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Culture: EUROPALIA TURKEY explores cultural heritage and contemporary artists

13:46 19/11/2015
The multidisciplinary festival shines a spotlight on artistic life in Turkey

With EUROPALIA celebrating its jubilee edition, artistic director Dirk Vermaelen outlines the festival’s mission and some of the diverse events being staged for four months until 31 January. For its 25th edition, in its 45th year of existence, the international arts biennial features Turkey as its guest country.

What were the priorities in programming the festival?

We have a new mission to work around four elements. Besides heritage and contemporary, we’re increasing our focus on creation and exchange, to become a platform for young artists. Each festival is, for them, an opportunity to create work and to meet artists, choreographers, authors, curators, from a different part of the world and to work together. It’s also important to find new partnerships and stage co-productions.

Based on our 25/45 anniversary, we have a mini festival that focuses on new works and collaborations. Legacy is very important. I wanted to avoid having a festival that’s like a beautiful vase of flowers which fade and are then thrown away. At EUROPALIA you have to plant seeds, treasure them and make sure they keep growing after the festival is over. We’ve also engaged someone who is taking care specifically of international affairs, developing a whole network in Europe and beyond to see how we can engage in new partnerships and make projects travel around Europe.

What are the themes of the two main exhibitions at Bozar in Brussels?

There needs to be an interesting theme and original point of view to introduce the guest country. In Anatolia: Home of Eternity (until 17 January) we work around the subject of rituals. There is an amazing continuity as a lot of conflicting civilisations followed each other and rituals were taken over and integrated. We also needed to talk about Istanbul as the artistic capital, so Imagine Istanbul (15 October to 24 January) shows how the city inspired artists, mainly photographers. It looks at early photography, where you see how photographers were immediately attracted to the city. The main artist is Ara Güler, known as ‘the eye of Istanbul’ for his important series in the 1950s and 60s which are iconic for the Turkish people and are also familiar to us. We work around him and two other big photographers from a younger generation, looking at how they relate to Istanbul and to Güler. Do they follow in his footsteps or do they try and find another way of capturing Istanbul? Other visual artists from Turkey and Europe also make an appearance. Photographer Cartier Bresson worked with Güler, and young Belgian photographer Bieke Depoorter will be showing new work at Bozar.

What does Turkey bring to the EUROPALIA project?

Artistically, we don’t know much about Turkey and its important contemporary artists. That’s why, for instance, I wanted to programme some important names such as Gülsün Karamustafa, whose work is presented with Koen Theys in Mystic Transport (until 28 February, La Centrale, Brussels). So much of our culture is focused on Europe, you realise again how dreadfully Eurocentric we are. It’s always important for me to make sure that we don’t give this Eurocentric view. Istanbul may be the artistic capital of Turkey, but the aim of festival is to cover a lot more and show more remote regions. People generally visit Istanbul and some tourist places and think it’s similar to Europe, but once you travel outside these regions, you understand that it’s very different.

What is EUROPALIA doing to attract younger people?

Our 25th anniversary is an ideal moment to question what we’re doing. We were worried that our image was mainly about heritage, so we’ve freshened it up with a new logo and put more focus on contemporary works, working with young artists and establishing residencies. The younger audience is very important. We’re working with venues that attract a younger audience and with universities to develop teaching files in schools. It’s important not just to invite them, but to actively involve them. Students can write articles on the festival which will be integrated in a digital media centre, and young people visiting the two main Bozar exhibitions on a school visit, can enter for €1.

How is EUROPALIA working with Belgium’s Turkish community?

We’ve listened to a lot people from the Turkish community. There are concerts around the country and an exhibition on puppetry, Karagöz: The art of Shadows (until 24 January, Malmedy).

What are your personal highlights?

If I had to pick one event per discipline, I would say first Anatolia: Home of Eternity, as it gives such a unique introduction to Turkey. The new research covers a vast period from the Göbekli Tepe, which is the most ancient civilisation, up to the Ottoman period. With over 200 objects from 30 museums in Turkey, this is unique in itself.

Among the contemporary projects, Gauthier Oushoorn’s Absence of a Permanent l (until 21 February, CID, Grand Hornu) is really important. He is a young Belgian sculptor who works with architectural concepts and space; for EUROPALIA TURKEY he was inspired by Persian architecture and Sufism. He travelled not only to Istanbul but other regions, researching Muslim architecture. This is a very personal choice; he’s a very strong artist and I’m very happy to have him in our festival

In music there are a few projects: Görkem Şen (26 November, PointCulture, Brussels), is a young musician, sound designer and composer who has developed a new instrument. I saw a brief concert by him in Istanbul and I’m very curious. He’s an absolute hit on the internet, so it’s a unique opportunity to see him live. Another unique exchange is Jef Neve & NOHlab (22 January, Flagey, Brussels). The Belgian jazz musician composes the music and the Turkish multimedia collective produce a 3D visual performance.

In the performing arts programme, Christian Rizzo (5-6 January, Halles de Schaerbeek, Brussels) is a French choreographer who is creating three new shows. He takes elements of Turkish tradition and works with his muse, Turkish dancer Kerem Gelebek.

For film, there’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan (6-7 December, Cinematek & Bozar, Brussels), the winner of the Palme d’Or in Cannes last year. As well as master classes, there’s also an exhibition. His photography is amazing and helps you understand why his films have such beautiful photographic scenes. It will be a very interesting and new portrait of his work.

Photo: Motorcycle by Gülsen Karamustafa

This article was first published in the Wab magazine, autumn 2015

Written by Sarah Crew