collectorspace presents:

Corrections and Clarifications Anita Di Bianco BAS Collection collectorspace presents:

Corrections and Clarifications Anita Di Bianco

2 3 Contents

Introduction: Haro Cumbusyan and Özge Ersoy.4 Correcting and Clarifying: Duygu Demir...... 8 Almost Certain: Yasemin Nur...... 18 Body of Books: Collection: Philippine Hoegen...... 48 Conversation with Banu Cennetoğlu...... 64 About the Artist...... 70 About the Authors...... 72

5 still foundational to mainstream art Introduction channels. Haro Cumbusyan Initiating BAS in the early 2000s, and Özge Ersoy artist Banu Cennetoğlu has devised an open acquisition policy when buying, accepting, and bartering In 2013, we collaborated with artists’ books. She has chosen to Phil and Shelley Aarons who favor diversity over personal taste encouraged us to challenge the or selection, and the collection has conventional notions of ownership eventually grown through acquain- of an artwork. The Aarons acquire tances and coincidences with and ephemeral and temporal works and around artists, curators, and pub- are dedicated to supporting artists’ lishers Banu met over time. “Objects exhibitions and publications, which or books hold a memory of them- give them the reputation of “art selves, of their ‘neighbors,’ and also philanthropists” rather than simply of their collectors, guardians, and “collectors.” While discovering their visitors,” Banu says in our conversa- collecting practice, we also found tion. This is one of the reasons why out that Phil has a collection of she has come to consider BAS as books, over ten thousand items as a whole, as one entity, rather than of now, including books on art as a culmination of individual works, well as books by artists, from 1965 which inquires into the notions of to the present. uniqueness, ownership, authorship, In discussing this particular col- and accessibility. lection, we started asking how col- For our exhibition at lectors acquire and value artists’ collectorspace, we created a books, as this medium is often seen reading room in our storefront as not only inexpensive and acces- gallery in Taksim with fifteen editions sible to wider audiences, but also of Anita Di Bianco’s Corrections and as an alternative to more tradi- Clarifications (2001–ongoing), a tional methods of distributing art. It work that reflects the overarching was precisely these conversations sensibilities of BAS. Di Bianco’s work that led us to delve into BAS, an mimics the familiar format of the Istanbul-based artist-run space and daily newspaper and yet leaves out collection that focuses on artists’ the original journalistic material. books and publications with multi- This idiosyncratic newspaper fea- ple editions. For us, an artists’ book tures corrections of typographical collection already constitutes a or factual mistakes and statements sort of resistance against the idea intended to clear up misunderstand- of object-base preciousness that is ings published in daily newspapers.

6 7 The work is printed in multiple edi- and carries it with her for months. tions—ranging from 500 to 5,000 And artist Philippine Hoegen who, copies—, distributed gratis, and for long years, collaborated with meant to be passed along, dis- Banu to commission artists’ books carded, or discovered inadvertently. at BAS, writes about the collection’s After our exhibition, we, together journey from an itinerant bag to a with Anita and Banu, wanted to physical space where it has grown collaborate again to produce a with donations, exchanges, and new Turkish-language version of commissions. In her text, Philippine Corrections and Clarifications. This also devises simple scores to pose a new edition, the 16th in the series, crucial question: How does a collec- covers Turkish-language newspa- tion perform itself? pers from January 2, 2012 through We are indebted to all of our July 27, 2014, the date when we contributors in this publication. stopped the research for the work. We would also like to thank Şekip This edition was printed in Istanbul Hardal, lawyer and founder of with 2,000 copies and distributed Medya Tekzip Merkezi [Media gratis. We left hard copies in subway Disclaimer Center] that provided stations, on ferries, and at cafes, the main content for the new edition with the hope of letting them be dis- of Corrections and Clarifications, to covered accidentally. This has given Göksu Kunak and Hazal Rüzgar for us the opportunity to spread an their support in the research, and artistic intervention, a conceptual to Okay Karadayılar for the graphic exercise to question power relations design of the Turkish-language in print journalism to larger audi- edition. We would of course like to ences that Anita trusts to extricate express our gratitude to Anita and systematic errors and intentional Banu who continue to push us to mistakes in knowledge production. rethink the value we assign to artis- In this publication, writer and tic and collecting practices. It has curator Duygu Demir offers a been thrilling for us to facilitate the close reading of Corrections and production and distribution of the Clarifications, and discusses how latest edition of Corrections and Anita diverts the authorship of the Clarifications, which has strength- project away from herself, while ened our belief in the potency of artist Yasemin Nur contributes an random encounters with artworks in artistic response to Anita’s work, the public realm. seeking ways to transform it and pushing for an almost alchemic reaction as she boils the newspa- per in water, freezes it in the fridge,

