Europalia cultural exchange shines a light on Turkey with 200 events

The multidisciplinary arts biennial Europalia opened this week, and runs until the end of January, with Turkey as its guest country. About 200 events that shine a spotlight on the country’s heritage and contemporary arts scene are being staged around the country. Forming the backbone of the festival are three flagships exhibitions, two at Bozar in Brussels and the third at the MAS museum in Antwerp.

Turkey’s geo-strategic location was one factor in its selection, according to Europalia’s general manager, Kristine De Mulder. “It symbolises a country with a foot in Europe and a foot in Asia,” she explains.

The 200,000-strong Turkish population in Belgium was another consideration. While the choice has raised some politically sensitive questions, particularly concerning its current government, the Armenian genocide and ongoing Kurdish conflict, the organisers see the event as an opportunity to challenge perceptions of the country, strengthen ties and concentrate on culture.

With Europalia celebrating a double anniversary – its 45th year of existence and 25th edition – a mini-festival has been launched that reinforces artistic collaborations. Traditionally, the festival concentrates on heritage and contemporary arts, but for this jubilee edition it has added two more elements – creation and exchange.

The opening exhibition at Bozar, Anatolia: Home of Eternity, fulfils the heritage mission. “There needed to be an interesting theme and original point of view to introduce the guest country,” explains the festival’s artistic director, Dirk Vermaelen. “More than 200 objects coming from 30 different museums in Turkey is unique in and of itself.”

Co-curated by Marc Waelkens, an archaeology professor at the University of Leuven, the exhibition is divided into four sections that encompass the country’s 12,000-year history. “With rituals as the cross-disciplinary theme, we discover a Turkey that is fascinating and unique,” he says.

Sister cities

For Bozar’s second exhibition, contemporary arts take centre stage. Imagine Istanbul explores the city as an artistic capital, says Vermaelen. “It shows how the city inspired artists – mainly photographers. 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 that are iconic for the Turkish people and also familiar to us.

Photographer Cartier Bresson, who worked with Güler, and young Flemish photographer Bieke Depoorter will also be showing new work at Imagine Istanbul. Depoorter, who is from Ghent and an associate member of the prestigious photograpy agency Magnum, travelled to Istanbul as part of an artistic residency.

The third pivotal exhibition also examines the legendary city, this time in its context as a port city and with an eye to similarities with Antwerp. Istanbul–Antwerp: Port City Talks takes visitors on a journey to Istanbul via video, film and installations by contemporary Flemish and Turkish artists, albeit with a selection of historical treasures.

It is fittingly staged at Antwerp’s iconic MAS museum, which dominates the city’s docklands area Het Eilandje and is itself a bridge between the city centre and the port.

The exhibition focuses on the role water and the port played in the development of Istanbul as a gateway to the Orient and the rest of the world. It draws parallels with Antwerp as another gateway port city with a long history of commerce and political influence.

Curated by Turkish architect Murat Tabanlioglu, the exhibition has invited a group of young contemporary artists to create a series of audiovisual installations. They include “Bridge” by Emre Dörter, a series of 10-second video portraits of people by the sea in Antwerp and Istanbul, projected side by side. Media artist Refik Anadol uses real time data technology of marine traffic in “Expected” to explore the notion of space in an ever-changing journey.

While Istanbul is a metropolis of bridges, its Flemish counterpart relies on tunnels to access both sides of the Scheldt. In “Tunnels”, Antwerp resident and visual artist Els Vanden Meersch contrasts historic wartime tunnels with images of tunnel-like public spaces above ground.

A fresh outlook

Europalia includes other key exhibitions, including Ayşe Erkman from Turkey and Brussels-based Ann Veronica Janssens at Ghent’s SMAK. The international artists are each creating a permanent sculpture in public space in the city’s Korenmarkt.

Another collaboration between well-known contemporary artists is the exhibition Mystic Transport at Centrale For Contemporary Art in central Brussels, with work by Gülsün Karamustafa and Koen Theys.

The capital’s Flemish literary centre Muntpunt, meanwhile, hosts Turquoise, portraits by four photography students from the local Turkish community. They all followed a summer workshop led by photographer Philippe Dupuich. Muntpunt also serves as a Europalia hub, with activities for all ages.

Exhibitions aside, the multidisciplinary programme sees events destined to please Belgium’s Turkish diaspora – from dance and shadow puppetry, to literature, screenings and performances. Concerts in Brussels include the country’s pop diva Sezen Aksu at Bozar, sound designer and composer Görkem Şen at PointCulture and a unique exchange between Flemish jazz musician Jef Neve and Turkish digital collective NOHlab at Flagey.

For fans of cinema, Nuri Bilge Ceylan (pictured above, photo: Muhsin Akgun), the director of seminal films like Once Upon a Time in Anatolia and the Palme d’Or-winning Winter Sleep, presents a retrospective of his work at venues in Brussels and Genk, as well as an exhibition of his photography at C-Mine in Genk.

A priority in the programming for Vermaelen was to promote Turkey’s largely unknown contemporary artists. “So much of our culture is focused on Europe; you realise how dreadfully Eurocentric we are.”

The festival is also employing its jubilee edition to target a younger audience. “Our 25th anniversary is an ideal moment to question what we are doing,” the artistic director explains. “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.”

Vermaelen adds that they are also working with venues that attract a younger audience and with universities to integrate its themes into class material. “It’s important not just to invite them, but to actively involve them,” he explains. “Students can write articles on the festival, which will be integrated in a digital media centre.”

Europalia Turkey, until 31 January 2016
www.europalia.eu/en

Top photo: Fishermen in the early morning - Istanbul, 1950, by Ara Güler, part of the Imagine Istanbul exhibition