In the Blink of A Bird

The project »In the Blink of A Bird« was initiated by the artist collective Sis*. Working collaboratively, Sis negotiates themes of freedom of expression, bureaucracy, and immigration. In Turkey, print and radio media in particular are increasingly subject to regulations that restrict freedom of speech. To demonstrate the subversive potential of these media, the artists of the collective chose techniques from these fields for their work.
In May 2017, Depo Istanbul hosted the first exhibition of »In the Blink of A Bird«, a multimedia installation that included »Incoming Papers« (printed matter) and »HisTV« (video works). Unfolding between these two poles, the current exhibition at the nGbK integrates additional content by employing materials that have been gathered over the past two years. During this time, many people from Turkey have moved to Europe, and mainly to Berlin. Therefore, the notion of relocating is conceptually taken into account in the exhibition. For the nGbK, Sis developed new modules for their installation, like a wall newspaper and a printing press as well as the »Bureaucratic Application Anxiety Consultation Agency«. A new performance devised for this fictive agency, which offers to help newcomers navigate the bureaucratic jungle, will be presented to the public twice during the exhibition period.

*Sis is a collective of artists from Turkey founded in 2016 during a stay in the project space Apartment Project in Berlin. The increasing suppression of freedom of speech in Turkey forced the artists to work with indirect forms of expression. Since then, Sis has been exploring collective production. The collective is constantly shifting in size, and coming together in different constellations, with new members actively joining while others are stepping aside.

Sis Collective and collaborators:
Selda Asal, Özgür Atlagan, Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli, Fatma Belkıs, Berk Asal, Emre Birişmen, Savaş Boyraz, Şafak Çatalbaş, Onur Ceritoğlu, Ece Gökalp, Yasemin Nur, Gümüş Özdeş, Ceren Oykut, Melih Sarıgöl, Özlem Sarıyıldız, Sandra Schäfer, Nihan Somay, Gökçe Süvari, Berkay Tuncay, Merve Ünsal, Seçil Yersel & Özge Açıkkol
TheFirstPaperWorkers: Evrim Kavcar, Güneş Terkol
TheSecondPaperWorkers: Şahika Aslantürkiyeli, Hakan Öktem, Hüseyin Varaha
TheThirdPaperWorkers: Zümrüt Çavuşoğlu, Senem Denli, Özgür Erkök Moroder, Sina Muehleisen
Publication Editors: Erden Kosova, Umut Yıldırım
Incoming Papers Archive: Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Didem Erk, Bengi Güldoğan, Gülsün Karamustafa, Evrim Kavcar, Komet, Göksu Kunak, Ali Miharbi, Sevgi Ortaç, İz Öztat, İrem Tok
HisTV Archive: İmre Azem, Mehtap Baydu, Elmas Deniz, Gaye Günay, Borga Kantürk, Evrim Kavcar, Zeynep Kayan, Ezgi Kılınçaslan, Artıkişler Kolektifi, Julia Lazarus, Lara Ögel, Azra Deniz Okyay, Florian Wüst

Events:

Friday, 26 April 2019
17:30
Performance (EN)
Sis Collective »In the Blink of A Bird (second rendition)«

In this performance the members and collaborators of Sis explore in the realm of bureaucracy. They claim to consult, guide and counsel the visitors through the exhibition, through the paperwork, through unvoiced complications and to a Next Stage.
This performance is the modified second rendition of the first »In the Blink of A Bird«, realized in Depo İstanbul in 2017. Since the performers will be able to consult a limited number of people, Sis collective suggests that you make an appointment online filling out this form.

Members of Sis advise you to be ready to encounter questions like »Are you able to eat fresh coriander?« or »Have you ever been to a courthouse?« and they say that it is ok to come with a friend because no man is an island, right?

18:00
Performance (EN)
Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli »Operating the Hayal Machine«

Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli spent hours with the Sis collective listening and tapping into project planning, their ideas and endeavors in Istanbul.
The listening process continues at the nGbK, where they filter thoughts, sentences and printed matter of Sis and the audience, which - after digitizing and formatting - becomes the printed score for a choreography: That of a shadow figure moved by a needle printer. If you want your inner murmurs to be danced by the shadow figure approach the artists during the operating times of the Hayal Mashine.
Hayal is an Ottoman word of Arabic origin and means illusion or shadow of illusion.