8 9 While there are subtle alterations Correcting in the graphic design from volume to volume, Corrections and Clarifications replicates the well-established, famil- and iar graphic and tactile parameters of newspaper printing. Produced in either tabloid or broadsheet format, Clarifying it is printed in black serif typeface on newsprint. The corrections are Duygu Demir arranged in columns under the date, with certain selections accentuated by grey boxes. Di Bianco also replicates Anita Di Bianco’s ongoing publishing the comfortably familiar world order of project Corrections and Clarifications, bold and italics, using these editorial often given the subtitle Apologies and tools as she sees fit. Each edition of Amplifications, Denials and Distinctions, Corrections and Clarifications, printed Retractions and Refusals by the artist, in runs ranging from 500 to 5,000 is a counter-flow—a timeline read in copies, is either distributed gratis reverse chronology from right to left, a within the context of the exhibition for gesture of antagonism, and perhaps, which it was printed or available later almost literally, the verso. Produced at the price of one US dollar at Printed since 2001 and published on the occa- Matter in New York. As the project sion of exhibitions in Banja Luka, Berlin, progressed over the last decade, Derby, Istanbul, Leuven, Ljubljana, Corrections and Clarifications has not Nuremberg, and Zurich, Corrections and only expanded in its source material Clarifications borrows its format—and with a larger selection of newspapers most of its content—from newspapers. and other sources such as Twitter, but The organizational principle of this also ventured out of the Anglophone irregular periodical is rather simple: The world, with some issues available in editor, in this case the artist, re-prints bilingual editions, such as Slovenian, a selection of corrective declarations German in addition to English and taken from newspapers. The only other most recently, a volume printed only recurring features are a brief, minimally in Turkish. altered editor’s note on the second The first issue of Corrections and page of each volume and a list of Clarifications covers the period sources toward the end of each pub- September 1, 2001, to July 4, 2002.1 lication. Anita Di Bianco re-presents It comprises twenty-four broadsheet this accumulation with the belief that pages and includes corrections “perhaps what is conveyed uninten- gathered from predominantly widely tionally, and by repetitious mistakes, is more revealing, more historically iden- 1 This first issue of the publication was produced in tifiable, and substantially less concilia- conjunction with the Rijksakademie van Beeldende tory than it is meant to be.” Kunsten, Amsterdam, and printed in Amsterdam.

