IZMIR
MEMORY BOX: THE RECORDINGS OF A NEIGHBORHOOD
Public Installation: 17.06.2016
Exhibition: 12-15.10.2016
In its simplest form, memory is retaining and recalling recent or far past experiences often coming in oral forms and narratives. It is the act of remembering, recollecting narratives that are inevitably linked to space. Although memory is thought to belong to an individual, it transcends the individual perspective and becomes a collective phenomenon created by the society.
"Collective memory is selective, socially constructed, contained spatiality — a society’s memory is reconstruction of past" (Halbwachs, 1992).
Yet, how can urban memory be curated so that it would transgress its passive entity and revived through a mobile vehicle? In what ways can this revival become an outcome of a collective will? How can this process be transformed into a mobile and public performance?
‘Memory Box’ is beyond a public installation but a project seeking the answers to these questions. At the same time, having started in December 2015, ‘Memory Box’ is the outcomes of the project which is based on remembering the transformation process of ‘Cultural Center’ located in Güzelyalı neighborhood of Izmir. The memories referring the civic initiation about the transformation of As Movie Theatre of 80’s into a ‘Cultural Center’ were emphasized and made visible via the ‘Memory Box’ located in the park of the same neighborhood in last June. The components of this process is exhibited at K2 Contemporary Art Center in Izmir to meet with the rest of the Izmir siders.
The project aims to identify various methods of activating cultural centres by participatory means of the communities. The focus will be on two complementary situations in Cluj and Izmir. More precisely on the communities around ARTA cinema from Cluj Napoca which will be opening as a cultural centre during next year and the Güzelyalı Cultural Center which was a cinema in the past and was reactivated and transformed by the will of the community of neighborhoods.
The project reveals the memories related to these cultural places from and their importance to the urban life.
UrbanTank is a design and thinking platform dedicated to research on people oriented and participatory urban environments. The organisation looks for human-centered solutions for urban life, and explores how people relate to cities and public spaces relate to people today.
WHO we are
ABOUT the project
ARTA in Dialogue aims to bring together interested parties from urbanism, architecture, cinema and visual arts around the issue of urban environment and it’s importance to culture by means of research and events.
CONNECTING COMM(ON)UNITIES
a joint project by
UrbanTank and ARTA in Dialogue
Connecting Comm(on)unities is a Tandem Collaboration.
TANDEM - Cultural Managers Exchange Turkey-EU is an initiative of the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam), MitOst (Berlin), Anadolu Kültür (Istanbul), and funded by Stiftung Mercator (Essen).
The Connecting Comm(on)unities team is grateful for the generous support of the following organizations.
A series of public events and exhibitions are held in Turkey and Romania.
CLUJ
RE: ARTA
1-3 July 2016
Re:ARTA is an event meant to collect the memories and wishes regarding the ARTA cinema from Cluj. Combining oral history and archival research, the project reveals the stories connected to one of the oldest cinemas in Romania and its importance for the community.
EVENTS