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Başakşehir: An Urban Model
09/04/2015
Dates: 9 April 2015
Time: 18:30
Screening & presentation: Sandra Schäfer, Ayşe Çavdar
Moderator: Özlem Ünsal
Thursday 9 April, 18:30
At the end of the 1990s, a new suburb called Başakşehir sprang up in Istanbul, far from the city center. Originally earmarked as a public housing project, countless gated community complexes have been erected that are now home to a largely neoliberal religious middle class. With its 370,000 inhabitants, Başakşehir is emblematic of a more comprehensive process of transformation; a physical and social restructuring of the city. With the planned construction of an international airport and a second Bosphorus canal, the area is emerging as a new, future city center.
In the presentation and discussion moderated by Özlem Ünsal, artist Sandra Schäfer will present clips from her video work titled Başakşehir: An Urban Model and discuss the unfolding layers and contradictions of this transformation. Schäfer will also reflect on the artistic methods employed. The journalist and social anthropologist Ayşe Çavdar will comment on the wider framework of this urban transformation and its environmental and societal implications.