Sinopale 4, Outlook Part I

The fourth edition of the International Sinop Biennial already begins in the middle of July this year. More than 20 artists are planning and preparing their works, such as exhibitions, installations, workshops and performances. A wide range of different projects are going to be realized this year. Many of them including interaction with the people of Sinop, always pursuing the goal of building dialogue through arts to create a better social and living space. Visitors can prepare themselves for a large number of interesting, exciting, original, extraordinary thought-out and beautiful artworks by national and international artists. To bring some order and overview to the programme, we want to present you a choice of artists and take a closer look at their undertakings.

The start is made by artists in residency Bahanur Nasya, Yilmaz Vurucu and Maurice Bogaert are going to shoot and work on a documentary during their stay at the most northern city of Turkey. During their residency, Bahanur and Yilmaz will produce a documentary about the Black Sea Coast, following extensive research on the culture, architecture and history of the area. The research topic of Bahanur Nasya, focuses on a comparison and cross-study of vernacular architecture in the Turkish Black Sea region and the Austrian Alps. Together they hope to portray how centuries of co-existing with nature and the sea has created such a rich and vibrant culture, one which needs to be maintained and not sacrificed to the norms of what we define as global modernity, whether it be modern highways which serve as a disconnect between the inhabitants of a region and the sea, or dying out traditions which should be maintained and passed onto other generations.
The film is going to be part of the long-term venture “Now wakes the sea” (http://www.satellietgroep.nl/now_wakes_the_sea/1), an exchange project between Black and North Sea. It is initiated by Dutch Satellietgroep and involves research based air programs for artists/filmmakers in coastal transition areas around the Black Sea and North Sea to develop new works, select existing works and program a traveling filmfestival for screening on venues, both on the coast of the Black Sea as well as on The North Sea. The aim is to research the pressure on public, social and cultural use on the waterfronts and develop new concepts and strategies focused on a new approach of future sea and coastal urban areas. We are excited to welcome Satellietgroep to Sinop and to watch the movie as soon as it is finished.

Another artist at Sinopale 4, also employing the medium of video and film, is Quynh Dong. The female artist who was born in Northern Vietnam and lives in Zurich, Switzerland, aims at finding identity in her work through cross-cultural experiences. She brings together art and life by combining two mediums (video and performance). Quynh plans a special concert from Sinopians for Sinopians and is going to include them directly in a performance event in which music and language play an inevitable role. “Folk music is very popular in Turkey, and has partly moved in the direction of pop. I would like to explore this”, Quynh tells us. Over the course of three weeks she is going to meet people of different age in Sinop and is going to discuss with them their favorite songs. “Together with the people of Sinop I would like to find out how the metamorphoses of language and dialects are integrated into music in various ways.” At the opening of the Sinop Biennale 2012 Quynh is going to invite the inhabitants to take the stage and sing their favorite songs. Quynh is going to inspire and encourage the people in Sinop to work out of their own impulse and to have fun while realizing the project.

A rather different experience is offered by Canadian artist Amelie Bresson. In her installation called “Pars mais prend bien soin de revenir “ she plans to trace shadows which she uses as patterns for clothing she is going to tailor afterwards. She thereby takes direct reference to this year’s conceptual framework title “Wisdom of Shadow: Art in the Era of Corrupted Information“. “From these fluid, abstract shapes I create phantasmagorical, improbable, unusable clothes. Their rich materiality merges into the real while at the same time their usability has to remain on an imaginary plane”, Amelie reveals. She created a series of five costumes whose composition create a new form of living picture that visitors (re)activate when trying the clothes, after projecting their shadows onto the garments. Amelie explains where she drew her inspiration for the project: She took four stories in which the loss of shadow play a big role and built her idea around them. The project will be supplemented by sounds connecting and interweaving the stories with the installation.
(Riikka Tauriainen: A Black Market for Wasted Time)
Another interesting installation will be delivered by Finnish artist Riikka Tauriainen. Riikka’s focus is on the performative process of everyday life and art, which she puts into motion by means of medium and situation. She deals with topics such as social norms and behaviors, routine, banality and language.
For Sinopale 4, Riikka thought out a “Black Market for Wasted Time” as an installation and research based work. The black market invites visitors to contribute ideas on how to ‘waste time’ and in return they will get a proposal for ‘wasting time’ from other contributors. This is Riikkas answer approach to the generally as problematic considered idea of “wasted time” in our society where constant achievement is expected and hardly any space for leisure and creativity is left. A part of the material will be collected at the street from the artist, through interaction with people. This will be done as a form of trading, it is a questionnaire, with a swop of answers. For an answer, the participants will receive an answer as a suggestion from another person.

We are excited to call all these artists and more welcome in Sinop. More information about the programme will follow soon.