ODA PROJESI + NADIN RESCHKE
Collective Bios
Oda Projesi is an artist collective based in İstanbul; Özge Açıkkol, Güneş Savaş and Seçil Yersel turned their collaborative experience starting from 1997 to a project in 2000. From January 2000, the space in Galata functioned as a non-profit independent space, hosting projects, gatherings and acts up until march 16th 2005, when Oda Projesi was evicted from the apartment due to the gentrification process. By imitating the already existing social and spatial relationships especially reproduced by women and children, the actions of Oda Projesi thus created intersections that gave way to new social relations. After having lost their space, Oda Projesi still continues with the idea of the creation of “third spaces”.Since then Oda Projesi was no longer space based but always carried the idea of the creation of a third space, a space for socialization. While doing this, the project looked at how İstanbul as a city is organized spatially by its habitants. Oda Projesi transferred this spatial and relational practices to different cities and neighbourhoods both in Turkey and abroad. Oda Projesi have been into many international exhibitions and events such as "On Fail[e]d Tales and Ta[y]lors", Tabakalera, San Sebastian, 2020; "Mobile Autonomy - Organizing Ourselves as Artists Today”, Middelheimmuseum, Antwerp, 2015; "ANA", Astrid Noack’s Atelier, Copenhagen, 2013; "Beyond Belonging", Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Berlin, 2009; "Collective Creativity", Kunsthalle Friedericianum, Kassel, 2005; "İstanbul", 9th Istanbul Biennale, 2005; "Poetic Justice", 8th Istanbul Biennale; "Structures of Survival", 50th Venice Biennale, 2003.
@oda.projesi
Nadin Reschke is a visual artist who works in different social contexts. Central to her work is creating and facilitating processes and situations of communication. Her way of working is based on a direct exchange with people and often results in multiple authorships. She lives and works in Berlin but many of her works are created in transcultural contexts. The topics of her often long-term projects are inclusion vs. exclusion, attributions of identity, migration and mobility. In her artistic practice, Nadin Reschke makes frequent use of fabrics as a versatile and changeable sculptural material. She uses them to render identities, collective histories and individual experiences visible. Nadin has lived and worked in Istanbul three times, in 2004, in 2006 and in 2010. She learned Turkish in a language course in Istanbul and had a DAAD Istanbul grant for her project “Kalıntı”, a research and interview project with people of the 2nd migration generation who emigrated to Turkey from Germany to live in Istanbul. In 2022 Nadin will come back to Istanbul through a residency at the Cultural Academy Tarabya to collaborate with Oda Projesi.
@nadin.reschke
Özge Açikkol works with photography, writing, and documenting. She is collecting situational usages of İstanbul’s public spaces with photo documentation that is the witness of the last 20 years of the city and she is also interested in alternative pedagogies related with those spatial practices. These collected images appear through different events/exhibitions (in formats such as photography, poster) and sometimes as visuals in different kinds of publications. She’s been working as editor and translator for different publications, in parallel to her artistic production. She founded the Oda Projesi collective with Güneş Savaş and Seçil Yersel in 2000. Recently she has been into different exhibitions such as “In the Blink of a Bird” exhibition by Sis Collective, nGbK, Berlin (in collaboration with Seçil Yersel), 2019; “First Marriage”, Riverrun: Bunker Exhibitions, İstanbul, 2019; “Edit Your Future” Bucharest Biennale 8, Bucharest, 2018.
@lapsus_memoriae
Güneş Savaş is an artist who graduated from the department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Marmara University in 1999. She founded the Oda Projesi collective with Özge Açıkkol and Seçil Yersel in 2000 in İstanbul. Recently she has been into exhibitions: "The Cling", Aylin Önel & Güneş Savaş; "Irregular Legacy of Memory", 2020, Yapı Kredi Bomontiada, BüroSarıgedik 2021. Selected exhibitions include "Artists of Today", Young Art 3 in Ankara; 6th Istanbul Biennial; "From Far Away So Close", Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden; "Stay With Me", Apartman Projesi-Berlin. Being also involved with the Permakamp project since 2014, her focus has shifted to topics like permaculture, nature & kids and community supported agriculture.
@gunessavas
Seçil Yersel is an artist who has graduated from sociology and art departments. Since 1994 she works with and within photography in search for third spaces and new perceptions of place making; with sound-text-montage; she writes, collects and shares her productions in exhibitions, publications and moments. Her photographs are in museum collections and private collections. Her photography works have been exhibited in many cities such as Istanbul, Tokyo, Berlin, London, Munich. Yersel has been in the field of “writing” since 1994; she is documenting, recording and noting daily life and also producing texts on exhibitions & performances. Since 2000 Seçil Yersel has been the co-founder of the artist collective Oda Projesi (İstanbul) with Özge Açıkkol and Güneş Savaş. Yersel is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA)-Turkey. She is currently living and producing in Berlin.
@secilyersel