European Mediterranean Art Association (EMAA) is hosting a public seminar where Basak Senova an international curator and Benji Boyadgian a Palestinian urban architect will be delivering speeches on the notion of borders, memory reconstruction and control mechanisms, at the conflicted areas. The seminar will take place at EMAA Capital Art Center in Nicosia on Thursday, January 8th at 18:30 and it will be open to all public.
Abstracts of the talks to be delivered are as followed :
Basak Senova - "Perpetual and Spatial Control"
"Regardless of constructed histories and collective memories, the act of remembering is always attached to a 'defined place'. It is inevitable for any affirmative perception of space to be historicized and politicized. Hence, most of these specific places are loaded with memory and control mechanisms.
The perpetual and spatial considerations of most of my curatorial work are shaped through these conditions. What is the responsibility of a curator in relation to such specific places along with their loaded memory, conflicting sensibilities, and controlling entities? How does the curatorial framework correlate with spatial, physiological, ideological, historical, communicational, and informational challenges?
In this line of thought, four case studies: "UNCOVERED. Nicosia International Airport" project, Cyprus, (2010-2013); the "2nd Biennial of Contemporary Art, D-0 ARK Underground" (2013) in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Helsinki Photography Biennial (2014); and the Jerusalem Show (2014) exemplify a consideration of the social, political, and cultural situations that shape the development of projects, as well as the role of the control mechanisms in this process. These case studies should not only be considered as attempts to detect tactics and rejections against the pressures and conditions of existing mechanisms of tension, but they also have the potentials to show the possibility of producing creative and critical means and channels to reflect on these mechanisms."
Basak Senova is a curator and designer. She studied Literature and Graphic Design (MFA in Graphic Design and Ph.D. in Art, Design and Architecture at Bilkent University) and attended the 7th Curatorial Training Programme of Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam. She has been writing on art, technology and media, initiating and developing projects and curating exhibitions since 1995. Senova is the editor of art-ist 6, Kontrol Online Magazine, Lapses book series, UNCOVERED and Aftermath among other publications. She is an editorial correspondent for ibraaz.org and one of the founding members of NOMAD, as well as the organizer of "ctrl_alt_del" and "Upgrade!Istanbul". Senova was the curator of the Pavilion of Turkey at the 53rd Venice Biennale. As an assistant professor, she lectured in various universities in Istanbul such as Kadir Has University, Bilgi University and Koç University. She curated Zorlu Center Collection for two years (2011-2012). She co-curated the UNCOVERED (Cyprus) and the 2nd Biennial of Contemporary Art, D-0 ARK Underground (Bosnia and Herzegovina). In 2014, she acted as the Art Gallery Chair of (ACM) SIGGRAPH 2014 (Vancouver) the curator of the Helsinki Photography Biennial 2014 and the Jerusalem Show.
Benji Boyadgian - "The notion of border"
"The notion of border in Palestinian/Israel is superfluous. In both cases they identify to a territory that has the same shape, despite the evident unbalance of power. Control of mobility, and ID status designs the possibilities to practice a territory. The 21th century wall, the border of our imagery is just a lure to the idea of division. The wall is just part of a network constituted of walls, fences, highways, surveillance tower, checkpoints, zones etc…that shapes the logics of mobility. In the talk I will present three projects, site in different parts of the “security network”.
The first project, the temporary archive, is a series of paintings of eroded “traditional landscape” in the “buffer zone” between the green line (1949 to1967 border) and the wall (2004) in the eastern limit between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The second project, Under a pixel sky is a drawing that focuses on the wall and the path it carves in Bethlehem to annex a sanctuary, “Rachels tomb”, holy for the three monotheistic religions. The third project, “beyond the daily routine?” looks at an Israeli supermarket, at the Gush Etzion Junction in the Etzion settlement block, between Bethlehem and Hebron, sited in Zone C in the “West bank”. "
Benji Boyadgian studied architecture at ENSAPLV School of Architecture (L'Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris La Villette), attaining a Masters of Architecture with research distinction, specializing in urban sociology. His master's thesis is titled: 'Contemporary habitat and urban expansion in Bethlehem, Palestine'. Boyadgian lived in Palestine until 2001 before moving abroad, spending time in Helsinki, Paris and San Francisco. He graduated in 2009 from the Architecture School of La Villette in Paris, specializing in urban sociology in conflict areas. He moved back to Jerusalem in 2010, where he now lives and works, exploring themes revolving around heritage, architecture and landscape, using painting and drawing as tools to convey his subject matters. His recent shows include Vanishing Landscapes (2010) at Al Kahf Gallery, Bethlehem, A journey into Abstrabesque (2013) at Al Ma'mal Foundation, Jerusalem, Spinning on An Axis at MAM, Vienna (2014), and Jerusalem Show (2014). Boyadgian lives and works in Jerusalem
For more information about the event please get in touch with Ozgul Ezgin ( 00 90 533 864 04 18 – ozgul.ezgin@gmail.com )