Episode 17: Meriç Öner
Meriç Öner is the current Director of Research and Programs at SALT, a cultural institution with a special focus on art, architecture, and social life.
"We could have as well called ourselves the academy of the 21st century, but we went with calling it the cultural institution of this century”
I think Meriç’s proposal boils down to imagining the next art institution as a kind of academy, not only as a site of education, but also as a provider of exchange, a social platform where knowledge intermingles with and through the people.
Episode Notes & Links
Meriç Öner is a trained architect and the Director of Research and Programs at SALT since 2017.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/meric-oner-announced-director-turkey-salt-802586
SALT is Turkey’s spearheading cultural institution. With a special focus on art, architecture, and social life, It holds a vast archive of the material and visual culture of Turkey. The institution is active with a variety of cultural programs that include exhibitions. www.saltonline.org
İstanbul Technical University is the world's third-oldest technical university dedicated to engineering sciences. https://www.itu.edu.tr/en
Established in 1996, Bilgi Üniversitesi is a private university located in Istanbul. https://www.bilgi.edu.tr/en/university/about/
Pelin Derviş is an architect, researcher, writer, and editor. Her work focuses mainly on 20th-century architecture and design in Turkey. https://www.pelindervis.com/en/about
The United Nations Development Programme is a United Nations organization tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Development_Programme
The International Union of Architects (UIA) was founded in 1948 to unite the architects of the world through a federation of their national organizations. They hold an international congress once every three years. https://www.uia-architectes.org/webApi/en/about
Hans Hollein (30 March 1934 – 24 April 2014) was an Austrian architect and designer and key figure of postmodern architecture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Hollein
Sibel Bozdoǧan is an architect and academic whose research/teaching covers trans-national histories of modern architecture and urbanism across the globe, with a specialization on Turkey, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. https://www.bu.edu/haa/profile/sibel-bozdogan/
Murat Güvenç is a scholar specializing in urban studies and regional planning.
İhsan Bilgin is an architect and academic. https://readingoffice.com/ihsan-bilgin/
The contemporary art institution Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center opened in 2001 and was located on the pedestrian Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul, Turkey. It ended its activities under this name in 2010 upon the foundation of SALT. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_Garanti_Contemporary_Art_Center
Garanti Gallery (GG) was a cultural institution based in Istanbul, Turkey, specializing in design, architecture, and urbanism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garanti_Gallery
Founded in March 1997 by the Ottoman Bank in collaboration with the History Foundation (Turkish: Tarih Vakfi), the Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Centre (OBARC) operated in the former Head Office of the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul, Turkey from 1999 to 2010 till SALT’s foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Bank_Archives_and_Research_Centre
Vasıf Kortun is a curator, teacher, and writer. He was the guest of Ahali’s sixth episode: https://www.ahali.space/episodes/episode-6-vasif-kortun
Arte Útil seeks to collect case studies to show how initiatives focusing on social practice are not isolated incidents, but part of a larger historical trajectory. https://www.arte-util.org/about/colophon/
Alastair Hudson is the co-director of the Asociación de Arte Útil with Tania Bruguera. https://www.internationaleonline.org/people/alistair_hudson/
Aslıhan Demirtaş is an architect. https://aslihan-demirtas.com/about
Han Tümertekin is an architect http://www.mimarlar.com/en-US/Architect/han-tumertekin/1
Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 is an exhibition that has taken place at MoMa in 2018. https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3931?locale=en
Thomas Krens is the former director and Senior Advisor for International Affairs of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York City. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Krens
Episode recorded on Zoom in April, 2021.
Interview by Can Altay. Produced by Aslı Altay & Sarp Renk Özer. Music by Grup Ses.