19:00
Opening of the exhibition

21:00
Performance (EN)
Ceren Oykut & Fezaya Firar »Black on Black«

An audiovisual improvisation of live drawing and electronic music. Ceren Oykut’s surprising, tribal and tameless lines are telling stories of urban transformation, animals and language while accompanied by the purely live synthesized sonic waves of FezayaFirar, which swing between acyclic industrial drone and rhythmscapes.

Tuesday, 30 April 2019
13:00-17:00
Newspaper Workshop (EN/TR) by Sis Collective

In these participatory workshops, the members of the Sis collective print newspapers. Visitors are invited to add content to the wall newspaper.

18:30
HisTV Studio Session – Live program
»Hands Off My Friend« with the group »Friends of Osman Kavala«
With: Shermin Langhoff, Arsinée Khanjian, Camera: Selda Asal, Sandra Schäfer, Savaş Boyraz, Presenter: Erden Kosova

The AKP government in Turkey has recently enacted alarming hegemonic policies on political and economic spheres. Their feeling of defeat in the cultural field has resulted in an aggressive culture war in all sorts of creative and critical circles. During this ruthless campaign, Osman Kavala – businessman, activist and among the most influential actors of the contemporary cultural scene – was targeted. He was jailed for 15 months and now faces a life sentence with the absurd accusation of masterminding and financing the Gezi Uprising back in 2013. The panelists, who had continuous collaboration and close friendship with Kavala will assess the situation and discuss the ways in which acts of solidarity can be expanded upon and organised to create a counter-pressure on oppressive regimes.

Presenter Erden Kosova is an art critic from Istanbul. Last year, he received the “Weltoffenes Berlin” fellowship from the Berlin Senate and collaborated with Apartment Project and Artists at Risk (AR). He has been in the organisational team of Maxim Gorki Theater’s Herbstsalon exhibitions since 2013. As an editor, he contributes to the Istanbul-based e-journal red-thread.org and the Amsterdam-based Meduza Foundation.

Friday, 3 May 2019, 13:00-18:00
HisTV Open Studio – Recordings

The members of the Sis collective record new content for HisTV. The audience is invited to contribute topics and programmes.

Saturday, 4 May 2019
14:00
Panel discussion (EN)
»What’s Not Happening in Istanbul?«
With: Asena Günal, Merve Ünsal, Fatma Belkıs, Chaired by: Ingo Arend

In the beginning of the 2000s, fertile ground led artistic production to flourish in Istanbul. Financial support for art was on the rise, as were multiple independent institutions. But today, the prevalence of self-censorship in culture and arts organisations has become the norm. There are fewer funding possibilities, and institutions are closing due to economic problems.

As conservatism and nationalism continues to grow on an international scale, political oppression, censorship and violence is increasing day by day in Turkey.

Artists were forced to change their production practices. In these political economical conditions, what are the new methods of production and expression for artists? And which new forms of exhibition-making and financing can withstand the pressure of the current situation?

16:30
Panel discussion (EN)
»Art At Stake / What are the limits of free expression for an artist?«
With: Ceren Oykut, Selda Asal, Umut Yıldırım, Chaired by: Yasemin Nur

In countries racing towards autocracy, what is the position artists can take against the skillful plots of fear-inducing politics? How is their work affected by this? What type of expression is possible? What paths are taken?

19:00
Panel discussion (EN)
» ›New Wave‹ Migration from Turkey: Displacement, Survival and Solidarity«
With: Onur Ceritoğlu, Özlem Sarıyıldız, Tuba İnal Çekiç, Chaired by: Özge Yaka

In the last few years, Berlin has become a major destination for highly educated, critically minded young people from Turkey (the so-called ›new wave‹). While most of them are not political refugees in the classical sense, they felt that they had to leave their home country. Stories of displacement and loss evolve into stories of re-making and solidarity in an urban environment that is marked by earlier waves of migration. This panel is about how those stories engender art works and projects that seek to create solidarity.

Tuesday, 14 May 2019
13:00-17:00
Newspaper Workshop (EN/TR) by Sis Collective

In these participatory workshops, the members of the Sis collective print newspapers. Visitors are invited to add content to the wall newspaper.

17:00
Performance (EN)
Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli »Operating the Hayal Machine«

Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli spent hours with the Sis collective listening and tapping into project planning, their ideas and endeavors in Istanbul.
The listening process continues at the nGbK, where they filter thoughts, sentences and printed matter of Sis and the audience, which - after digitizing and formatting - becomes the printed score for a choreography: That of a shadow figure moved by a needle printer. If you want your inner murmurs to be danced by the shadow figure approach the artists during the operating times of the Hayal Machine.
Hayal is an Ottoman word of Arabic origin and means illusion or shadow of illusion.

