BAK Fellowship for Practice is a post-academic research programme held in Istanbul, Jakarta, Utrecht and online in collaboration with BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Program and Gudskul. The fellows of the programme carried experimental research within the expanded field of contemporary art and in connection with the overarching ‘Spectral Infrastructure’ research trajectory, which issues from BAK’s long-term collaborative trajectory with the freethought collective. The Hauntologists: Istanbul Gathering is a three-day event series taking place within the framework of the 17th Istanbul Biennial’s public programme. The Hauntologist project at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst is convened by Zeyno Pekünlü in collaboration with the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) Istanbul, and BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht.

16.00-18.00
Ghosts of the Public Space, Forum
Moderator: Özge Açıkkol
Graphic Tracer: Vardal Caniş

Every day, the public space becomes more and more dispersed, becoming islands that are isolated from one another. Even the notion of the ‘right to the city’ is suppressed by authoritarian regimes and practices. To ‘haunt’ the public space in different ways might yet be a way out. It becomes challenging to come up with a single description of the public space if we think of it as a space that shrinks and expands for different people. By accumulating many definitions of public space, such as ‘haunting the public space by talking about it’, this inquiry, which began with a series of video interviews, aims to build counter-strategies and create today’s common knowledge about the public space.

This forum, moderated by Özge Açıkkol, will aim to create a space for thinking, discussing and debating together around various definitions and the various questions these definitions raise. She will share her questions regarding today’s public sphere with the participants.

18.00-19.00
Discussion
Discussents: Fırat Genç, Ceren Lordoğlu

20.00-21.00
Underneath the pavement tiles, Cruising-Presentation
Ilgın Hancıoğlu

‘Underneath the pavement tiles (we don’t need reality)’ is a work for coping with a kind of mundanity that is understood as both a result and an indicator of authority. It does this by suggesting that an element of fantasy co-exists in everyday urban life: an undisclosed entity alive under the city of Istanbul, most detectable in its stairs. The elevation of these urban stairs creates a slower pace within the city, which allows cat communities and street plants to grow sturdy, suspends the pedestrians’ footsteps, and takes smokers’ breath away. Imagining that a fantastical organism inhabits these everyday urban cracks hints at the existence of a hidden world that endures the never-ending construction and demolition processes of Istanbul. The pedestrian may encounter their spontaneous presence, but even then, they may remain unnoticed. Underneath the pavement tiles (we don’t need reality) is an exercise in solidarity with fantasy, leaking it in the interstices of everyday life. It is not proposed as an escape plan, but rather as a gesture of resistance that engages with the affective ambivalences of the quotidian experience of the city.