GET A DESK: 25.09.-02.10. "Tages Kraut"/ "Daily Herbal Drawing"

Daily Herbal Drawing
Drawing Installation
September 25- October 2, 2011

Per Schumann drew impressions, images and ideas from his stay in Istanbul on a large piece of paper attached to the wall of 5533. This work grew on a daily basis to serve as a means of achieving a deeper more subtle level of perception about the immediate surroundings and of discovering the mysterious and interesting elements of everyday life. It also acted as an extension of his Gartenstudio concept that symbolizes the search for a niche or gap in the tightly-woven fabric of modern urban life.

http://www.perschumann.de

GET A DESK: 26./27.09. Finding my way

“Finding my way”
Performance by Rebecca Weeks
September 26-27

This work is a response to Istanbul, to the experience of trying to move around the city and create routes and pathways between destinations. It is also an expression of anxiety about getting physically and emotionally lost and an attempt to integrate this fear. Within the performance there are actions made as allegories to ongoing attempts to create an idiosyncratic system, an individual map as a safeguard and as a comfort. Laying wooden planks around the exterior space of 5533 created a meditative path and the regular demarcation of every second pillar through placing a protective evil eye reflects the mental, emotional and physical work that it requires to operate in a strange place. The carrying of the high heels represents the disintegration of an appearance, of a cultural construct of femininity, which fails to translate across cultures. Slowly with care and patience a new way of operating can be discovered.

http://www.rebeccaweeks.co.uk
http://cazart.drupalgardens.com

GET A DESK: 18.09.-25.09. "Boy´s Room" / "Erkek Odası"

“Boy’s Room”
Installation and performance by Doreen Maloney
September 19-25, 2011

Doreen Maloney began her research for a project about male identity as represented in male dolls in the U.S. From her local discount mega store Walmart, she purchased the seductive “Captain America” doll that plays the words, “let’s take them down” and a boy’s t-shirt that echoed the toy’s aggressive quality with the slogan, “Crush, Destroy, Win.” In Maloney’s opinion, “the martial quality of these boy’s toys and clothing is a disturbing reminder of the U.S. global imperialism project, which has bankrupted our country and is fought most often by the poor who have no other alternatives but to enlist in the army to get a college education or to have a job. I find the irony of loving our children and wanting to keep them safe, juxtaposed with the toys we ‘can’ buy for them that encourages aggression and war to be obviously incongruent.” In Istanbul she continued her research by exploring the neighborhood next to 5533 where wholesale inexpensive toys were being sold for distribution to toy stores all over Istanbul. To her surprise, she found no Turkish made military toys, with the exception of a child like doll dressed in military uniform doing a belly dance to Turkish music. Since all the military toys sold in Istanbul, were printed in English and often with U.S. flags, Maloney concluded that this further underscored how the United States is packaged as an ‘aggressor’. Continuing her project on site and using both U.S. and Turkish military images and toys, she transformed the 5533 store window into a “Boy’s Room”. Workers from the shops next to 5533, only responded to the Turkish images and toys used in the window decoration, ignoring the “Captain American” toys, but at the same time, showing pleasure that the artist had made a project against warfare and aggression that encircles the world at this time.

http://www.doreenmaloney.com/

GET A DESK: 16.09.-23.09. ReVisited

“Paradise Remade Revisited”
Installation by Roberly Bell
September 16-23, 2011

Desiring to incorporate a feminine and warm expression and communication into masculine cosmopolitan city life, at 5533, Roberly Bell continued her “The Other Landscape” project that she had previously conducted in Russia and another venue in Istanbul.

