June 18 - 27, 2007WORKSHOP: ENSCHEDE, THE NETHERLANDS
Here as the Centre of the World was a transnational artistic research project that took place in Damascus, Taipei, Diyarbakir, Khartoum, Beirut and Enschede in 2006 and 2007. The project consisted primarily of a series of ten-day workshops in each city, in which one street became the site and subject of research. Artists from each of the six locations worked collaboratively in small groups, carrying out an open-ended process of visual research and creating sitespecific projects and short interventions in public space. This research process was supported by a series of lectures, debates, artists' talks and round-table discussions in each city that opened up local artistic, cultural and socio-political debates. Each artist participated in workshops in their country of residence as well as at least one of the other five locations, creating a situation in which the relational nature of difference could be experienced. The workshops were an invitation for artists to 'de-centre' their practices - both to engage with a new 'centre' and to look differently at their usual artistic context. They were invited to consider how one's perception and conception of art is culturally and socially informed and to reflect on the real conditions in which cultural differences are articulated in the day-to-day activities of artists and art workers. Operating in the contact zone between cultures, the project raised issues surrounding the translatability of art. By making space for competing artistic paradigms, it problematized the notion that contemporary art has an international language shared by artists worldwide.Curators: Lucy Cotter, Gabriëlle Schleijpen and Alite Tijsen
Streets: Roombeek & the LipperkerkstraatPartners: Villa de Bank & Pluto
Workshop leaders: Tony Chakar & Erkan Özgen
Project leaders: Rik Fernhout & Alite ThijsenParticipating
artists:Machteld Aardse (The Netherlands)
Nisren Abasher (Sudan)
Abubakr Abd Elgadir Mohamed Elsayed (Sudan)
Askin Adan (Turkey)
Bassam Al Khouri (Syria)
Seçkin Aydin (Turkey)
Tammam Azzam (Syria)
Bani Bannwart (Switzerland)
Paula Bugni (Argentina)
Sjanet Bijker (The Netherlands)
Daniëlle Davidson (The Netherlands)
Myzgin Deniz (Turkey)
Nikos Doulos (Greece)
Kevin Drager (Canada)
Maciej Duchowski (Poland)
Julien Grossmann (France)
Rana Hamadeh (Lebanon)
Abdelmoniem Abdallah Hamza (Sudan)
Liu Han-Chi (Taiwan)
Omima Hasab El Rasoul (Sudan)
Chao Hsin-Yi (Taiwan)
Jolanda Jansen (The Netherlands)
Jae-Min Kim (South Korea)
Anna Korteweg (The Netherlands)
Kristiina Koskentola (Finland)
Dagmar Kriegesmann (Germany)
Ruth Linneman (The Netherlands)
Bechara Malkoun (Lebanon)
Reine Mahfouz (Lebanon)
Astrid Marit (The Netherlands)
Chris Meighan (United Kingdom)
Carlijn Mens (The Netherlands)
Duha Mustafa Mohamed (Sudan)
Rofaida Nour Aldyn (Sudan)
Adamantia Nika (Greece)
(Liu Pei-Wen) Pei (Taiwan)
Bassel Al Saady (Syria)
Hrair Sarkissian (Syria)
Tatia Skhirtladze (Georgia)
Chong Shun-Da (Taiwan)
Baris Seyîtvan (Turkey)
Kamila Szejnoch (Poland)
(Steve Huang) Huang Ta-Kuei (Taiwan)
Tao Mei-Yu (Taiwan)
Iris Tenkink (The Netherlands)
Raed Yassin (Lebanon)
Yen Yitzu (Taiwan)
Pavlina Verouki (Greece)
Emily Williams (The Netherlands / United Kingdom)
June 18 – 27, 2007 AN EXHIBITION AT VILLA DE BANK IN ENSCHEDE
conceptualized by artist/curator James Beckett. In order to include a large quantity of material on the Here as the Centre of the World projects involved, the exhibition was put up like a ‘magazine’ or ‘book’ through which the visitor could navigate, and ‘zoom in’ into the processing of the observations in raw documents and sketches by various artists. In addition replicas were made of some of the installations that were originally realized on location by carefully reproducing the initial form. By using the simple formal device of painting everything grey, each replica became an ‘evacuated piece’, a sort of ghost of its former self.
Seçkin Aydin lives and works in Diyarbakir. He is a painter who also works with video, installations, and performances. In 2008 he participated in the exhibition Art as a Permanent Dialogue - Language Situations, Hasan Paca Palace, Diyarbakir.
http://www.dutchartinstitute.nl/here-as-the-centre-of-the-world/participants.html