One of the world's leading architecture events, the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia will take place on May 28 - 27 November, 2016. Following an open-call and a two-stage evaluation, the selection committee has determined the project that will be exhibited at the Pavilion of Turkey, under the coordination of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts.
Led by Mehmet Kütükçüoğlu, Ertuğ Uçar, and Feride Çiçekoğlu with the support of Namık Erkal and Cemal Emden, and created by the team composed of Hüner Aldemir, Hande Ciğerli, Gökçen Erkılıç, Nazlı Tümerdem and Yiğit Yalgın, the project entitled Darzanà will be exhibited in the Pavilion of Turkey at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia.
Inspired by the Mediterranean's once twin harbours of Venice and Istanbul, the project's title comes from the word Darzanà, meaning an inlet used for building ships in Ancient Greek, Latin, Jewish, Arabic, and Turkish cultures. The project aims to confront the Arsenale and the historic Istanbul shipyards at the biennial, carrying the Istanbul dock and its accompanying historic associations, exchanges, discussions, similarities, and visions of the future to a shipyard in Venice.
The Pavilion of Turkey exhibition is coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, and realised under the co-sponsorship of Schüco Turkey and VitrA, and the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey.
The Pavilion of Turkey opened at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia in 2014 for the first time, upon a 20-year allotment of the Arsenale with İKSV's initiation and the contribution of 21 supporters.
The Selection Committee for the Pavilion of Turkey at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia
The selection committee chose the Darzanà project among the applications made in response to an open-call, after a series of assemblies. The application process ended on 23 October, leaving 36 eligible projects to committee's evaluation. Darzanà was chosen among the 9 projects that made their way to the final round completed on Friday, 11 December. Among the committee's members are Prof. Dr. Sibel Bozdoğan, Head of the Architecture Department at Kadir Has University's Faculty of Art and Design, and Faculty Member at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD); Levent Çalıkoğlu, Director of Istanbul Modern, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art; Prof. Dr. Arzu Erdem, Dean of Faculty of Architecture at Abdullah Gül University; Prof. Dr. Murat Güvenç, Director of the Istanbul Studies Centre at Kadir Has University and Faculty Member at Kadir Has University's Faculty of Economic Administrative and Social Sciences, Political Science and Public Administration; Yeşim Hatırlı, Founding Partner of Hatırlı Architecture Co. Ltd., Member of the Turkish Association of Architecture in Private Practice, and Visiting Lecturer at the Middle East Technical University's Department of Architecture; Prof. Dr. Süha Özkan, Founding President of the International Union of Architects; and Prof. Dr. Uğur Tanyeli, Dean of Bilgi University's Faculty of Architecture.
Details regarding the Pavilion of Turkey at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia and Darzanà project will be announced in 2016.
Mehmet V. KÜTÜKÇÜOĞLU
Mehmet V. Kütükçüoğlu was born in Zurich in 1967. He graduated from the Middle East Technical University's (METU) Faculty of Architecture in 1989, and completed his graduate work, which he began in Switzerland that same year, at the SCI-ARC School of Architecture in Los Angeles in 1992. He worked with various architects before returning to Turkey in 1993, including Calatrava, Wagner in Switzerland, and Gehry, Johnsons & Favaro in the U.S. He has been pursuing his professional career as a partner at TEGET Architecture since 1996. Alongside his professional output, Kütükçüoğlu has also lectured at SCI-ARC, METU, Yıldız Technical University, and Istanbul Technical University as part of his academic career. He was also a studio coordinator and is a member of the Board of Directors of Istanbul Bilgi University's Master's Programme in Architecture. His articles on the city, its relationship with architecture, and the architecture profession have been published in various media. He continues his professional work as a partner at TEGET, with projects such as the Istanbul Naval Museum, the Izmir Opera House, and the Yapı Kredi Cultural Centre in Galatasaray.
Ertuğ UÇAR
Ertuğ Uçar was born in Antalya in 1971. After completing Antalya High School, he graduated from the Middle East Technical University's (METU) Faculty of Architecture in 1993. He completed his master's degree in 1999 in the same department and received awards at both national and international competitions. He writes for trade publications as well as popular periodicals, and has also published two books of short stories entitled Rüya Arızaları (Dream Defects) and Yalnızlığın 17 Türü (17 Kinds of Loneliness). He worked in architects' offices in Antalya, Ankara, and Istanbul from 1993 to 1999 and is currently continuing his professional career at TEGET, where he is a partner. During the spring semesters of 2006-2007, he was a coordinator at Yıldız Technical University and Istanbul Technical University Architectural Design studios. He has curated exhibitions, including the second exhibition of VitrA Contemporary Architecture Series, Lütfen Rahatsız Etmeyin (Please Do Not Disturb) and designed Istatistiklal exhibitions at ZKM Karlsruhe and Siemens Art. He is currently continuing his professional career as a partner at TEGET, with projects such as the Istanbul Naval Museum, the Izmir Opera House, and the Yapı Kredi Cultural Centre in Galatasaray.
Feride Çiçekoğlu
After receiving her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the METU Faculty of Architecture, Feride Çiçekoğlu earned her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. Following her doctoral thesis criticising Philadelphia's urban renewal, her academic career, which she began in Turkey in the field of architecture, was interrupted by the military coup of September 12, 1980. Her first book Uçurtmayı Vurmasınlar (Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite), which was based on the memories of her four years in prison, also formed the basis for her first script. The film's success steered Çiçekoğlu towards cinema, and in addition to screenwriting, she also became a professor, building an academic career in the field. In addition to numerous short stories, she wrote the screenplays of Umuda Yolculuk (Journey of Hope, Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 1991) and Kumun Tadı (Seaburners, Berlin Film Festival, 2014). Maintaining her connection to architecture, Çiçekoğlu focused on the relationship between cinema and the city. From 1995 to 1999, she undertook the role of executive editor for the History Foundation's Istanbul magazine. Her books Vesikalı Şehir (Whore of a City, 2007, Metis) and Şehrin İtirazı (The City's Objection, 2015, Metis) focus on the representations of Istanbul in film. She is still a faculty member at Istanbul Bilgi University's Department of Film and Television.
