Collective Çukurcuma (Mine Kaplangı & Naz Cuguoglu)

 

Collective Çukurcuma is a non-profit curatorial collective from Istanbul, Turkey. It was founded by Naz Cuguoğlu and Mine Kaplangı in 2015, and joined by Serhat Cacekli in 2017. The collective mainly focuses on collaborative thinking and creating processes through its reading group meetings and cross-national collaborative exhibitions, and highlights the potential of transdisciplinary collaborations within contemporary art, process-based rather than outcome-based research with an experimental laboratory approach through their curatorial and editorial projects. Founded in response to a need for building a platform generating progressive dialogues and discussions on contemporary art, it aims to rebuild the nearly-forgotten ‘neighbour’ experience among artists, curators, researchers and collectives through forming collaborations locally and internationally. Collective Çukurcuma organises periodical seminars, exhibitions, talks and performances, and also with their reading group project (co-organised by Gökcan Demirkazık, founded in 2015) the research processes of their exhibitions are shared with artists and other participants. The reading group’s archive is open to all and can be accessed from the collective’s website.

 

Naz Cuguoglu (1989) is a curator and art writer, based in Istanbul. She received her BA in Psychology and MA in Social Psychology focusing on cultural studies. Her writings have been published in various online and published art magazines, including Art Asia Pacific, Art South Africa, and Istanbul Art News. She is the co-founder of Collective Çukurcuma and artistic research project “IdentityLab” (SE & TR). Recently, she took part in ICI New Orleans Curatorial Intensive funded by SAHA, and TATE Intensive (London) funded by Roberto Cimetta fund. She has curated various exhibitions such as; Restless Monuments (Zilberman Gallery, Istanbul, 2018), House of Wisdom (Public program of the 15th Istanbul Biennial, 2017), Asymmetric Kin (Coop Gallery, Nashville, 2016) and After Alexandria The Flood (5533, Istanbul, 2015).

 

Mine Kaplangı (1987) is the co-founder of Collective Çukurcuma. She received her bachelor degree in Philosophy in Istanbul University and MA (Certificate Program) in Philosophy of Arts & Aesthetics in Bologna University/ DAMS Faculty. She is also working as a freelance editor for contemporary art platforms like Artunlimited and Artfridge. She has curated various exhibition such as; House of Wisdom (Public program of the 15th Istanbul Biennial and Framer Framed, Amsterdam, 2017), Asymmetric Kin (Coop Gallery, Nashville, 2016) and Detail (BLOK art space, 2016).

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Cüneyt Çakırlar

 

Dr Cüneyt Çakırlar is a senior lecturer in Communications, Culture and Media Studies at Nottingham Trent University. His current research practice focuses on transnational sexuality studies and cross-cultural mobility of contemporary art practices. Awarded a PhD degree in Gender Studies, followed by an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship award at University College London with his project on cultural translation in arts (2008-2009), Çakırlar has taught on queer aesthetics and film theory at UCL, Boğaziçi University, and Istanbul Bilgi University. His articles appeared in various peer-reviewed journals including Critical Arts, Paragraph, Cineaction and Screen. He has co-edited a volume about cultures of sexual dissidence in contemporary Turkey, namely Cinsellik Muamması (2012), and co-translated Judith Butler’s Bodies That Matter (1993) into Turkish (2014). Çakırlar has also authored exhibition catalogues for the solo shows of various internationally acclaimed artists including Taner Ceylan (Paul Kasmin Gallery NYC, 2013), Jake and Dinos Chapman (ARTER Istanbul, 2017), and Erinç Seymen (Zilberman Gallery, 2017).

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Queer Art Projects 

 

Queer Art Projects is a London based company, which specialises in producing and organising art events like exhibitions, performances, screenings and conferences as well as providing all the related services to art event organisation. Queer Art Projects was founded by Tuna Erdem and Seda Ergul, who have been partners for more than a decade. Both have a dual educational background of business and art. Ergul received her BA degree in Business Administration (Bogaziçi University) and her MA in Music (Istanbul Bilgi University) while Erdem received her BA in Economics (Marmara University), MA in Film and Art Theory (University of Kent) and PhD in Film and Theatre (Reading University). Both taught art at a university level and held administrative positions in their respective departments. Together they have produced numerous conferences, exhibitions and performances both in Turkey and the UK, they have written for exhibition catalogues and art journals and edited a book (Fetis Ikame, 2014). They have also delivered talks on art in various institutions like CRISAP, London College of Communication and Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. Erdem and Ergul are also artists and the founding members of Istanbul Queer Art Collective, which has been a part of all the iterations of House of Wisdom Exhibition.