FEATURED GUEsT ARTisTs

iNTRODUCTiON

DANiEL DEKBLADH

LiNDA KRiEGELsTEiN

VALENTiNA MiCHELiNi

CAROL BAUMGARTNER

EzGi söNMEz

zARRiN FATiMA

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Revido is a word from the laguange Esperanto. This languange was created with basics in languages from all over the world, so everyone around the world would speak it and understand each other. The goal was to promote harmony and peace on Earth. Revido means good.So in this edition related to Istanbul we let some artists — writers, photographers, painters, sculptures — show us their vision about the city or something connected. The following pages show the work that resulted of the challenged. You’ll find people from different nationalities including Turkey.

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My images are about ordinary people, the ones that live their life in between the extreme points of the news. The ordinary life is something we all can relate to. The feelings we feel, the people we see. There is nothing special happen-ing in a ordinary day, nothing really interesting to remem-ber. Another day just passes by and it does not stick in your memory.

But some moments stick between the frames of my im-ages. A fraction of a second from the ordinary life. I steal that time and show it to the world.

SwEdEnDANIELEKBLADH

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daniel Ekbladh is a swedish photojournalist, currently living in Malmö, Sweden. He is working as a freelance photographer for swedish daily newspapers and feature magazines. He spent the fall of 2012 in Istanbul, wandering the streets and snapping pictures for his project “moments in Istanbul”. Besides photography, daniel is a passionate collector of “stuff”. Items ranging from camera bags to bike tubes. He usually keeps them all in his parents garage where the long forgotten items collect lots of dust.

SwEdEnDANIELEKBLADH

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CAROLBAUMGARTNERSwITZERLAnd

Von allem vielund noch ein bisschen mehr (A lot of everything and a little bit more)

This is the best way to describe Istanbul. But if you have not live it, you may cannot understand that. It is a noisy, chaotic, overcrowded and busy city, but it has its special charm in a way. To live in Istanbul was a inspiring experience for me because there are so many impressions about people and places, which I can use for my drawings. My name is Carol Baumgartner, I am from Switzerland and spent five months in Istanbul as an exchange student. I like to draw and make a lot of illustrations, mostly about places and people.

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LINDAKRiEGELsTEiNGERMAnY

Born in 1985, I used to spend most of my life in my hometown, Magdeburg. I moved to Leipzig in 2005 to study philosophy and science of religion. After one year, I quit, because I realized, that this kind of studies didn’t suit me so well. I really wanted to work with photography...so I began an education program at a school in Leipzig. After these years, for which I am very grateful, I had this very good foundation of knowledge, so I decided, that this cannot be everything. I applied in weimar and this is besides Istanbul one of the most important steps I did in my life. I met amazing people, I learned a lot and after three years it was time to move again. So this is why I am here, and I really do not regret it any minute. I always wanted to develop more skills in street and documentary photography, but it is very hard to have any passion on these fields, if you live in a very boring town like weimar. In weimar I used to work in our beautiful studio or arranged something somewhere. when I arrived in Istanbul, I was first very overwhelmed with all this very obvious pictures anyone could take. Men on the Galata Bridge fishing, cats everywhere, poor people, old men selling Simit, poor young boys sniffing glue and all these scenes you first catch. So in the beginning I rarely took pictures. I can see this on my hard-drive. It is weird to me. But then I started to have my camera with me all the time. I mostly use point and shoot cameras, because I don’t want to think about shutter speed and aperture, when I have to be quick in a situation. As time went by, more and more topics/series arise out of my observations and one of these is the deportation topic, because this was the very first thought I had on my second day in Istanbul. A freakin hot day and we wanted to take the ferry from Karakoy to Kadiköy. It was Sunday and I saw all these people on the boat, squeezed together.So, the first connection I had, was the system of deportation nazi Germany used in the 1940s when I see people in the ferry, in the bus, in the metro and especially in the metrobüs, I always feel a very intense mix of aggression, sadness, hatred and desperation. And there is this will to survive.

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Polyester did you see an atheist bird, catholic cat, protestant chicken, budhist tree or muslim tomato? I saw. If a cat born in a muslim country it can’t be a Christian cat, it can’t eat pig. So have animals got a God? If they don’t believe in god and the female animals don’t wear scarf will they go to the hell?

MUsLiM FAMiLY CONsERVATiVE TiGER

EZGIsöNMEzTURKEY

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EZGIsöNMEzTURKEY

23.01.1986Lives in IstanbulStudying sculpture in Marmara University Fine Arts FacultyInspired from Rene Magritte, Joel Peter witkin, Hans Bell-meer, Matthew Barney, Jan Fabre, Erwin wurm..etc

I make paintings and sculptures but sculpting is little bit different because when you finished a sculpture and put it in a place at your home, it’s like putting a character in your favorite nov-el to your armchair. Living with sculptures is re-ally creates a different atmosphere.