With this communicative project, she invited her audience to participate by taking potted plants from the gallery space out into the city. In exchange for this gift of a potted flower, she asked recipients to send her photographs of the flowers in their new environments.

http://www.roberleybell.com

GET A DESK: 11.09.-16.09. "Space for a Woman: Walking through the city"

"Harem", "Eminonu Mosque"

Space for a Woman: Walking through the city
Victoria Rance
September 11-16, 2011

The purpose of Victoria Rance’s research trip was to subjectively experience personal and shared spaces in the city, in particular she searched for ambivalence about spaces for women. She wanted to experience how they are negotiated and demarcated in comparison to those in London. Her quest began at the Harem in Topkapi Palace, a historical designated space for women that has played an important role in the western imagination. She found the harem quieter, cooler, and more pleasant than the rest of the palace filled with noisy tourists. Similarly, in the mosques, the areas designed for women were sheltered from the noisy hustle and bustle of everyday life. In the Eminönü mosque, she witnessed children playing, chasing, and learning to walk in the shared prayer space. She learned that the demarcation of spaces is more complex than a westerner might suppose. For example, when walking to 5533 she became aware of the impact felt from the different perceptions from different routes. When arriving from the front over the Atatürk Bridge, the building felt very modern and dislocated from the small market streets behind, but when approached from the back, where children play between small local shops and a bath house, the building acts as a barrier separating the market from the busy motorway.

http://www.victoriarance.com

GET A DESK: 11.09.-18.09. MIND THE GAP

“MIND THE GAP”
Multi-media project
September 13-15, 2011

MIND THE GAP is a multi-media, multi-platform arts initiative that was headquartered at IMC 5533 art space September 13-15, 2011. Created by Alexia Mellor and co-organized with Michelle Dunn, MIND THE GAP presented performative and new media work by emerging artists from around the globe addressing gaps and borders of all kinds: geographic and social borders, and technological and spatial gaps. IMC5533 served as a central location for visitors from the community to view video works, participate in interactive works, and get information on the site-specific pieces. With site-specific performances in public spaces around Istanbul, daily guided boat tours on the Bosphorus that offered a new perspective on orientation and the sea, and a virtual interactive mapping project, MIND THE GAP created unique and participatory experiences to revision the ways we experience art.

“Our experience of presenting MIND THE GAP at IMC5533 was a fabulous one that allowed us to see another aspect of the fabric of Istanbul,” says Mellor. “I wanted MIND THE GAP to serve as an alternative means of experiencing art, and the location of IMC5533 allowed us to take these pieces and insert them into a part of the community that really does not interact with tourists, does not typically speak English, and does not frequent the ‘art institution’. It was exactly the type of experience I had hoped to have. We are grateful to the participating artists for being open to this multi-platform presentation format and were excited to see how pleased everyone was with it!”

“We would like to give special thanks to Nancy Atakan and Hannah Sieben for all their support in making this cross-Atlantic project a success,” says organizer Michelle Dunn. “We hope to have the opportunity to work with IMC5533 again in the future.”

In an effort to bridge gaps in location, MIND THE GAP has made all of the included artist projects available online so that they can be accessed from around the world. Although the exhibition at IMC5533 took place September 13-15, the virtual mapping project, Map the Gap, continues. Participants are asked to consider “gaps” of all kinds: gaps in relationships, gaps in space, gaps in time, and photograph them, write about them, create an audio file. Email your documentation (jpg, mp3, pdf) to icont.cept@gmail.com and selected files will be displayed on the tumblr page.

http://projectmindthegap.wordpress.com
http://twitter.com/#!/mindthegap4

GET A DESK

From the beginning of June until the end of October, 2011, our off space, 5533, begins a new activity, a Working Table Program, for artists, curators, writers, students and others. 5533 provides a working space for visitors to conduct their work and research. This activity continues to support networking and dialogue - concepts that 5533 has emphasized since its founding. As a part of the Working Table Program guests will rent a desk in the space. As a result of daily interaction and exchange among the guests, an atmosphere for dialogue and networking will be encouraged. In addition to conducting their individual research and materializing their projects, the guests who desire may organize presentations, talks, meeting and workshops. To support their research or to help them complete their projects, 5533 will offer assistance and information about opportunities to be found in the city, access to the 5533’s artist, curator, and institution archives as well as a connection to free Internet. Desks can be rented daily, weekly or monthly.