Breath of Sinop
The "Breath of Sinop" is a long term collaborative art project to raise awareness on social, cultural and natural heritage of Sinop for its local community.
The project brings people of Sinop together in participatory glass blowing workshops to have them give shape to glass balls with their breath. The dialogue with the participants during the workshops recalls the traditional glass craftsmanship as a forgotten local value and more importantly raises ideas about the future of the city.
In close collaboration with Sinop Sustainable Civic Association, "Breath of Sinop" would like to encourage that the ideas called out during the workshops turn in to sustainable civic initiatives, supporting social, cultural, economic development of the city.
Starting from August 2014, during Sinopale 5 (5thh Sinop Biennial), more than 500 people participated in the glass blowing workshops, which were held in Sinop centre, its towns, Gerze and Ayancık as well as in Istanbul Glass Furnace Foundation to reach out to people of Sinop, residing in Istanbul.
BOS1-Breath of Sinop August 2014 workhops, at Sinop center & Gerze,Turkey
BOS2-Breath of Sinop November 2014 workhops, at Sinop center & Ayancık, Turkey conversations
BOS3-Breath of Sinop February 2015 workhops, in Istanbul, Turkey in collaboration with Istanbul Glass Furnace Foundation
BOS4-Breath of Sinop May 2015 workshop, at Sinop, the Sinop Glass Factory, Turkey with participation of founders and initial glass masters working at the factory
BOS5 - exhibiting all glass balls produced
BOS6 -Linked Events: Sinopale Forum Creatisity
Sinopale Forum Exhibition at Istanbul Salt January 2016
film, glass object
An Utopia Station illustrates a metamorphosis of an abandoned house of production into a place, where
people connect to each other and to their values, in the form of a peek at ablaze. At An Utopia Station, glass is shaped by the breath of its masters, the future of the city by the breath of its inhabitants. Glass Blowing Workshop / Installation at Sinop HAL February 2016
A jar and a Half
Research into bee keeping practices in North East Turkey and Netherlands:
the track from Black Sea coast to Georgia (North West Anatolia)
talks with beefarmers
Art, in the praxis of socially engaged participatory works, empowers citizens as agents of transformation in the society.
Since 1980s we see increasingly more art projects shifting from the 'distantly critical' position to a 'functionally integrated' position. This function allows easy access and grounds for alternative social and political formations that are produced and consumed collectively.
I am co -initiator, facilitator and collaborative artist in the participatory project named “For the Love of Bee!” where workshops are offered on ecology and art for the creative expression of this new knowledge . For this project I work in Turkey, together with my partners to inspire people of diverse age groups and disciplines on the reciprocity between bees, humans.
The workshops are organized in collaboration with a local school, local beekeepers association, municipality and sometimes a local art institution.
The children will be taken to local bee farms and informed on pollination, the life of a bee colony and beekeeping as a profession. They are also coached on an art technique to transform their newly acquired knowledge into an artifact. These artifacts are produced using local materials, utilizing traditional crafts, to sustain the cultural traditions. Eventually, a collection will be formed of these artworks produced collectively in the workshops which will be exhibited both in Turkey and in the Netherlands.
