Istanbul @ October 2011
Soundtrack of MC:
Ben Harper
Bach
Xavier Naido
Liveablitity score (worse 1-5 best)
Sustainability: 2
Sociodiversity: 2
Public transport: 3
Creative Index: 2
Istanbul @ October 2011
The Biennial is located in one single venue, at the harbor. Compact and decisive. More photography than
Istanbul @ October 2011
After having passed the evidently endless sequences of REM phases bevor dawn, the following morning is beautiful: mild sun, still sea and people walking somewhere.
Although I see the sea through gaps between the buildings, it does not smell like sea, it is obvious another geography than the Caribeean sea.
Istanbul is neither Asian, and less then that, nor European. The standard media transmitted simulacrum claiming Istanbul might be THE geographico-cultural linkage between the two so different spheres of human civilization, between the notorious West and the blasphemic East, is to be forgotten and ignored due to the fact that the premises of this claim are false and, threor, obscene. Just starring at the strata of omnipresent local narratives and of preserved images boxes is not enough to trace te greatness of this place. History makes us blind by its borring and relentless focus on obvious "historical" events in the past and their factual and mental imagery of meaning. History makes us deaf by its shamless and iterative concentration on off voices of predecents and ancestors, who we do not understand at all. We, in order to be well mannered and highly educated, pretend to trace those events and see those images and, worse of all our simulative activities, to listen to voices of the past. We just can't. And it is unneccesary.
This town is a singular entity. A self made emerging place with a highly cultivated sense for ignoring the history and all histories, which should have been the time based ground of it or even space based legitimation of it. No. It is as it is, because it shuts its eyes close in front of the grandness of the BIG history of Byzanz, Konstantinopel, Konstantaniya and old Istanbul. Not even the old Istanbul has anything in common with this town. For a momment, in order to follow the sub-text, forget the geography, which always misleads us. Yes, logically Today is on the same place in wich was Yesterday, but in this case it is somewhere else. Istanbul would not have been Istanbul, as it is today in this configuration of urban dynamics, economic autonomy and chaos, cultural outburst and dissociation, if it would be merely a historical place. Beyond the "bullshit" (cave: book of HG Frankfurt and the disputes after its publication) of the local traditional politicians and cultural localists, who always claims to be the real voice of Istanbul and inherent of political affinity and historical loyalty for it, this town is not what they are talking about. It is not even their nightmare or chimera.
It is uniquelly something different that their narratives, images and Yesterdays.
It is the "After City".
PS
see Lars Lerups's text on after city, may be there is something in it.
Istanbul @ October 2011
A midnight landing seems like a nightmare: confusing, deliberating.
Soundtrack of MC:
Ben Harper
Bach
Xavier Naido
Liveablitity score (worse 1-5 best)
Sustainability: 2
Sociodiversity: 2
Public transport: 3
Creative Index: 2
Istanbul @ October 2011
The Biennial is located in one single venue, at the harbor. Compact and decisive. More photography than
Istanbul @ October 2011
After having passed the evidently endless sequences of REM phases bevor dawn, the following morning is beautiful: mild sun, still sea and people walking somewhere.
Although I see the sea through gaps between the buildings, it does not smell like sea, it is obvious another geography than the Caribeean sea.
Istanbul is neither Asian, and less then that, nor European. The standard media transmitted simulacrum claiming Istanbul might be THE geographico-cultural linkage between the two so different spheres of human civilization, between the notorious West and the blasphemic East, is to be forgotten and ignored due to the fact that the premises of this claim are false and, threor, obscene. Just starring at the strata of omnipresent local narratives and of preserved images boxes is not enough to trace te greatness of this place. History makes us blind by its borring and relentless focus on obvious "historical" events in the past and their factual and mental imagery of meaning. History makes us deaf by its shamless and iterative concentration on off voices of predecents and ancestors, who we do not understand at all. We, in order to be well mannered and highly educated, pretend to trace those events and see those images and, worse of all our simulative activities, to listen to voices of the past. We just can't. And it is unneccesary.
This town is a singular entity. A self made emerging place with a highly cultivated sense for ignoring the history and all histories, which should have been the time based ground of it or even space based legitimation of it. No. It is as it is, because it shuts its eyes close in front of the grandness of the BIG history of Byzanz, Konstantinopel, Konstantaniya and old Istanbul. Not even the old Istanbul has anything in common with this town. For a momment, in order to follow the sub-text, forget the geography, which always misleads us. Yes, logically Today is on the same place in wich was Yesterday, but in this case it is somewhere else. Istanbul would not have been Istanbul, as it is today in this configuration of urban dynamics, economic autonomy and chaos, cultural outburst and dissociation, if it would be merely a historical place. Beyond the "bullshit" (cave: book of HG Frankfurt and the disputes after its publication) of the local traditional politicians and cultural localists, who always claims to be the real voice of Istanbul and inherent of political affinity and historical loyalty for it, this town is not what they are talking about. It is not even their nightmare or chimera.
It is uniquelly something different that their narratives, images and Yesterdays.
It is the "After City".
PS
see Lars Lerups's text on after city, may be there is something in it.
Istanbul @ October 2011
A midnight landing seems like a nightmare: confusing, deliberating.
