yenisehirmektupculari
“Yenisehirmektupculari” (Newcityletrists)
Aylin Kuryel, Bob Pannebakker, Zeyno Pekunlu
Yenisehirmektupculari (neo city lettrists) is an Istanbul-based art collective that has conducted several projects around the theme of urban identity and public space interventions since 2006, and organized three exhibitions in Istanbul, Amsterdam and El Prat. It mainly consists of three artists: Aylin Kuryel (Cultural Analysis, Istanbul), Bob Pannebakker (Urban Geography, Amsterdam) and Zeyno Pekunlu (Fine Arts, Barcelona). Main themes that Yenisehirmektupculari deal with is urban identity of different cities in comparison with each other, collecting signs and details of everyday life in the city, preparing interactive elements for the city dwellers, making playful and confusing public interventions.
Towards the end of the Ottoman Empire a new genre of literature appeared: Şehir Mektupçuları, meaning people writing letters to -or about- the city, City Lettrists. This genre consisted of writings about the city, its habits and characteristics, everyday life in the streets and moralistic behavioral rules to follow. It emerged at the same time as the Europeanization started to be a significant concern in the society and the influence of European culture became a more active cultural dynamic. Şehir Mektupçuları have written about urban life and culture especially in Istanbul, mostly comparing it to their beloved European cities. The general climate of their writings was based on the idea that Istanbul is still in a slow development process whereas European cities have already moved along in the path of modernization. While everything was ordered in European cities, in Istanbul it was very likely that your eye will get hurt by the umbrella of an irresponsible person or your shoes will become muddy while walking on premodern roads at an ordinary rainy day. This genre disappeared in 70’s.
As Yenişehirmektupçuları (Neocitylettrists), deriving its name from this history, we try to revive this genre by capturing urban life and culture in our very own way. The history of Şehir Mektupçuları and their naive and almost dangerously simplificatory example is our inspiration for a new subversive attempt. Since the bipolar perception of European and non European identity never ceased to exist until now, it still provides a rich playground for us. Şehir Mektupçuları looked at these concepts by putting daily life experiences in the center, which is also the methodology we follow. Yet, they still followed the big narrative of Eurocentricism, while one of our aims is to find ruptures in it. In this international art project, we are collecting signs of urban culture and existing codes in public space, by making thematic photo series of daily life details such as a lost shoe in Istanbul, a political stencil shouting from the wall in Amsterdam or "wild animals" in the streets of El Prat. We believe that they reveal the urban reality in a much better way than the spectacles in a shiny tourist guide..
Through a sociological analysis disguised as art, Yenişehirmektupçuları looks at the details that inhabitants read the city through, how similar or different two cities can be by showing them together in photo series. By focusing on urban details and comparing them with each other, Yenişehirmektupçuları aims to create space that will provoke an alternative thinking about cities and a more active participation that stimulates a more bottom-to-top and political understanding of the environment. In these various other forms we are aiming to push inhabitants to interact with their own city in different ways.
Another way to reach the aims of our project was exploring the effects of decontextualizing city-specific features through interventions in public space. Taking particular characteristics from one city and replacing them in another shows the complicity of given and unquestioned features to cultural and social codes existing in the city. A sacred element such as sayings of the founder of Turkey turned to an absurd one on an El Prat wall, an Amsterdam style gay and lesbian information point caused more than just surprised faces when it suddenly appeared in the centre of Istanbul or the translation of stickers encouraging the use of Catalan into minority languages in Istanbul that made a voiceless phenomenon visible. By comparing cities in this very direct way and exposing the inhabitants to the paradoxical character both within and between the cities, the everlasting concern of the city identity will be open to further discussion.
A sacred element such as sayings of the founder of Turkey turned to an absurd one on an El Prat wall, an Amsterdam style gay and lesbian information point caused more than just surprised faces when it suddenly appeared in the centre of Istanbul or the translation of stickers encouraging the use of Catalan into minority languages in Istanbul that made a voiceless phenomenon visible. By comparing cities in this very direct way and exposing the inhabitants to the paradoxical character both within and between the cities, the everlasting concern of the city identity will be open to further discussion. Next to this, we collected sound fragments from Istanbul, Amsterdam and El Prat, created alternative visual and auditory city maps, wrote provocative letters to authorities, created an opportunity for visitors of our exhibitions to send postcards displaying their favorite urban details to unknown inhabitants of their city and made interactive street walks and performances. Altogether the project is a playful get together of three completely different cities in different parts of Europe. It provides the possibility of an alternative reading of the cities’ identities by exploring their differences, communalities both within and between the three cities.
