"Can be Seen until the Demolition": Urban Ruins, Street Art, and Gentrification in Istanbul (original) (raw)

2012, Bir+Bir

In the summer of 2012, Tarlabaşı district in Istanbul witnessed a series of “uncommon activities”. Behind the “Tarlabaşı is being Renewed” billboards trying to hide the torn down buildings, the excavators stood still due to an as yet unexplained lull in the demolition. Meanwhile new things have emerged amidst the ruins of Tarlabaşı. First, wall writings began to appear in the streets included in the so-called renovation project. Over time, numbers of stencils rapidly increased especially along the Sakızağacı Street. These pioneering street works were telling signs of the forthcoming creative wave as researchers and photographers recklessly began to visually archive Tarlabaşı’s streets. Subsequently, areas still awaiting demolition containing half-demolished houses, and streets momentarily free of the rumbles of sledgehammers, hosted four consecutive independent art events. First, the fine arts students from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and Marmara University organized an exhibition titled “Division Unfolded: Tarlabaşı Intervention” in, what the organizers called, “an abandoned building” in Eski Çeşme Street. In a three-storey building cleared of debris, they exhibited their works relating to the demolition in Tarlabaşı, most of which were like requiems. Following this exhibition, the 4th independent visual arts and music festival VJ Fest, a video-music event called “visual transformation” took place again in, “abandoned buildings”. The artists reclaimed the evicted buildings using the “mapping technique”. During the next few weeks, among the same “abandoned constructions”, graffiti artists from the “Heyt Be!” fanzine organized an exhibition and staged live performances at their opening party. Finally, a street art festival entitled “Renovation Tarlabaşı” took place in the neighbouring Karakurum Sokak, renovating the evicted houses in the street with the participation of street-artist, graffiti-artists, painters, illustrators, and music bands. That summer, independent young artists, hipsters, neo-hippies and Erasmus students crowded the streets of Tarlabaşı.