10 11 distributed English-language newspa- In defense of granting TV/enter- pers covering a diverse range of angles tainment producers access to from The New York Times to The US troops in Afghanistan for the Jakarta Post. In her editorial, Di Bianco production of a reality TV show, draws attention to the apparently Admiral Craig Quigley told report- arbitrary end date of the volume “… in ers: “There are a lot of other ways the US, [4th of July] being that annual to convey information to the reminder of the original intention of American people than through the colonies to create a nation based news organizations.” (February 22, on democratic principles.” While this 2002). Ignoring for the moment symbolic gesture of resurrecting the what is at least a subtle threat. revolutionary aspirations of a national That one cannot argue with such holiday is significant—and sets the double-talk is obvious, and no less tone for the political engagement and promising than simply reframing the social bend that continues through- contradictions this type of speech out the project—it is the start date of invariably produces, coerces, and Corrections and Clarifications that is demands. So this is a newspaper perhaps more revealing. without headlines, allowing dou- Here, I am using the same cre- ble-talk to talk to itself. ative license to suggest that the artist The first iteration of the project must have intuitively (or alternatively, embodies the motivations and inter- remarkably consciously) chosen a date ests of the artist more openly and range covering the before and after visibly than subsequent issues. Starting of 9/11. This was a moment of derail- on July 4, 2002, with several entries ment that both marked the immense under each consecutive date arranged representative power of media and its in reverse historical order, Di Bianco seemingly inexhaustible potential for stresses her own interest in these cor- instrumentalization in shaping a nar- rective announcements by italicizing rative, which in turn justified a series of certain parts. A sampling of these actions and events—most notably, the italicized portions quickly reveals her United States’ invasion of Afghanistan own motivations in political and social and in 2003, Iraq. The social, political agents of economy, surveillance, rep- and economic ramifications of these resentation or law in informing the events still shape our present day selection process of chosen correc- the world over. The artist reveals her tions; “changes in the way UN prices motivations for the project in this first Iraqi oil,” “the police initiative focused volume through a story that she will on CCTV,” “images of the bombed repeat in each of her minimally altered Afghan bases,” “an example of the way editorials in the volumes to come: a nuclear war was avoided,” or “there is no way to fool an audience that has remained loyal to the company for decades (not ‘There is a way’).”

12 13 Di Bianco’s inherent belief in the reve- system and her clever appropriation latory power of misprints, factual mis- is in fact revealing; however, by this takes, slips (Freudian or not), editing reattribution of credit, Di Bianco tact- errors, misstatements is evident, and fully disguises her own presence in her decision-making process emerges Corrections and Clarifications. While through these graphical accents of highlighting certain patterns of speech bold, italics, or grey box frames. With and coverage through others’ words, the first volume of Corrections and she is speaking through others in the Clarifications, this exercise takes the same way newspapers speak through shape of a somewhat ethnographic current events, bending them to their look at mishaps and euphemisms, a own agenda. presentation of alternative knowledge, The volumes that follow the ambi- and an exposé of undercurrents. tious first edition stay loyal to the In her editorial statement, Anita Di initial framework; however, the visibility Bianco paradoxically diverts all credit of the artist’s interests inherent in the of authorship away from herself. She selection process of each one of the identifies four actors deserving of this included corrections fades noticeably credit; the creators of the statements with each volume. Italics and bold she re-prints (writers, i.e. the correc- have disappeared from the volume tors): “those who have provided the which traces corrections dating from material for this publication by having August 15, 2004 to January 1, 2005. seen fit to correct themselves, or As the editions continue, there are having seen themselves fit to correct fewer grey boxes and alterations of others”; the editors: “those seekers, bigger font sizes that highlight certain processors, middle managers, and entries. In two instances, the artist’s ultimate regulators of public informa- presence is reinstated; in her editorial tion who take it upon themselves (or for volume six, Di Bianco draws atten- impose it upon others) to re-name, tion to an omission; “whose absence re-classify, disguise, de-fuse or be hints at their eventual admissibility as de-briefed…”; those whose misstate- evidence,” she states that there have ment caused the grounds for the been no market corrections to the correction “who, regardless of stated massive rises in quarterly profits to oil intentions, occasionally reveal some- companies, hinting at her expectation thing, piece by piece, through slips in and interest in the significance of this language and naming systems”; and information. Here, her interest in the finally, the readers of Corrections and direct economic impact of political Clarifications “who regard these revi- decision-making processes is evident. sions and retractions with the same In the eleventh volume, Corrections skepticism they have for the originals.” and Clarifications adopts a new filter; Anita Di Bianco’s statement is rich in it “specifically interrogates the fre- underlying currents of passionate crit- quency and repetitive nature of errors icism of this well-established filtering and limits in breadth and vision, either

