Darat al Funun presents Linear Transcendency, a collaborative exhibition by İzmir-based artist Cansu Çakar together with workshop participants. The project was initiated and developed by Bige Örer.
Çakar redefines the traditional format of miniature in her artistic practice. She has organised series of workshops where she collaborated with participants from different backgrounds including women, refugees, students as well as architects, artists and activists. The process highlighted the act of working together and mapping different stories and destinations using miniature technique, which is traditionally commonly used in mapping. Workshop participants were invited to create maps for different purposes – maps drawing every day in the city, maps drawn to find the city they want to live in, local and international maps, or maps in which we can disregard any political, social, religious or economic constraints — using, but not limited to traditional mapping and ornamental techniques.
Cansu Çakar said; ‘What was and what made the border? The borders used to be rivers, mountains and seas. The color of the earth could change as it pleased, the rocks could move as they rolled. But which border is a mountain's or a river's in our day? The infinity in the space becomes more meaningless as we divide our tiny world with lines. We become more shallow and then we begin not to deserve infinity. We draw rough lines by means of paws of the civilization while as the Nature offers us all the answers with her kindness. A World where the crows could land on the whales must have been a dream, but for now, we can only dream of a world where there are no borders.’
Running over the span of three weeks, the workshop 'Mapping Stories and Destinations' at Darat al Funun invited women from Zarqa, in cooperation with AYA for Consultancy & Development, the Khawla Bint Al Azwar Society and the Family Guidance and Awareness Center in Zarqa, and in cooperation with the UN Women Project "Support Gender Equality and Social Cohesion Efforts through Service Delivery in Jordan's Hosting Communities" funded by the government of Japan. Çakar also worked with visual arts students from the University of Jordan under the direction of the Head of the Fine Arts department, Jehad al Ameri, as well as several visiting schools and participating artists from various backgrounds, including Jane Mufti, Haifa Kader, Ruba Abushousheh, Brittany Barrineau, Majed Neaimi, Lugine Emad Hiary, Trisha Terwilliger, Areej Melhem, Suzanne Saoub, Yasmine Alkurdi, Bayan Mazen Homsi, Laith Demashqieh, and Hanin Dabbagh. This exhibition is a compilation of their collective stories.
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Bige Örer is the Director of the Istanbul Biennial. Örer came aboard on the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts in 2003 and worked in the coordination of cultural and artistic projects until she was appointed director to the Istanbul Biennial in 2008. Since 2009, she has been the advisor of the Pavilion of Turkey at the International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia. She has also been teaching, between 2011 and 2013, courses on the subject of managing biennials and international exhibitions at the Istanbul Bilgi University. Since March 2013, she is the vice-president of the International Biennial Association.
İzmir based artist Cansu Çakar was born in Istanbul in 1988. She started her higher education in 2006 at Dokuz Eylül University Traditional Turkish Arts Department. In 2012 she went to Moholy – Nagy Arts and Design University in Budapest to study graphic design through a student exchange programme. She earned her BFA in 2013 and now runs an independent art studio called "Minyatür Atölye- Miniature Atelier" in Kardıcalı Han (K2), İzmir.