Camekân is led by the Istanbul Design Biennial, Jan Boelen (curator working across the fields of design, architecture and contemporary art and Rector of the Karlsruhe University of Art & Design (HfG)) and Mevce Çıracı (designer, partner at FIELDS and lecturer at the Bahçeşehir University). They will evaluate the open call applications and supervise the entire project period.
Eight emerging designers (four from the underrepresented areas of Turkey – cities outside of Istanbul – and four from Europe, University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe), either university students or young graduates, are selected via an open call.
Selected designers will attend a four-week residency period expected to run between 31 January - 28 February 2022 in Istanbul. Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, which is the umbrella institution that organises the Istanbul Design Biennial, will tend to their travels and accommodation and facilitate their research and production processes throughout the residency period, providing them with the necessary contacts, material, space and assistance.
The programme will simultaneously host eight mentors/tutors/experts (four from Turkey, four from Europe) for two-week stays in Istanbul. The invited mentors will regularly meet with the selected designers /artists they will be paired with in order to discuss their practice and research throughout the creative process. The programme will also be enriched by eight open lectures by mentors from an array of fields. All the sessions will be held in English.
The selected participants will visit the city through guided tours, take inspiration from the local knowledge, crafts, materials (both natural and human-made), sounds, smells and images and will be requested to elaborate a theme/topic out of their explorations, to create a narrative. The outcome may focus on a space, a product, a person, sounds or moving images to be displayed through an exhibition which will take place in a prominent exhibition venue in Istanbul, at the end of the residency period, in February 2022.