Aylin Kuryel, Bob Pannebakker, Zeyno Pekunlu
Yenisehirmektupculari (neo city lettrists) is an Istanbul-based art collective that has conducted several projects around the theme of urban identity and public space interventions since 2006, and organized three exhibitions in Istanbul, Amsterdam and El Prat. It mainly consists of three artists: Aylin Kuryel (Cultural Analysis, Istanbul), Bob Pannebakker (Urban Geography, Amsterdam) and Zeyno Pekunlu (Fine Arts, Barcelona). Main themes that Yenisehirmektupculari deal with is urban identity of different cities in comparison with each other, collecting signs and details of everyday life in the city, preparing interactive elements for the city dwellers, making playful and confusing public interventions.
Towards the end of the Ottoman Empire a new genre of literature appeared: Şehir Mektupçuları, meaning people writing letters to -or about- the city, City Lettrists. This genre consisted of writings about the city, its habits and characteristics, everyday life in the streets and moralistic behavioral rules to follow. It emerged at the same time as the Europeanization started to be a significant concern in the society and the influence of European culture became a more active cultural dynamic. Şehir Mektupçuları have written about urban life and culture especially in Istanbul, mostly comparing it to their beloved European cities. The general climate of their writings was based on the idea that Istanbul is still in a slow development process whereas European cities have already moved along in the path of modernization. While everything was ordered in European cities, in Istanbul it was very likely that your eye will get hurt by the umbrella of an irresponsible person or your shoes will become muddy while walking on premodern roads at an ordinary rainy day. This genre disappeared in 70’s.
As Yenişehirmektupçuları (Neocitylettrists), deriving its name from this history, we try to revive this genre by capturing urban life and culture in our very own way. The history of Şehir Mektupçuları and their naive and almost dangerously simplificatory example is our inspiration for a new subversive attempt. Since the bipolar perception of European and non European identity never ceased to exist until now, it still provides a rich playground for us. Şehir Mektupçuları looked at these concepts by putting daily life experiences in the center, which is also the methodology we follow. Yet, they still followed the big narrative of Eurocentricism, while one of our aims is to find ruptures in it. In this international art project, we are collecting signs of urban culture and existing codes in public space, by making thematic photo series of daily life details such as a lost shoe in Istanbul, a political stencil shouting from the wall in Amsterdam or "wild animals" in the streets of El Prat. We believe that they reveal the urban reality in a much better way than the spectacles in a shiny tourist guide..
Through a sociological analysis disguised as art, Yenişehirmektupçuları looks at the details that inhabitants read the city through, how similar or different two cities can be by showing them together in photo series. By focusing on urban details and comparing them with each other, Yenişehirmektupçuları aims to create space that will provoke an alternative thinking about cities and a more active participation that stimulates a more bottom-to-top and political understanding of the environment. In these various other forms we are aiming to push inhabitants to interact with their own city in different ways.
Another way to reach the aims of our project was exploring the effects of decontextualizing city-specific features through interventions in public space. Taking particular characteristics from one city and replacing them in another shows the complicity of given and unquestioned features to cultural and social codes existing in the city. A sacred element such as sayings of the founder of Turkey turned to an absurd one on an El Prat wall, an Amsterdam style gay and lesbian information point caused more than just surprised faces when it suddenly appeared in the centre of Istanbul or the translation of stickers encouraging the use of Catalan into minority languages in Istanbul that made a voiceless phenomenon visible. By comparing cities in this very direct way and exposing the inhabitants to the paradoxical character both within and between the cities, the everlasting concern of the city identity will be open to further discussion.
A sacred element such as sayings of the founder of Turkey turned to an absurd one on an El Prat wall, an Amsterdam style gay and lesbian information point caused more than just surprised faces when it suddenly appeared in the centre of Istanbul or the translation of stickers encouraging the use of Catalan into minority languages in Istanbul that made a voiceless phenomenon visible. By comparing cities in this very direct way and exposing the inhabitants to the paradoxical character both within and between the cities, the everlasting concern of the city identity will be open to further discussion. Next to this, we collected sound fragments from Istanbul, Amsterdam and El Prat, created alternative visual and auditory city maps, wrote provocative letters to authorities, created an opportunity for visitors of our exhibitions to send postcards displaying their favorite urban details to unknown inhabitants of their city and made interactive street walks and performances. Altogether the project is a playful get together of three completely different cities in different parts of Europe. It provides the possibility of an alternative reading of the cities’ identities by exploring their differences, communalities both within and between the three cities.
