Acceso usuarios
Basak Senova
This essay explores the role of Istanbul’s ‘cultural productions’ as components of thecity’s structure and texture. Istanbul is a city of tensions, generated by its countlessconflicting and divergent flows which are constantly influenced by socio-economic,political and cultural fusions and confusions. It is constantly expanding, bothhorizontally and vertically, as evidenced by its central and peripheral settlements,illegal dwellings and squatted lands. With each and every new inhabitant, furthercumulative cultural input is added to the city, which also blends social exclusion andtransgression (together with axiomatic de facto regulations). The city ‘operates’ as ajumbled mode of excessive information; the repetitive collapse and replenishment ofthis information overload opens up diverse ‘realities’. Within this picture, ‘culturalproductions’ of the city have emerged as indicators of inhabitants’ reactions, exposingways of coping with/surviving in the city. These cultural productions are locally,temporarily and spontaneously produced. Consequently, this essay investigates howsuch cultural productions have been processed by the inhabitants of the city since the1980s, and specifically focuses on the latest research and project models, navigatingthrough projects undertaken by academics, artists and architects who correspond andhave connections with international institutions — most notably in the field ofcontemporary art
