BRAWE Regional Labs and International Artist Camp
Eskişehir
Gender, Feminist Struggle and LGBTQI+ Rights in Turkey
by Merve Diltemiz Mol
Seminar, 12 February 2022, Eldem Art Space, Eskişehir
The women and LGBTQI+ movement constitute one of the most fascinating, inspiring and stimulating parts of the social opposition and rights struggles in Turkey, perhaps the most important one. Creativity and determination in action, empowering solidarity and rich theoretical debate are at the heart of these movements. In order to understand the history of the women’s and LGBTI+ movement in Turkey, its current agenda of struggle and its role in social opposition, we first took a closer look at the conceptual repertoire of feminism and the gay liberation struggle, the course of the movements in Turkey and some turning points.
With Feminist and Queer Solidarity: Koli Art Space
by Elçin Acun and Yasemin Nur Kalaycı
Artist Talk, 12 February 2022, Eldem Art Space, Eskişehir
Artists Yasemin Nur Kalaycı and Elçin Acun are the founders of Koli Art Space, which was established as a non-profit independent work, production and exhibition space focusing on feminist and queer art in Istanbul. The duo talked about their initiatives and gave a presentation on their personal works and their process and influences.
Representations of the House
Cyanotype Workshop, 13 February 2022, Eldem Art Space, Eskişehir
In this workshop, we visualized the projects prepared by the participants on rethinking the political context of the house, questioning where or what the house is or what it might be, rereading the house in the context of gender, by applying cyanotype, an alternative photography technique, at a time when the interference in our existence in the public sphere has increased tremendously.
Art in Public Space and Creative Political Actions
by Ezgi Bakçay
Seminar, 19 February 2022, Eldem Art Space, Eskişehir
Hacking the Public Space
by Ezgi Bakçay
Workshop, 19-20 February 2022, Eldem Art Space, Eskişehir
The programme, consisting of a seminar and an idea workshop, focused on the possibilities of aesthetic interventions that would change the flow of daily life in the public sphere. In the first session, the concepts of public space, city, aesthetics and politics were discussed. In the second session, the participants discussed the urban space; people, animals, plants, stones, architectural elements, light and sound and the entire symbolic world were invited to think in communication and flow. Afterwards, ideas were explored on imagining new contact forms and places and changing the direction of the daily flow.
Project Management and Critical Development
by Melike Bayık and Serenay Şahin
Workshop, 19-20 March 2022, Eldem Art Space, Eskişehir
The initiatives of young artists who were entitled to participate in the BRAWE project, their application processes, portfolio preparation stages, and research strategies on feminist culture and queer art were addressed. After being admitted to the BRAWE project, the development stages of this process, research methods, relations and interactions with other participating artists, conceptual and formal evaluation of the results of the work process, discussion of the productions, and exhibition strategies in which the works in progress would be presented to the audience were discussed. The artists’ production and exhibition, meeting with the audience, portfolio and self-expression were also among the workshop topics.
Artvizit, Project Building
by Zeynep Yavuzcezzar
Workshop, 7 April 2022, Zoom
In this workshop, BRAWE artists explored ways to build their career paths and be visible in the national and international art world with their unique artistic voices. While looking at the methods to find their audience and create their portfolios accordingly, they were encouraged not to search for the possibilities but to create opportunities themselves based on their goals and aspirations. After the workshop, participants created their own artist page in artvizit.co.
Budapest
Introduction Workshop
by Maja Móczár and Anna Csekő (NEM!)
Workshop, 11 February 2022, Auróra, Budapest
Following an introduction to the project, all participants were made familiar with the agenda and got to know each other. The introduction was followed by a comprehensive workshop on theoritical background of feminism - different approaches, trends, what it means to be feminist with a participatory approach.
Sociodrama Workshop
by Kata Horváth and Teszáry
Workshop, 14 February 2022, Auróra, Budapest
The workshop used the methodology of sociodrama, a method of group psychotherapy in which each participant assumes and dramatizes a variety of roles, focusing on problems and conflicts arising in art intitutions, family background, their roles as women etc. The workshop was an important part of their own journey defining what experiences they would want to rely on throughout their artistic journey, which areas of feminism they would like to work with.
“women art” vs “not women art”
by Andrea Bordács and Zsuzsi Simon
Workshop, 18 February 2022, Auróra, Budapest
The workshop and discussions with an academic and a contemporary artist addressed oppression and hierarchy in art institutions - with a special focus on educational institutions, talking about experiences regarding womens roles in institions and intitutional hierarchy.
School of Disobedience Workshop
by Anna Ádám
Workshop, 7 March 2022
The School of Disobedience workshop used group methods to explore emotions, women body, creativity, self-expression through movement, with a feminist approach.
Art or Activism Workshop and Show and Tell
by Kata Oltai, Ágnes Eperjesi
Workshop, 8 April 2022, Auróra, Budapest
The discussion was on institational hierarchy, visibility of contemporary art projects, art galeries and also on practical issues like how to improve the impact of art project, how and where to apply for funds, how to find partners, how to lead a project, how to connect to institutions, how and where you can do exhibitions. The presentations followed by Show and Tell, where all participants could present their cultural action ideas and get reflections on them from the two experts, curators and a contemporary galery owner.
Cultural Actions Group Consultation and Show and Tell
by Kata Oláh and Zsuzsa Mekler
Consultation, 8 May 2022, Auróra, Budapest
In the Show and Tell, all the participants could present their final cultural action plans and get last reflections.
International Artist Camp in Eskişehir
KILN
by Serenay Şahin
Workshop, 26 February 2022, Eldem Art Space, Eskişehir
“A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes.” (Wikipedia)
In other words it is a process to transform, at least we build the concept from here. In this workshop we tried to trans-form the habits, boundaries (in a cosmic sense), meeting (in the everyday sense) etc. We sought to compose an inter-mixture(s), a combination(s), a composition(s), an assemblage(s) in the process, the process of BRAWE project.
The kiln started at the international meeting but did not end at the end of the day; continued to add, to mix, to combine during the whole International Artist Camp. The kiln is an action, rather than a piece of artwork. That’s why we are interested in perceiving the process, feeling the coexistence, tasting the power of being together.
Because what we know is “the individual is the whole universe”.
Building a Forest
by Burcu Bilgiç
Performance Workshop, 27 February 2022, Eldem Art Space, Eskişehir
Burcu Bilgiç guided and triggered BRAWE artists through movement, imagery, and some unreasonable creative practices. Departing from the sentence “Reason is the super hero of psyche and privileged domain of master”, in this workshop, we tried to sway between reasonable and unreasonable with the help of anima(l). Bodies, moves, and animal imagery were used as tools with the potential to dissolve boundaries between master and nonmaster. This boundary blurring exercise took a political stand due to its destructive potential over classifying and constructive potential with its transspecies premises.
Artist Talk and Presentation of History of Collage
by Eda Gecikmez
Seminar, 28 February 2022, Eldem Art Space, Eskişehir
Re-body
by Eda Gecikmez
Workshop, 28 February 2022, Eldem Art Space, Eskişehir
Collage is one of the ways artists defeat today. While power and society repeatedly construct the roles of body, gender and identity through visual representations, the collage destroys this visual language and reveals all the politics hidden behind it. At the same time, it opens up a space for plural languages, which have been under the pressure of these ideological constructs, to express themselves. It allows the experience of games and fantasies, suppressed emotions. It blurs the boundaries of life with art, thus building a space of freedoms. Based on daily life, this collage workshop opened up today’s body representations for discussion and invited the violation of these constructs.
