Morning flight at 4.00 to Diyarbakır.
After arriving in Diyarbakır Kor Smeenge discovered that his cardboard box with his work for the Diyarbakır presentation didn’t arrive. It was send to the Black Sea. Happily Gamze a volunteer assistant from the Diyarbakır Arts Centre (DAC) who was on the same flight helped Kor Smeenge out with filling forms and so on.
After checking in our hotel we were welcomed by Veysel, another volunteer of the DAC. He would be our guy, guide, translator during our stay in Diyarbakır. The people of the DAC where more then helpful.
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| Veysel | Büyük Hotel | Gamze |
First we visit the DAC (http://www.anadolukultur.org/) to examine the space.
We were welcomed by Melike Coşkun, the director of DAC and Beral Madra, curator of the exhibition and symposium ‘A Consumption of Justice’. This project wants to establish the relation of artist in the region; unfortunaly she did not succeed to find a Syrian artist to participate in the project. Bassam Al Khourri a DAI student from Syria immediately reacted.
DAC is founded by a group of intellectuals in İstanbul and the East of Turkey to stimulate the cultural infrastructure in the east of Turkey. This region is for a long time neglected for many reasons. As we later noticed there is a big gap between the east and the west of Turkey.
Beral Madra, curator of ‘A Consumption of Justice’
Beral Madra pointed out the İstanbul intellectuals were focused on Western Europe and did forget about their own territory’s in her opinion this has to be changed and because of recent political developments:
- Independence of states belonging to the former USSR
- Turkey and the EEC
- Political developments in the Middle East and South East Turkey.
To attract the public the DAC is located (on level -1) in a shopping mall, so the access for people is without barriers.
Shopping Mall
Veysel showed us a some places in the old city like the Grand Mosque (Uli Camii) and the bazaar. Diyarbakır is mainly inhabited by the Kurds and in nothing to be compared with İstanbul.
Grand Mosque (Uli Camii)
Veysel was constantly worried about our safety. Ruth Linnemann and also some of the other students were quite shocked when they were looking in a rocket of military carrier waiting for the traffic light.
