cabinets of curiosity and things
ekmel ertan & sezgi abalı
Art of Everyday Life Talks, July 2021
Ekmel Ertan works as a curator, cultural manager, artist and educator. Ertan is the founder and artistic director of İstanbul based amberPlatform/BIS (Body-Process Arts Association), which is a research and production platform on art and new technologies. Ertan was the director of the international “amber Art and Technology Festival” in Istanbul between 2007-2015. He curates new media works as an independent curator in Turkey and abroad. Ertan has exhibited his new media installations, photography and collaborative performance works in Turkey, Europe, and The States. Since 2007, Ertan has been working as the site coordinator and director of EU supported multi-partner international projects on behalf of BIS. Ertan received his BSc degree in Electronics / Communication Engineering from the Technical University of Istanbul and his MA degree on Interactive Media Design from Yıldız Technical University. He worked as a design and test engineer on telecommunication systems in Turkey, Germany, and Belgium. Since 1999 he has taught new media art and design at Istanbul Bilgi University, İstanbul Technical University, Sabancı University. and currently at İzmir Economy University. Ertan continues to work in Izmir, Istanbul and Berlin. https://forumist.com
Sezgi Abalı is an artist, curator, lecturer and curious researcher. After BA in English Literature, she completed her MA in Art Management. She is one of the co-initiators of halka art project which is independent art initiative and international artist residency in Istanbul. In 2012, she started a project room on art and design called Kabine Nadire which functioned as a contemporary form and interpretation of cabinets of curiosities (Wunderkammern). It produced and exhibited unusual, intriguing and bizarre works of art and design.
She pursues her practice mostly through archiving, documentation and story telling. Her art making depends on an excavating, collecting and connecting process in order to dream more about the familiar and the remote. Her modus operandi is being inquisitive about the memories of people, places and things. She makes use of different mediums in her works via creating visual/textual/spatial experiences.
Sezgi Abalı (b.1979) Born in Mersin. Lives and works in Izmir and Istanbul.
art of everyday life