Intentions 1
These projects came to be as a result of all the seminars taken, the interaction and ideological exchanges between the speakers, instructors and participants, the pandemics situation that occurred at the same period and all other happenings that affected our lives in that time frame.
In this period where we find ourselves in the midst of uncertainties and worries; “Intentions” is a project that puts forth the objectives of these responsible prospective curators that purpose to render the viewer conscious and invite them to be inquisitive with the suggestion that maybe a better future would be possible.
The participants of this seminar program had different educational backgrounds such as philosophy, communication, advertising design, Stage performance and arts management, Economy, Cultural Management, Political Science, Sociology, Architecture, Plastic Arts, International Relations, Fashion Design, City & Regional Planning, Mathematics and Industrial Engineering; yet together they have managed to develop individual projects that revealed a unity of discourse.
About the Program
“Curating Contemporary Art” is a 7-month long seminar series organized in cooperation by Open Dialogue Istanbul and Akbank Sanat. This was the first program and it was realized between November 2019 and June 2020.
The purpose of these seminar series, that are planned to be continued on a yearly basis, is to initiate a comprehensive program on curation that is on an international level, thus creating a prestigious and unequalled platform of education in this field in Turkey. The program consists of both theory and practice and will run under the coordination of Billur Tansel and it will be carried out with an educational, practice-based and research-oriented approach.
The seminars were presented in Turkish and English. Speakers were renowned actors in the field of art from the international art scene. They both gave the necessary basis for theory and provided opportunities to put the theory into practice.
Some of the seminars were as follows: Who is the curator? What is curating? A brief look at the history of contemporary art, introduction to exhibition planning, how to do the research for the curatorial project and how to define the curatorial concept, writing the curatorial text, the selection of the artists and the artworks that will be selected, working with the artists on the project, the exhibition design, and exhibiting strategies, budget planning, the logistics of the curatorial process, the legal dimensions of exhibition planning, aesthetics, different curatorial strategies, the working principles for different art institutions, artist talks, planning of international projects, the planning of the exhibition catalogue…
The seminars also featured case studies on biennials, galleries, museums and art fairs.
At the end of the seminars, the Jury evaluated the general interest and participation of the participants as well as their final exhibition project proposals and they were found eligible to be displayed via a digital exhibition on Akbank Sanat’s web page and the participants were presented with a certificate of completion.
We would like to hereby extend our cordial thanks to Arter, Elgiz Museum, Pera Museum, Gallery Nev and Gallery Öktem Aykut for supporting our program by inviting and hosting us in their premises this year. Their support is of great value for us and for the program.