Art Walk, Live Streaming

25.12.2020, 12pm Istanbul Time (GMT+3)

During this walk in the Sultan Selim Mahallesi in Istanbul, 4. Levent, we were visiting the studios of Mahmut Çelayır and Demet Yalçınkaya. The artists were showing some of their recent works.

We invited you to participate online in the Art Walk with visits to the studios of the artists Antonio Cosentino and Mahmut Aydın in the same neighborhood.

The walk started at the temporary space of the Mahalla Festival at Sultan Selim Mahallesi.

In the Space: An Installation of a Music-performance by Serhat Köksal:

Anxt Hase Tower ” by 2/5BZ .

2/5BZ, aka Serhat Köksal, has worked as a multimedia artist with various releases in video, music, and literary formats since 1991.

2/5BZ performed ” No Exotic No Touristik ”  audiovisuals of heterodox’ plundered-roars, of Istanbulians and Anatolians, who were exposed to population engineering, as well as of those of the refugees and all of the glocal movements without any thoriental traditionalist simulation or hologram touch doctrine.The work often balances on the verge of trash, and continuously engages with remakes and collages of music, cinema, speech, and fieldrecordings and played live in 91 cities in clubs, festivals, squats, and exhibitions in North America, Europa and Asia.

American artist Nora Byrne lives in Istanbul. In the space some of her drawings are going to be displayed.

She traveled from Istanbul to Cyprus to do some Sketching in the beginning of the year before the Lockdowns started. The Mahalla Festival was supposed to travel to Cyprus this year. Regarding her drawings she mentioned:

When I draw in a city, I hover between intuitive and analytical, recording the parts of each scene that both feel elucidative of the experience and act as representatives for the historical, social and political forces I study before arriving and during my stay. The Green Line attracted me both those levels, as a historical monument and a social divider, but also as the most dynamic area of what seemed a tired city traumatized by political machinations. These drawings document a glimpse into “no man’s land,” where the absence of people, of nations and of ownership allows for almost immediate re-growth.