2nd Former West Research Congress in Istanbul

Kasım 2010 da İstanbul’da düzenlenen 2nd Former West Research Congress üzerine Metropolis M için yazdığım review

Between 4-6 November, 2010, the second Former West Research Congress, On Horizons: Art and Political Imagination took place in Istanbul Technical University with the participation of artists, curators, cultural theorists, and philosophers coming from a broad background.

For three days, within a heavy schedule, there were illuminating discussions, talks, and conversations on art and politics with speakers and participants from various disciplines, mainly from contemporary art. Discussions were not only limited to the conference hall, but also continued during conference breaks in the cute garden located in the middle of ITU campus accompanied by tea and cookies and at night in different restaurants while having dinner.

The first day of the program began with the artistic director of Former West and BAK, Maria Hlavajova’s opening speech. Hlavajova emphasized the necessity of viewing the origins of the Former West project as a result of the political and cultural transformations that emerged after 1989 that should be evaluated in the context of the events that were happening in various parts of the world and the hegemonic effect of this situation on political and artistic imagination. In her speech she pointed out the shrunken space of politics, the necessity of focusing on the possibilities and impossibilities of political horizon, and the fact that the ‘former’ in Former West is not an end but a speculative term that problematizes the old and new binary.

Her argument that ‘Former West is not a thesis and not a statement, but a proposition and a process’ was like the announcement of the project’s lucidity and multi-facedness. This argument was in parallel to the point emphasized by all the speakers of the congress, that is held for the second time under the title On Horizons: Art and Political Imagination…Read more

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