Group ExhibitionsBesiktas Municipality Center of Mustafa Kemal ‘Erase Eve-rything, Freedom! /Istanbul /Turkey / April 2011

Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty Haluk Tezonar Art Gal-lery / Istanbul / Turkey / April 2011

Milk Gallery / Papergirl / Istanbul / Turkey / May 2011

Karsı ( Against) Art Gallery ‘ Where Is Diyarbakır Jail?’ / Is-tanbul / Turkey / September 2011

Tuyap Art Fair ‘ Where Is Diyarbakır Jail?’ / Istanbul / Turkey / October 2011 (touring exhibition)

Cigerxun Cultural Place ‘ Where Is Diyarbakır Jail?’ Diyarbakır / Turkey (touring exhibition)

Tashan Art Gallery ‘Art Is On Vacation’ / Inkumu / Bartın / Turkey / September 2011

Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty Haluk Tezonar Art Gal-lery ‘ 8 March world womens day’/ Istanbul / Turkey / March 2012

Tophane_i Amire Art Gallery ‘Borusan Transform To Art’ waste Metal Sculpture Competition Exhibition / Istanbul / Turkey / June 2012

Street Art Festival - Renovation Tarlabası / Istanbul / Turkey / September 2012

CATALOGUESErase Everything, Freedom! Upsd Catalogue / 2011

Sesam Free Artworkers Catalogue / 2012

Borusan Transform to Art/ waste Metal Sculpture

AWARDSBorusan Transform To Art / Honourable Mention

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ZARRINFATiMAPAKISTAn/FInLAnd

The Strays of Constantinople Istanbul. A metropolis of 14 million people. Against the backdrop of numerous Greek, Roman, Persian, and Otto-man outstanding structures, the city’s skyline now is also occupied by high rise commercial and business centres, and a plethora of tightly packed residential buildings. It is a clas-sic example of a place where amidst all the hustle bustle of the crowded city, the cats and dogs live in harmony with the city’s inhabitants. And why wouldn’t they be? Years ago, a Sultan ordered all the cats in the city to be taken care of since they ate the rats and mice. Hence, the cats became the Sultan’s Cats, and are given special attention to this day. Observing the culture more closely brought to light another reason for such a high cat population. Once, a cat was seen thwarting a snake ap-proaching the Prophet Muhammad. Islamic lore also tells of the time when the Prophet found a cat sleeping on the edge of his vest. Instead of disturbing the cat, the Prophet decided to cut off the occupied edge of the vest and wore the vest just like that. A popular saying claims ‘If you kill a cat you need to build a mosque to be forgiven by God’. despite the variations in stories, the love and affection for cats cannot be denied.

walking down any street in Istanbul, you can spot small containers with food and water on the ground, demonstrat-ing the fact that while felines and dogs belong to nobody, they are everybody’s responsibility. Just this morning on my way to university I saw four cats enjoying breakfast on the side of the road. As I busied myself with the camera to get a good view of the four of them, I was greeted with a long stare from the brown-furry one as if saying ‘Good morning to you too, now chop chop!’

The month of October witnessed protest against the new law drafted by the government that would round up and transport the strays to a specially designed habitat.. The au-thorities claim that the new habitat will ensure the cats and dogs are well taken care of, however, the city’s residents

have their suspicions about the government’s motives, con-sidering the event of 1911 when the authorities rounded up 60,000 dogs from the streets and dumped them on a deserted island Sivriada close to the Marmara Sea. The dogs slowly died of starvation. On the other hand, Bernard Brunner writes that their voices could be heard from a long distance, and also mentions that an earthquake occurred shortly after the dogs were left on the island, indicating God’s displeasure, hence the authorities brought them back to the city.

If the cats of Istanbul are cuddled and petted, the dogs have a different story to them. As of the year 2011, there were about 150,000 canines in the city. They are taken care of just the same as cats, but are a little less on the cuddling side. For some people, they act as guards during the night, especially in the far off areas of Istanbul. nevertheless, the dogs in Istanbul live a satisfactory life in a similar way to cats. In the more developed areas of Istanbul, the owners of shops and houses will feed the dogs without officially adopting them or bringing them into their homes, but in the poorer regions of the city, the owners put their trash bags in front of the houses where the dogs have the chance to plunder through them before the trash trucks arrive. An interesting aspect to the dogs here is the way you find them lying and sleeping on the road side most of the day. If not on the road side, you would see them resting outside cafes, under the cars and even on the chairs outside Starbucks. They will not harm you, unless you tempt them of course, otherwise they will walk past you quietly.