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
15:00
HisTV Open Studio – Recordings

The members of the Sis collective record new content for HisTV. The audience is invited to contribute topics and programmes.

18:00
Performance
Şafak Çatalbaş »Post Truth Spa Center - seance02«

Şafak Çatalbaş realized a series of performances. In Istanbul in 2017 she created fictional news and broke them to the audience in the room, as the Twitter newsfeed was projected onto the space wall, as everyone could see live. Imitating the language of a news anchor, she synchronised Twitter news streams with her own stream of consciousness.
In Berlin in 2018 Çatalbaş invited the visitors to focus on her Facebook profile, projected onto a tub filled with water and start running a hypnosis session. The session gradually turned into a process of automatic talking where her stream of consciousness was synchronised with the Facebook news feed.
For the upcoming performance »Post Truth Spa Center - seance02« Şafak Çatalbaş shares some tips and advices for you lovely participants, to get ready for this new session:
»Trust your body. Trust your mind. Hear your inner voice. Rather than singing, tell your latest dream as you have your morning shower. Scream loud as you breathe out and avoid to eat red and blue coloured foods in breakfast before you come to the session. Do not reach for your phone at least for 24 hours. Taking a social media fast for one week is highly recommended before this session. Wear comfortable shoes and don’t forget that the future is a female cat.«

Saturday, 18 May 2019, 17:30-19:30
Newspaper Workshop (EN/TR) by Sis Collective

In these participatory workshops, the members of the Sis collective print newspapers. Visitors are invited to add content to the wall newspaper.

Thursday, 23 May 2019, 13:00-18:00
HisTV Open Studio – Recordings

The members of the Sis collective record new content for HisTV. The audience is invited to contribute topics and programmes.

Monday, 27 May 2019, 16:30
Lecture (DE)
Zeynep Sayın »Erinnerung und Vergessen in einem Bild: Strategien und Deklinationen des Bildes in totalitären Systemen«

»Spätere Epochen werden diese Zerstörungsakte, diesen Mord an der Geschichte, nicht verstehen«, schreibt Siegfried Gideon. Der Satz bezieht sich auf den Gedächtnisschwund der amerikanischen Industrie, ist aber gültig für die Gedächtnishygiene und den Gedaechtnismord in der gegenwärtigen Türkei. So wie man den Tod und die Verstorbenen politisiert, politisiert und zerstört man Orte, weil sie Erinnerungstraeger sind. Dieser Vortrag möchte der Frage nachgehen, welche Orte zerstört werden, wie und warum sie zerstört werden.

Tuesday, 28 May 2019, 18:00
Film screening and discussion (EN)
»Turkey on the Edge« (2017, 53 min.) by İmre Azem
With: İmre Azem, Mücella Yapıcı, Gaye Günay
Chaired by: Erden Kosova

Turkey On The Edge: A personal account from inside the Turkish pro-democracy movement. While Turkey steadily turns into an oppressive one-man rule, several human rights defenders courageously stand up for civil liberties and true democracy. In the words of filmmaker Imre Azem: »To rise above the dark clouds, we need two things: truth and courage.«

Saturday, 1 June 2019
17:30
Performance
Sis Collective »In the Blink of A Bird (second rendition)«

In this performance the members and collaborators of Sis explore in the realm of bureaucracy. They claim to consult, guide and counsel the visitors through the exhibition, through the paperwork, through unvoiced complications and to a Next Stage.
This performance is the modified second rendition of the first »In the Blink of A Bird«, realized in Depo İstanbul in 2017.Since the performers will be able to consult a limited number of people, Sis collective suggests that you make an appointment online filling out this form.

Members of Sis advise you to be ready to encounter questions like »Are you able to eat fresh coriander?« or »Have you ever been to a courthouse?« and they say that it is ok to come with a friend because no man is an island, right?

18:00
Performance (EN)
Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli »Operating the Hayal Machine«

Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli spent hours with the Sis collective listening and tapping into project planning, their ideas and endeavors in Istanbul.
The listening process continues at the nGbK, where they filter thoughts, sentences and printed matter of Sis and the audience, which - after digitizing and formatting - becomes the printed score for a choreography: That of a shadow figure moved by a needle printer. If you want your inner murmurs to be danced by the shadow figure approach the artists during the operating times of the Hayal Machine.
Hayal is an Ottoman word of Arabic origin and means illusion or shadow of illusion.