Active Monument to Urban Destruction is a urban installation created for the Istanbul Design Biennial 2012. Like other cities, Istanbul is under the pressure of state-led neoliberal rehabilitation and development. These type of urban transformations does not only harm the urban spaces and habitats, but also transform the everyday life of inhabitants and local groups. Cohabitation Strategies, known for mobilizing the public and discursive critical actions, and Kayıtdışı, an Istanbul based architecture and design collective, collaborated in this project addressing the current urban destruction in public spaces in the Karaköy district, Istanbul. The participatory based public installation consists of 16 hand-made flags (6 m height), combined with sitting places that inform and represent 16 specific spaces of urban destruction around the city. This performative monument aims to host inhabitants, citizens, neighborhood association leaders, journalists, musicians, theater actors, activists, and performance artists during the Istanbul Design Biennial. The event attempts to stimulate discussions and different activities in order to create temporary ‘common’ public spaces.
COLLABORATORS
Istanbul Design Biennial 2012. EXTERNAL COLLABORATORS: Kayıtdışı, and students from the Graduate Program in the Design and Urban Ecologies, The New School. COHABITATION STRATEGIES’ COLLABORATORS: Lucia Babina, Emiliano Gandolfi, Gabriela Rendón and Miguel Robles-Durán.