TALK by Tevfik Balcıoğlu, Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey
Heritage: Used & Abused.
In pursuit of a lost identity in Turkish design.
Friday 26th of May from 16.00 to 17.30
In Turkey, designers´ approaches to heritage vary according to their social, political, and ideological identities. A rapidly changing conjuncture shapes and reshapes the framework of tensions, compromises and fusions faced by designers. Along with the current populist movement, a highly politicized national-cultural myth is reflected in Turkish design culture. The rich Turkish-Islamic cultural heritage is being mythologized and commodified in ideological frameworks such as neo-Ottomanism. Here, a rich fabric of diverse and dilemmatic interrelationships is woven that enables us for a pluralist reading.
Professor Tevfik Balcıoğlu’s talk is moderated by NÆS- Nomad Agency/Archive of Emergent Studies. This event is part of the forum program for the exhibition Every Straight Line Bends by its Own Weight, at the Changing Room of the recently opened permanent collection exhibition Utopia Now.
Free entrance.
Tevfik Balcıoğlu is professor of design, (Vice Rector, 2012-15) at Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey. Graduated from Middle East Technical University, he attended Royal College of Art (1988-90), taught at Goldsmiths’ College (1991) and Kent Institute of Art and Design, UK (1992-2003). He is founding Dean of Faculty of Fine Arts & Design at Izmir University of Economics (2004-2011) and founding President of Design & Design History Society (4T: Tasarım ve Tasarım Tarihi Topluluğu), Turkey, (2014-). He has acted as columnist for the journal ‘XXI Architecture, Design, Space’ and his edited works include: ‘The Role of Product Design in Post-Industrial Society’, ‘Dancing with Disorder’, ‘Gender Perspectives in Design’ and the Design Journal issue: ‘A Glance at Design Discourse in Turkey’. Balcıoğlu is a board member of the European Academy of Design and International Committee for Design History and Design Studies. He is a member of the executive board and the scientific committee of Izmir Mediterranean Academy.
Every Straight Line Bends by its Own Weight 3.2.–28.05.2017
Image: Erdem Akan, “Istanbul Alphabet”.
