Artists and designers meet artisans at the Istanbul Modern Platform for Crafts, Art and Design

Leading the way in the development of creative industries in Turkey, Istanbul Modern is carrying out a brand new project that brings together contemporary design and art with the deeply-rooted yet practically extinctcrafts and artisanaltraditions of Istanbul. For its first project, the newly established Istanbul Modern Platform for Crafts, Art and Design brings these three fields together. With the support of the “Istanbul Development Agency (İSTKA) Financial Support Program for the Development of Creative Industries”, this interdisciplinary platform aims to provide designers and artists with the opportunity to work and produce together with artisans, and thus support the mutual sharing of knowledge and experience and preserve cultural wealth.

The Istanbul Modern Platform for Crafts, Art and Design will continue to realize diverse projects and collaborations in the future. Its aim is to develop projects that create added value toward increasing Istanbul’s global competitive strength, to contribute to academic work, and to raise awareness about creative industries in audiences of all ages through diverse events.

In the Istanbul Modern Platform for Crafts, Art and Design, the participants in the project will use glass, mother-of-pearl, wood, bone, and copper and reinterpret Istanbul’s gradually disappearing raw materials and production techniques to create design objects and artworks. In the platform, 5 artisans come together with 5 artists/designers; Atilla Kuzu (Copper), Hatice Gökçe (Bone), Adnan Serbest (Wood), Ekrem Yalçındağ (Mother-of-Pearl), and Seyhun Topuz (Glass).

Participants will examine the production methods of the selected crafts on site and develop ideas for the products in which they will use the relevant raw materials and techniques. Samples will be produced following the design process, and the production is scheduled to be completed by March 2016.

The products that will result from the project are expected to form the core of the museum’s design collection. They will be on displayin the Istanbul Modern Store for 6 months starting in May 2016, and will be accompanied by information about the project provided in digital format. A panel will be held on May 5, 2016 with the participation of the project’s designers and artists to bring the project to wider audiences.

“The content of this publication prepared within the scope of the Istanbul Modern Platform for Crafts, Art and Design, a project supported by the Istanbul Development Agency, does not reflect the views of the Istanbul Development Agency and/or of the Turkish Ministry of Development; the content of this project is the sole responsibility of the Istanbul Foundation for Modern Art.”