ISTANBUL AUDIO TOUR
2010 ISTANBUL CULTURAL CAPITal, istanbul
2009
With:
Cevdet Erek (sound and visual artist)
Suat Öğüt (artist)
roomservices / Evren Uzer & Otto vn Busch (a city planner and a a fashion designer)
Ergun Tükel (cafe owner)
Curator: Ece Pazarbasi
The first edition of Istanbul Audio Tour in 2009 set off from the notion that there are as many Istanbuls as the number of people living in it, or even as many as the moods of these people, and on the other hand the project points to the fact that while the big cities of the world develop in terms of context and content, as they evolve into metropolises, they tend to resemble each other rather than grow different.
Istanbul Audio Tour’s first phase in 2009 was aiming to realise the first part of this idea by sharing a variety of perspectives from a wide spectrum on Istanbul with the public and with the local and international viewers of the International Istanbul Biennial.The project aimed to define Istanbul not only through the eyes of artists but also through the voices of designers, urban planners and local shop owners.Therefore, Cevdet Erek (artist), Suat Öğüt (artist), roomservices (a fashion designer and a city planner) and Ergun Tükel (shop owner) were asked to produce audio tours that interest them, that express their ideas and their Istanbul in or around a limited area, tours that would be completed with the involvement of the participants. So the aim was to produce tours that were not functional without the presence of a participant, and the aspiration was to be able to initiate varied routes, rhythms and experiences of Istanbul even with all the directions provided.
In the project four different platforms from different perspectives were established, by Cevdet Erek in the experience that he provided through the connections of sound, music and visual arts, by Suat Öğüt in his paranoid story set around the local shop owners, by roomservices in their attentive study of the city and its sounds, drawing upon their past experience in audio tours, and by Ergun Tükel in his instances from social history as a true Istanbulite.