 2012, 7 p.m.
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.
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 | | 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.
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|  | | "Borne", doorstop, Koray Özgen, 1999 |  | | "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 und 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
MAX BORKA (Belgium. Lives and works in Berlin) studied literature and political
sciences. After a career in radio he has been a journalist and author
of numerous books on art, architecture, and design for the last 25
years. From 1999 to 2002, he was director of the Interieur Foundation in
Kortrijk, Belgium. He was co-founder of DAMn° magazine, Art Director of
the Brussels Design District and designbrussels, and recently also
founded Mapping the Design World. Until recently he was a Lecturer at
La Cambre, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels ENSAV, Brussels,
and Tutor at the School of Arts KASK at Hogeschool Ghent, both in
Belgium. He is currently also working as an independent critic,
consultant and curator.
ANNA PANNEKOEK
(Belgium) prefers to describe herself as a Snapshooter and
Roadrunner, instead of a photographer or artist. Constantly traveling,
she also collaborated with Max Borka in the exhibitions Nullpunkt,
Nieuwe German Gestaltung and Spagat! Design Istanbul Tasarimi, both at
the MARTa Herford Museum in Germany. |
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