Three exhibitions curated by Philipp Misselwitz and Can Altay in cooperation with the 4^th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam IABR “Open City – Designing Coexistence”:

• Open City Forum – curated with Tim Rieniets
• Refuge – Critical projects and positions by architects, urbanists, artists and activists
• Bas Princen – 5 Cities Portfolio – Photographs from Istanbul, Beirut, Amman, Cairo and Dubai

12 March – 9 May 2010

Launch Event: Friday, 12 March 2010, from 18.30pm

I came across these exhibitions thru Merve Yucel’s e-mail. Thank you Merve for letting me know. I will try to visit it in my next visit to Istanbul.

You can find the detailed information below provided by Merve.

Image credits:
Bas Princen. Istanbul Edge City, 2009.
Photograph Decolonizing Architecture. Laboratory of Return: Oush Grab, 2009.
SMAQ. Charter of Dubai, 2009.

DEPO/ Tütün Deposu visiting hours:
Tuesday – Sunday 11.00am – 19.00pm (closed on Mondays)
Free Entry

Guided Tours:
Saturday between 13.00 – 18.00pm

Address:
DEPO / Tütün Deposu Lüleci Hendek Caddesi No.12
Tophane 34425 İstanbul

For further information: www.depoistanbul.net
Contact: depo@depoistanbul.net
Telephone: +90 212 292 39 56
Curators: Philipp Misselwitz and Can Altay
Exhibition team: Zeynep Moralı, Yaşar Adanalı
Production: Zeynep Moralı, Asena Günal, Yaşar Adanalı
Exhibition design: Superpool
Outreach programme: Yaşar Adanalı, Merve Yücel

Open City Forum – curated with Tim Rieniets

The IABR is an international urban research biennale founded in 2001 with the conviction that architecture is a public concern. The theme of the fourth edition of the IABR is the Open City, which signifies openness to diversity and difference, vitality and social sustainability, where people can productively relate to each other, both culturally as well as socio-economically. With the “Open City: Designing Coexistence” heading, the Rotterdam Biennale places special emphasis on how can architects and urban planners make concrete contributions for sustainability of the urban condition. The exhibition brings together elements from Rotterdam’s recent 4^th International Architecture Biennale and, at the same time, functions as a platform for a series of lectures, presentations and discussions.

Diwan magazines:

• Istanbul – Living in Voluntary and Involuntary Exclusion (edited by Tansel Korkmaz, Eda Ünlü-Yücesoy and Yaşar Adanalı, Can Altay, Philipp Misselwitz)

• Beirut – Mapping Security (edited by Mona Fawaz, Mona Harb, Ahmad Gharbieh)

• Amman – Neoliberal Urban Management (edited by Rami Farouk Daher)

• Cairo – Resilience: City as Personal Practice (edited by Dina Shehayeb and Shahira Issa)

Refuge – Critical projects and positions by architects, urbanists, artists and activists

“Refuge” can imply a safe haven, or the notion of forced displacement, producing spaces that can range from luxurious resorts to overcrowded refugee camps. Spaces of refuge are generated by the desire or necessity to withdraw from the city, to keep out intruders, or to protect and control those inside. In our societies, protective isolation is as necessary as openness, yet when refuge dominates, urbanity is at risk. Focusing on cities in Turkey and the Middle East, this exhibition approaches spaces of refuge from opposing angles: as threats to urbanity that need to be prevented or dismantled, and as intimate, but still undeveloped forms of the Open City.

Bas Princen – 5 Cities Portfolio – Photographs from Istanbul, Beirut, Amman, Cairo and Dubai

A series of works in which the Dutch artist Bas Princen observes contemporary urban transformation in Turkey and the Middle East: how Istanbul, Beirut, Amman, Cairo and Dubai have become laboratories for a proliferation of spaces and practices of refuge – spaces of extreme poverty on the one hand and wealth on the other. Motivations and triggers for processes of withdrawal are extremely varied producing a broad array of conditions ranging from migrant worker camps to gated satellite cities in the desert, from slick city centre high rises to islands of urban poverty. Rather than investigating the social, economic or political dynamics that have produced the space, Princen considers the conditions that have emerged with an interest in their spatial and formal qualities. Despite the extreme differences in the dynamics of spatial production, the emerging spatial units are surprisingly similar—at the very least, in their isolated nature and alienated relation to their surroundings.

Made possible by:

Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency; City of Rotterdam; Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Istanbul; International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR); Mondriaan Foundation; Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development; Chair of Architecture and Urban Design, ETH Zurich.