“Writing, Art and Other Bad News”
Dilek Winchester, Mesut Varlık and Süreyyya Evren

Pera Museum presents a series of talks related to the And Now the Good News exhibition, which focuses on the relationship between mass media and art. The exhibition takes the newspaper as an intellectual starting point and focuses on the relationship between text and news, the ways in which the invention of photography have shaped society, and the powerful effect totalitarian systems have on mass media. 

Dilek Winchester, Mesut Varlık and Süreyyya Evren will be sharing their thoughts on the signs leading us to find meaning in art and the artistic media, in writing and its channels of expression. Is writing or art even newsworthy anymore? What do press, printed matter, and art promise us with their different practical applications and manufactured images? How closely connected is the new bond created between art and the press in the presence of the freedoms granted to us through digitalization and the new mechanisms of censorship? 

Free admissions, drop-in. This event will take place in the auditorium. The talk will be in Turkish.

About Dilek Winchester
Dilek Winchester studied at Central Saint Martin’s College and Marmara University. Her research-based art studies centered on translation issues, styles of emotional expression, literary canons, spelling reform, Turkish novels in Karamani and Armenian, sound, and body memory.

The artist participated as guest artist in programs held by the Berlin Senate, Berlin (2021); Saha, Istanbul (2020); Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, Umbria (2017); Madrid Matadero (2013); Pilotprojekt Groplusstadt (2009), Blumen Leipzig (2007); and San Servolo, Venice. 

Among the exhibitions the artist was a part of were “The Futureless Memory,” Kunsthaus Hamburg (2020); “This may or may not be a true story or a lesson in resistance,” De Appel Curatorial Program, Amsterdam (2020); “The Image Generator III,” Antwerp (2020); “Attending the Void”, Depo İstanbul (2019);  206 Rooms of Silence: Studies on Büyükada Greek Orphanage, Galata Greek School (2018); Aichi Triennale, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya (2016);  A Century of Centuries, SALT Beyoğlu (2015); Apricots from Damascus, SALT Galata (2015); Anyone Could Be A Sculptor One Day, SPOT, Istanbul (2014); HomeWorks 6, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2013); Here Together Now, Matadero Madrid, Madrid (2013); Selling Snails in the Muslim Neighborhood, Westfalischer Kunstverein, Münster (2013); A Solo Exhibition, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Atina (2012); Tarjama / Translation: Contemporary Art from the Middle East, Central Asia, and its Diasporas, Queens Museum of Art, New York (2009). 

About Mesut Varlık
Mesut Varlık is a graduate of Cultural Studies at Bilgi University’s History Department. He continues to work on a doctorate in Communication Sciences. With 25 years of experience as an editor, he has edited almost every type and genre of book, taken part in the editorial boards of many periodicals, and has had his critical reviews, poems, and translations published in various magazines and books. He is the founder of Turkey’s first cultural review magazine Kült and served as its editor. He has translated various books, among them F. Jameson’s “The Political Unconscious” (The Political Unconscious, with Yavuz Alogan). He produced and presented three programs for the radio station, Açık Radyo, over the course of five years. He is the editorial director of Konsol Books and ONS-Society & Culture magazines.

About Süreyyya Evren
Süreyyya Evren’s published works since 1991 have concentrated on literature, contemporary art, historiography, and political theory. The writer has published numerous novels, short stories, poetry, essays, compilations, reviews, translations, and children’s books. He was the curator for Şener Özmen’s solo exhibition “Unfiltered” (2016) at Arter, for the Berlin-Istanbul exhibition “Lock Your Mind” (2004) in the sox 36 and Apartman Project (together with Stephan Kurr), and for the group exhibition “Go Get Them Tiger!” of the P Group (2013, Vienna, together with Burak Delier). He was the editor of the art book series published by Art-ist Publications. At the international literature festival held in Amsterdam, Evren curated the 6th edition of Read My World, devoted to Turkish literature (together with Aylime Aslı Demir). Süreyyya Evren received a doctorate degree in political science at Loughborough University in the UK, for examining the relationship between avant-garde art and radical politics. The writer has conducted seminars on modern and contemporary art at many venues, including SPOT, Istanbul Modern, Kültür University, “Hayat Bilgisi”, and Kadıköy Moda Theater. He has been working at Arter since 2016. 

Image:
STEPHEN JAMES BEER
# Pop Art 6 There’s Nothing to See Here, 2016
Collage (newsprint) on canvas
60 x 60 cm

Temporary Exhibition