14 15 incidentally or directly, in news report- high concentration of pronounce- ing on issues of gender and sexual- ments with reference to defamation of ity.” Another politically and socially character in this Turkish volume. The charged cause revealing the personal underlying belief in the intentionality of politics and priorities of the artist is misrepresentations, factual errors and revealed openly. a strong conviction thinly disguised in The most recent volume of these rebuttals admit to the common- Corrections and Clarifications, which ality of reporting with ulterior motives. covers localized news reporting in In this case, the corrections act more Turkey from January 2, 2012, until July as a barometer of the ethical stan- 27, 2014, is published only in Turkish, dards in news reporting in Turkey, or with some alterations to the format.2 lack thereof. When deployed by public This publication features not only cor- figures such as politicians, officials rective statements published in news- and government offices, these cor- papers, but letters of correction sent rections often function as allegations to be collected and made public in the and intimidations. The phenomenon reports of a voluntary media watchdog quickly morphs into a seismic measure organization active in Turkey, Medya of political undercurrents. Tekzip Merkezi [The Media Correction While Corrections and Clarifications Center] as well as expanding the is a conceptual exercise in public range of publicly shared corrections service, providing information that to personal Twitter accounts, in line reveals complex bureaucratic, politi- with the dominance of social media cal, social, psychological, and legalistic as the increasingly popular mode of structures that regulate our perception receiving news—a key resort espe- of current events through journalism’s cially in a country where the level of convoluted processes of knowledge freedom in popular printed media production, the gradual disappear- is very low. Perhaps unsurprisingly, ance of the hand of the artist illus- this issue features many corrective trates an embodiment or repetition statements denying any truth at all in of some of the very news reporting what is deemed speculative reporting; schemes that Di Bianco sets out to letters of rebuttal came from the pres- reveal. The decision-making process idential office, members of parliament, of what makes it to print is invisible: municipalities, soccer players, and The numerous conditions motivating celebrities, and were often signed by the selections of the editor are inac- their attorneys. There is an especially cessible to the reader, the reasons of 2 The most recent issue of Corrections of Clarifications, selected sources are often not appar- titled Düzeltmeler ve Açıklamalar in Turkish, was ent, and limitations of access via lan- produced in collaboration with the Istanbul guage or errors in translation come non-profits collectorspace and BAS, and printed in Istanbul. It proceeded from the exhibition Corrections into play, as in the bilingual issues and Clarifications from the BAS Collection displayed at when the artist is dependent on other collectorspace February 5–March 22, 2014. researchers, their motivations, and

16 17 intricacies involved in translation. The obscured editorial mechanism, ironi- cally but evidently, ends up repeating itself in Corrections and Clarifications. Anita Di Bianco says “perhaps what is conveyed unintentionally and by rep- etitious mistakes, is significantly more revealing, and more historically iden- tifiable, than it is meant to be,” which begs the question: Can you correct the corrections? And if so, and somewhat naively, who will do it? The artist’s final call for the necessity of doubt, her hope that “[the] readers who regard these revisions and retractions with the same skepticism they have for the originals” is fulfilled within the means of her own production. An infinitely intriguing artistic exercise revealing different facets of societal complexity in different geographies, Di Bianco’s project produces the skeptic reader that it calls for.

This text was previously published in “The Interpellated Subject Speaks / Das unterbro- chene Subjekt spricht,” the seventh issue of the interdisciplinary online journal produced by Open Systems, edited by Berin Gölönü (Vienna, November 2014).

