[-empyre-] Layers of ISEA2011: Corporate/Financial (Murat Germen)

[Murat Germen]

hello all,

it is interesting this talk is centered around the turkish scene.
corporations, banks are all over the art world in all the countries in the
world; especially the countries with capitalist economies. large financial
institutions, big capital owners, rich individuals, oil companies launder
their names by enthusiastically sponsoring art events, museums, biennials,
artists, etc. let's take tate museum or MoMA for instance; do you really
think that these places are independent of corporations, hegemonical
financial institutions and the state (which is another capitalist
institution)? art is basically a bourgeois, elite, jet set entertainment one
must admit. i am an artist represented by two galleries (turkey &
netherlands) and i very much dislike the way how my works are treated like
stock papers / share certificates by the collectors, as opposed to creations
having artistic value or not. i would suggest reading "The $12 Million
Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art" by don thompson "
http://www.amazon.com/Million-Stuffed-Shark-Economics-Contemporary/dp/0230610226"
to have a detailed expansion on what i mentioned above.

concerning the sabanci center: the option to this place would be sabanci
university campus on the asian side, which is about 60 km away from taksim,
the iconic center of the city. commuting to the campus can take 1,5 hours
from taksim during rush hours. it would be very difficult to organize ISEA
2011 in our campus in terms of logistics and believe me, if you had to go
there to attend the conference every single day, the percentage of people
who would grunt would be much much higher... alternatively, there are lots
of beautiful historical buildings in istanbul at which ISEA could be hosted,
but it would take a lot of unavailable capital to hire them for the event
and they would again be mostly owned by corporations...

murat germen,
artist, sabanci university professor

On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 5:00 AM, <empyre-request at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>wrote:

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>   1. Re: Happy hour sponsored by empyre soft skinned space
>      (Timothy Conway Murray)
>   2. Re: Layers of ISEA2011: Corporate/Financial (Machiko Kusahara)
>   3. Re: Layers of ISEA2011: Corporate/Financial (Joseph Delappe)
>   4. Re: Layers of ISEA2011: Corporate/Financial (Lucas Bambozzi)
>   5. Re: Layers of ISEA2011: Corporate/Financial (Cynthia Beth Rubin)
>   6. The maze of Istanbul. (Lichty, Patrick)
>   7. Re: The maze of Istanbul. (Ana Vald?s)
>   8. Re: Layers of ISEA2011: Corporate/Financial (Tracey M Benson)
>   9. Re: Layers of ISEA2011: Corporate/Financial (Rodney Berry)
>  10. Re: Happy hour sponsored by empyre soft skinned space
>      (BIGGS Simon)
>  11. Re: Layers of ISEA2011: Corporate/Financial
>      (Timothy Conway Murray)
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Timothy Conway Murray <tcm1 at cornell.edu>
> To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2011 07:39:49 +0000
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Happy hour sponsored by empyre soft skinned space
>
> Hi, everyone, we hope to see you at our impromptu gathering at the Nura
> Ziya lounge, tonight, 6-8,  if you're ISEAing in Istanbul.
>
> Tim
>
> ________________________________________
> From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [
> empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] on behalf of Renate Ferro [
> renateferro at gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2011 1:14 AM
> To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> Subject: [-empyre-] Happy hour sponsored by empyre soft skinned space
>
> Any empyre subscribe and or ISEA attendant is invited on Sunday evening
> from 6 o'clock on to the official ISEA lounge at the Nuru Ziya suites. HOpe
> to see all of you there who are in Istanbul. Link is below with map.
>
> http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/location/nuru-ziya-suites
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> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Machiko Kusahara <kusahara at waseda.jp>
> To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2011 07:20:54 +0300
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Layers of ISEA2011: Corporate/Financial
>
> Hi Nick and everyone, and thanks for Tim's great summary!
>
> Although I haven't finished Biennale (one warehouse done, the other I will
> go through today), there are in fact many things we have to think about
> regarding this year's ISEA and Biennale.
> One thing we might need to think about is the social/cultural/historical
> issue behind the art scene and museums.
>
> Last year I came to Istanbul for the first time as a part of Japan Media
> Arts Festival in Istanbul. i was  invited by Pera Museum, and had a chance
> to exchange ideas with the director and a curator. The museum is rather new,
>  but the collection consists of historical paintings and scientific items.
>  Its galleries mostly show contemporary art. (I think it currently shows
> street art.) The director is an old friend of the family who owns the
> collection, and a successful businessman himself. He believes his business
> sense is a great asset in steering the museum into a contemporary, popular
> place for  younger generation.
>
> The museum is nice and working with them again will be more than welcome
> for me. Still it was rather striking for me to learn from them that  in
> Turkey cultural activities have been supported mostly by rich families and
> enterprises they run, rather than by the government or public organizations.
> At least that's their understanding. (Borusan may be the best example.) They
> regarded public museums as venues with shorter history and lower quality
> collections.
> The "infrastructure of art" seems to be different from what is considered
> standard in "the West" since modern era. Art history is different in each
> culture.
> This may at least partly explain why Biennale (which is contradictory to
> the idea of showing a collection) could be more experimental (in past years)
> or intriguing (this year with strong messages) in Istanbul.
>
> This is still a tentative and personal view of mine.  It will be great to
> hear from others, especially from Turkish artists!
>
> Machiko Kusahara
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