So what is the conclusion? In Finland it is indeed not at all common to see stray cats and dogs since most of them are taken care of by animal shelters, however in Pakistan, I would say the free roaming animals have the same fortune as the ones in Turkey. In Romania, you will find more dogs on the streets, and while they are more wild than usual, people love and feed them just the same. I believe in a peaceful life; letting things be the way they are and not interfering too much. And as Mahatma Ghandhi claims ‘The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated’.

A popular saying claims ‘If you kill a cat you need to build a mosque to be forgiven by God’.

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Ataturk

we all have spent enough time in Turkey to know something about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, if not too much. well, let us see what history has in store for us regarding Turkey’s most influential character.

The Turkish forces were successful on many fronts between the years 1919 and 1922, and eventually the occupying forces were defeated. After years of struggle, the year 1923 saw the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. Successful in creating an independent nation, Ataturk initiated politi-cal, economic, social and cultural reforms to build a secular democratic state after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. His ideas and theories are reflected in Turkish national con-sciousness today, and his reforms have strongly impacted the various dimensions of life in Turkey. (ataturk today.com)

If there is one thing that has enthralled me during my time in Istanbul, it is the manner in which Ataturk (or Father Turk) is remembered. He is omnipresent. Every classroom at the university has a picture of him hanging delicately on wall, cars have windshields with Ataturk’s signature on them, and today as one of my flat-mates mentioned, a girl at the uni-versity had a sticker of his signature on her laptop. we had realized his importance during our first few weeks in Istan-bul, but 10th of november made us realize even more. One of my flat-mate saw a Youtube video recorded last year on 10th november 2011 of all the cars coming to a complete stop at 9.05 am. Curious as always, we left our house a few minutes before 9 o’clock to see what exactly hap-pens, standing nervously on the side walk and checking our watches every now and then. Then it happened. At exactly 9.05 am, all the cars and taxis came to a halt. Some people stepped out of their vehicles, some came to stand on their balconies, while some kept sitting in the cars and began to honk. I must say I felt goose bumps to see the people stand-ing still and the cars continuing to honk for almost two or three minutes. And everything stopped again. Silence. Life on the street resumed. The reason behind this? well, Atat-urk passed away at 9.05 am, and the locals remember him on this day because it is the day Turkey became an inde-pendent state. The walk back home was full thoughts. Pakistan, a country that fought to gain independence from India for decades, came into being in 1947 after countless efforts by Jinnah- the founder of Pakistan. His birth anniversary is on decem-

ber 25th. Similarly, Finland gained independence from the Soviet Russia in 1917, led by Pehr Evind Svinhufvud – born on December 15th. Neither I nor my Finnish flat-mate had ever seen an event like this taking place in our home coun-tries for the people who helped the country gain independ-ence. Yes, the days were respected but not to the extent where the traffic comes to a complete stop.

So does this mean we are lacking patriotism? Are we not proud to be independent nations? I believe we are nation-alistic and patriotic in our own way. we only differ in way we express ourselves. In Pakistan or Finland, you would see flags being raised and national anthems being recited. In Turkey, the flags were put up at least two weeks before the Republic day and remained hanging for the weeks follow-ing the big day.

Ataturk is also seen a God. As highlighted earlier in the article, his presence is felt everywhere. He seems to be watching people from every corner. It is as if he is making sure what he left behind – his ideologies and reforms- are followed and conducted well. For some reason, discussing Ataturk makes me recall The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzger-ald. The novel revolves around the American dream, and how the 1920s witnessed the decay of social and moral val-ues of individuals. For those familiar with the novel, the eyes of Doctor T.J Eckleburg are significant throughout the nov-el, even though the eyes painted on an old advertisement board. The eyes of doctor T.J Eckleburg see everything - a witness to all the events- just like Ataturk. whether or not they are fond of the world around them, both are helpless, yet always present. It also implies the nature of the human mind, the extent to which it gives importance to objects and symbols. The eyes symbolize forgotten values during the 1920s, whereas Ataturk characterizes dignity and patri-otism of Turkish people.

In summary, Ataturk will always remain a remarkable character for the locals. Reading about life in Turkey in gen-eral, and also about Ataturk made me reflect upon a lot of things, one of them being – to always be proud of yourself.

ZARRINFATiMAPAKISTAn/FInLAnd

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I guess I have the travel bug in me, which is why I am found travelling so often. Just a few minutes ago, I booked flights to Antalya and Pammukale – two places my flat-mate and I were planning to visit for as long as we can remember. Right now, I am in my third year of university, studying Envi-ronmental Engineering at the Tampere University of Applied Sciences. My Erasmus program lasts only for the autumn semester, therefore, I shall soon be flying back home! Is-tanbul has been a marvellous adventure! Daily traffic, long exhausting bus rides, communicating via Google Translate when buying a phone, getting lost on the streets even with a map, bargaining, returning home after a good deal of shopping, and celebrating my 21st birthday on October 6th . Oh Istanbul! You will be missed!

