Sparwasser HQ at Platform

March 11. ­ April 17. 2004

in Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, Turkey

"Independent Collaborative Hospitality"
Exhibition text by Dave Beech

Including works by:
Dave Beech
Heman Chong
Annika Eriksson
Lise Harlev
Jakob Kolding
Henrik Olesen
Susan Philipsz

Johannes Raether / Home Video Systems
Reinigungsgesellschaft
Oliver Ressler
Gitte Villesen

+ Archive:
Old Habits Die Hard


Curated by Lise Nellemann/Sparwasser HQ

For five weeks, the artist-run space Sparwasser HQ shifts its activities from Berlin to the center of Istanbul. A variety of activities, performances, talks, and exhibitions will consider the artist's involvement in communicating and distributing artistic ideas through the establishment of alternative models of representation.

Invited by Platform, Sparwasser HQ will act both as guest and as secondary host, in turn inviting artists and other people of interest to contribute to the exhibition's developing conceptual framework. As a result, Sparwasser HQ will examine the different self-organized networks that develop through the processes of inviting, hosting, and collaborating. This strategy of researching collectives and mapping networks brings into question issues of self-organization and alternative/self- representation, and alternative economies and values.

A program of meetings and dialogues will occur in the gallery space throughout the duration of the exhibition. Participating artists include: Annika Eriksson, who invites Brazilian musicians to perform for her camera; Gitte Villesen, who often asks people to share their personal stories with herself and the camera; Jakob Kolding, who questions attempts made to involve or to exclude local residents from using their neighbourhood's public spaces as they choose. The video archive Old Habits Die Hard will also be housed at Platform. Old Habits Die Hard contains 50 artworks selected by artist-run spaces and art collectives. The works are available to the public for viewing at their convenience. The artists' talks and archive consider representation, right to free speech, and the use of the public space, all ideas that link to Sparwasser HQ's investigative framework: researching and archiving artist-run spaces and their activities.

Sparwasser HQ is a non-profit platform for artist-curated projects. Collaborative and discursive research is our first priority. Sparwasser HQ develops continually changing thoughts on exhibition practice, building up a laboratory of ideas for art workers and their audience, and establishing a network between people. Sparwasser HQ transfers focus from the purely visual to the production of dialogue. We work with inclusive and democratic strategies, involving the public in discussion on themes of migration, nationality, and autonomous art production.

 

Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center
Istiklal Caddesi 276
Beyoglu 80050 Istanbul
Tel + 90 212 293 23 61
Fax + 90 212 293 30 71
platform

Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center was initiated in September 2001. Located in Beyoglu, the most vibrant part of Istanbul, Platform acts as a central meeting point in the city for cultural exchange between contemporary artists, curators, and critics. The building contains: an artist archive, research and lecture spaces, the Istanbul Residency Program (open to international contemporary visual artists, critics, and curators of contemporary art), and, on street level, a gallery committed to exhibiting contemporary art from Turkey and abroad.