Oda Projesi

Community Art Based Projects in Istanbul

Oda Projesi is an artist collaborative based in Istanbul, Turkey, and initiated by three women artists: Özge Acıkkol, Günes Savas and Secil Yersel. Oda Projesi means “Room Project” and employs thinking of the different usages of the “room” in order to find new ways to combine the daily life and art practices with the purpose of bridging relations between artists, non-artists, artist-run-groups, institutions and the communities in the local neighborhood. The group turned their collaboration into an art project in 2000 after a three years period of renting an apartment as a studio in the neighbourhood of Galata, a historical urban district in Istanbul with considerable mixture of social classes and an ongoing process of gentrification. The new apartment, also located in Galata, was turned into a multi-purpose non-profit public space. It quickly became a gathering place for other artists, architects, sociologists, musicians, but mainly for the neighbours. Characteristic of the work of Oda Projesi is their direct contact with the local community surrounding them. Since their first project - when Özge Acıkkol emptied the room and exhibited it with the text of George Perec, About a Useless Space - the group has extended invitations for the neighbours in Galata and other artists and artist groups to meet and collaborate in various ways. These process-based events rely on the experience as an outcome, which means that they often do not have an object-like end product. Oda Projesi hosted nearly 30 projects up until 2005, when they were evicted from the apartment due to the process of gentrification increasingly penetrating Galata. Before moving from the space, a collaboration with the artist Matthieu Prat led to a local radio project. This project marked the transition of Oda Projesi towards a more mobile status. Today Oda Projesi continues to raise questions by using different mediums and different spaces like a local radio station, a book, postcards, newspapers or giving form to different meeting points.
Oda Projesi
Özge Açikkol born 1976, Günes Savas born 1975, Seçil Yersel born 1973. All live and work in Istanbul, Turkey
Projects & exhibitions
The cloak room FM, Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, İstanbul, 2007
Cities From Below, Teseco Foundation, Pisa, Italy, 2006
9th Istanbul Biennale, 2005
Collective Creativity, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, 2005
Das Neue Europa, Generali Foundation, Vienna, 2005
PROJE4L, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, 2004
6th Werkleitz Biennale, Halle, 2004
8th Istanbul Biennale, 2003
50th Venice Biennale, 2003
The Room Revisited, Kunstverein München, Munich, Germany, 2003
Projects at Oda Projesi space in Galata, Istanbul
101.7 Efem, radio project in collaboration with Bookstr and THEN, 2005
Along The Gates Of The Urban, curator: Erden Kosova, artists: Nevin Aladag, Bankleer, Herman Chong, Esra Ersen, Tea Mäkipää, Erinç Seymen, Seçil Yersel, 2004
So Far So Good – So Weit So Gut, by Nadine Reschke Kindlimann, 2004
Searching For A Clay Language, by Libia Perez de Siles de Castro & Olafur Arni Olafsson, 2003
Parade with children by TEM Yem theather group, Galata Square, 2002
Ongoing projects
Weekly radio parasite programs in the local channel 94.9 FM, “Acik Radyo”, Istanbul, www.acikradyo.com.tr, May 2005 -…

Bibliography

“The Social Turn: Collaboration and Its Discontents” by Claire Bishop, in Artforum magazine, Vol.44, Issue 6, Feb 2006.

“Group Dynamics” and Oda Projesi “open file”, by Erden Kosova, in Frakija magazine, issue 36, “Face to Face, summer 2005.

“Gecekondu Professoren mit Witz” by Oda Projesi, by Esen, Orhan & Lanz, Stephan (eds.), in Self Service City: Istanbul, Metro Zones 4, b_books, Berlin, 2005.

Das Neue Europa, exhibition catalogue, by Marius Babias, Generali Foundation Publishing, January, 2005.

“Actualisation of Space: Oda Projesi Model” by Maria Lind, in From Studio to Situations, Edited by Claire Doherty, Black Dog publishing, 2004

Along The Gates of the Urban, exhibition catalogue, art-ist contemporary art magazine publication, Erden Kosova, “Face to Face", september 2004.

“Oda Projesi, Riem Rooms, 2003” by Maria Lind, in Public Art for a Munich District, editors: Landeshauptstadt M¸nchen, Claudia B¸ttner, Kunstprojekte Riem, 2004.

8th Habana Biennale Catalogue, November - December 2003, Florian Zeyfang, “Oda Projesi”.

8th Istanbul Biennale catalogue, “Poetic Justice”, September 2003

Publications by Oda Projesi
Book:
Neighbourhood, room, neighbour, guest, by Oda Projesi, 9th Istanbul Biennale Revolver, 2005
Untitled book, IVth Gwangju Bienalle, for “Moving Room” project, Korea, 2002
Çamaşır İplerinde Resim, for 8th Galata Festival, Istanbul, 1999
Newspaper:
Annex (No. 3), October, 2004, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
Annex (No. 2), September 2003, 8th Istanbul Biennale, Istanbul
Annex (No. 1), June 2003, 50th Venice Biennale, Italy
Links

http://odaprojesi.org
www.republicart.net/disc/aap/lind01_en.pdf
www.c-p-k.de/nadin/cgi-bin/travelnews_show.pl
www.radiodays.org
www.ledonline.it/leitmotiv/allegati/leitmotiv050508.pdf
http://odaprojesi.wordpress.com