TRADING STATION: Day 2
Today I met Nancy Atakan for the first time. She has been a great host today, sharing breakfast with me, showing me around Istanbul and taking me to 5533, the art centre that she runs with Volkan Aslan. Nancy has been re-filming a work that she made 20 years ago – it’s a version of this work: http://www.nancyatakan.com/works/92/calisma-work
Nancy has also been collecting photographs of plastic chairs – you know, the patio ones that were must-have in about 1989, but that you can find everywhere around the world. We think that there could be an exchange potential for TRADING STATION in this – people in Liverpool sending Nancy images of lonely plastic patio chairs, just longing to be sat in…
I’ve been getting a sense of the city and how it is laid out, and thinking a lot about what I can do in this short period of time. I’m feeling drawn to squares and busy streets, such as Taksim and Istiklal, and have already collected a couple of 1 minute videos that I will try and work with later. I’ve also been looking at the pavements a lot – a hangover from when I was in Portugal last year – the pavements were works of art in Portugal, but I think that there is potential for pieces of work that are linked to pavements – maybe a drawing onto the paving stones of a square or street are in the offing.
