2001-08-28 - Turkey
Istanbul's first Museum of Contemporary Art
Proje4L -Istanbul Museum of Contemporary Art opens with its inaugural exhibition, "Becoming a Place" on September 21, 2001. The museum is located in a 1.600 m2 annex of an office tower, Harmanc -Giz Plaza. The founder of the institution is architect and land developer Dr. Can Elgiz.

Proje4L encourages experimental exhibition projects. Special attention is given to the needs of new audiences. Proje4L is conscious of the fact that contemporary art prospers only in an environment of a growing and diverse audience. It considers the museum as a mutual space, and a conduit between different communities.

The exhibition program does not discriminate between local and global, national and international art. Open to novel proposals, the institution will support the development of a critical dialogue. Proje 4L will collaborate with other institutions on exhibitions and programs, and partnerships with non-art institutions and networks. It will publish literature in conjunction with exhibitions, events and educational programs.. Proje 4L will also study, document and pursue exhibitions from private and public collections.

The museum s first exhibition, "Becoming a Place" is organized by Vasif Kortun, the director of the museum. The exhibition explores the articulation of complex and culturally dissimilar meanings of private and public spheres. It emphasizes questions like the urgent and far reaching urbanization of rural cultures; the stamina and resistance of traditional cultures to urban modes; the organization of inner spaces; and the appropriation and ownership of public areas.

The exhibition will present a series of works and proposals by artists from Turkey and artists who have worked in the Turkish context. Artists in the exhibition are: H�seyin Alptekin, Can Altay, Halil Alt ndere, Tina Carllson, Esra Ersen, Erik G”ngrich, Hakan G�rsoytrak, G�ls�n Karamustafa, Aydan Murtezaoglu, B�lent Sangar, and the Oda Project A book will be published in conjunction with the exhibition. The contributors include H�seyin Alptekin, Didem Dan s, Vasif Kortun, Erden Kosova, and Orhan Esen. The book is edited by ™zge A‡ kkol and designed by Esen Karol Ltd.

Since May 2001, Proje 4L has been organizing a series of lectures. To date Hans Ulrich Obrist and Charles Esche have lectured at the museum. On September 7, Chris Dercon (director of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam) will give a conference titled "You can be a museum or you can be modern, but you can t be both (after Gertude Stein)."
Source: Vasif Kortun by Kalina Bunevska Isakovska - Macedonia