ZARRINFATiMAPAKISTAn/FInLAnd

A little bit of historyI was born and raised in Karachi, a city comprising of 16 mil-lion people (the last time I checked) and situated in southern Pakistan on the shores of the Arabian Sea. I was sixteen years when we decided to wrap up our things and move to Bucharest after my dad was offered a position in an Austrian company. I completed my last two years of high school from the American International School of Bucharest, and later hopped on a plane to take me to the northern most country in Europe – Finland! I now live in a small city called Tampere. The population is about 200,000, and the city is situated in South-western Finland. Believe it or not, there are still times when I am amazed to find myself living in a country of 187, 888 lakes! So what do I do besides working late at night? Play volley-ball and badminton, go shopping, read, watch movies and catch up on TV shows- huge fan of How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory in case somebody was wondering! Oh, and I absolutely love collecting magnets! Especially the ones having a city monument engraved on them. Definitely collected a lot during my travels around Turkey!

About the Art WorkI chose to write about the cats and dogs of Istanbul, and also about Ataturk. I felt I will get the chance to understand the Turkish society from different perspectives through these topics. Sometimes, when adapting to a new culture, I believe the smallest things count the most, such as the way people behave on the streets, or even the way they treat cats and dogs. On the other hand, Ataturk is a big part of people’s life here. He always has and always will be. Is there a specific reason? The previous pages highlight what I found regarding the topics.

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VALENTINAMiCHELiNiITALY

THE PLAY PORTRAiTs

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I was born in Italy on december 10th of 1984. Throughout my childhood and adolescence in Olevano Romano a village next to Rome, I constantly drew, developing a strong and extreme realistic technique. I used to draw tattoos for my friends, fantasy scenes, cd cover, hand-made posters of Eminem, Lara Kroft, pop stars and every kind of thing which they could hang on the wall their room. Then I started to paint wall decoration for apartments and bars in my village. Everyone was admiring me because I was so good drawing exactly what I saw! But then something changed.....After the high school, from 2004 to 2008 I attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. At the beginning it was a shock-experience because everything was so different compares to my scientific way to see the world. In this strange Academy away from my village, everything was possible, the teachers were so crazy! now someone finally began to criticize my beautiful drawings! In this four years I leaned what is art, I opened my mind to new topics, experiences and artistic forms, I expanded my visual vocabulary by experimenting with color and abstract

sign through painting, performance, video, photography....Upon graduating with honors, with some money I got for a big wall painting (Gaudì in Testa, 2 x 9 m), in May 2008 I went away from my little Italian village as I always dreamed, with two bags and my two best friends, ready to start my new life in Berlin.It was the beginning of a beautiful adventure. It was hard, but we had a lot of fun and the days were full with new experiences. I worked in a pizza-bistrot to pay a German school and learn the language. I started to paint with a new abstract style, involving improvisation and play elements in my work. I founded a performance group and with our performances we participated to various events and festivals in Berlin (Play Project). I started to practice belly dance.I started working in a Art Gallery (magnusmüller) but after one year I understood that organization and documentation of art exhibitions was not enough for me. I need to create something with my hands. So I tried to work with a photographer (Attila Hartwig). But he worked for the advertising field: 5 hours-shooting to create a 10 cm label for a small bottle of a very expensive salad- vinegar....It was also not for me!After these and more experiences, I understood that, parallel to my art project, I would like to work for art and culture with a creative and manual activity. So now I’m trying to work as stage- painter for the theater....I hope it will works!

Valentina Michelini 10.12.1984 in Anagni, Italy

My passion is painting and this is what I studied...I worked not only as painter but also as gallery assistant, waiter, photographer, illustrator, decorator, cook, German teacher, barman.....I love art, Nick Cave, grammar exercises, Dorian Gray, Rumanian language, percussion, snow, swimming, magic, belly dance, eating, sleeping and travelling.

VALENTINAMiCHELiNiITALY

Details

1. Jazzband: Gitarreacryl color and graphit on canvas 90 x 80 cm 2010

3.Jazzband: Saxophonacryl color and graphit on canvas 110 x 60 cm 2010

2.Jazzband: Kontrabassacryl color and graphit on canvas 130 x 80 cm 2010

4.Jazzband: Schlagzeugacryl color and graphit on canvas 100 x 100 cm 2010

Jazzband Series presented in Istanbul Tüyap Art Fair , 2011

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