18 19 voices? Instead of reading and writing, I’m looking for something Almost else.” From Kostantiniyye and Certain Hagia Sophia Legends in Turkish Yasemin Nur Texts: “It will construct its own circuit. . . What justifies the story are the references that are The below text absorbs all complementary.” that has happened, concurred August 16, 2016: I noted down and experienced since the day this date as the date when Özge I started working on it through came to visit. Self-reference: “I other texts. put the water in the pot and I Self-reference: “I boiled a copy put a folded copy in it. I’m with of Corrections and Clarifications Özge in the kitchen. We’re talking on the stove in a pot in which about the text I will be writing on it could fit folded. I can’t make Corrections and Clarifications, myself write, I’m paralyzed.” next to its essence. The water I started from here. Excerpt boils and the publication sits in from Corrections and there.” Clarifications: “We will correct I posted a photograph of the it.” “All presented statements publication boiling in the pot. Now are completely fictional.” I look back at what has accumu- “Completely fictional” takes lated. This is what I wrote down as me to a book I read and under- a comment: “To be on record, not lined—Kostantiniyye and Hagia to be indifferent, to cook words.” Sophia Legends in Turkish Texts The following comments are: by Stefanos Yerasimos. The term “Delicious,” “:) :) :) Addle it, boil it reminds me of a sentence used real good,” “wordcake.” by the author: “We’re almost I go back to Yerasimos: “But certain.” the same authors have con- When continued in this order, tributed some elements [to the at a place where it can be confus- legend] that the future legends ing as to what comes from where, will lean on.” In thinking about ele- “I place one of the 2,000 copies ments that are added to the news of Corrections and Clarifications in and the clarifications that lean the freezer. Is it possible to freeze on these elements, I feel that the its contents, to stop the voices photograph of the boiled publica- that come from their time—to tion and the related post are the make them wait, to escape the elements to lean on in the future.

20 21 The authors recorded these “It’s been melted within elements; they included them in another circuit, since…” circulation among other texts. As I’m writing this text, just as And thus they were able to take I need to “decompose,” I take the a place. pot to the table where I’m work- If I can continue writing, I’d ing. The publication that I’m trying like to stay on record without to write about, that I’m looking at, any constraints. that I’m taking with me to places Kostantiniyye: “Semsuddin is is there in the pot, sitting in water free to construct his story without next to me. One of the copies is in any constraints to create a per- the fridge and another one in my fect harmony between the project bag, full of notes. of the empire and the divine rule, All of these are because of the except for weeding out anything accumulation. that might bother the Ottoman It’s time to separate it. It’s time reader.” to take out the copy from the Self-reference: “Both what water where it was boiled and remains in the fridge and what kept in. I put the water in a jar is out in the sun go yellow in the and the copy on a cutting board, same way. The impact of the cold letting the water seep. The area and the heat are almost similar.” on which the useable material will There is a huge difference cumulate widens. The publication between looking at this publica- is boiled—I return to Yerasimos tion at the beginning of July and then and before—, and it goes at the end of July. Or there should to travel with me on holiday, to be. Just like the people of this city, Thessaloniki, to home, on the objects, trees, and stones have all road, on land, in the air, on water; been subjected to July 15. What notes are taken with it and from are the remains of that impact on it, the memories are re-mem- them? bered, files are opened. Could a “circuit” be spelled “Tradition doesn’t have the with all these? Could it be in time to be sharpened from text to words? Or abstraction? text over generations. In order to I return to my notes on serve the purpose, it’s necessary Kostantiniyye: “It’s been melted.” I to accelerate the production of specifically underline it and carry legends while widening the area it to the margin with an arrow— of useable materials.” happy to use a different color, I didn’t think that these things which indicates a different time. I were going to emerge from the write down: “It’s been juiced.” publication when I boiled it. In

22 23 front of me were all the things Can said, “It should be worth that are open for correction and reproducing.” clarification from the years that Text with a shell. the publication gathers its mate- Doodlings of references. rials from. During the process of Tired bullet—from a newspaper boiling, numerous problems in my clipping. life from those years—those that A dead wave. I postponed and accumulated— Empty columns of the were right there, again. Cumhuriyet newspaper. She said, “Put the text in front Mute, not loading Internet. of you.” As adding elements is easier It was such a boiling down— than making deductions, correc- like magic—that all those years tions and clarifications should be and everything that the years developed as an accumulation. brought were piled in front of my Clarifications are added in order door. The materials from Dance of to correct. Africa and the essay I started to The play Dance of Africa was write before, during and just after staged in March 2014. SALT Gezi and never finished—those Beyoğlu was open back then. that went around with me in the We were there. During the play, trunk of the car where I put them actress Ayla Algan pinned sheets together as I left the studio in of paper on a curtain behind Tophane—emerged with its addi- a transparent, stretched cur- tions in bits and pieces. tain-screen. She wrote on those Not finishing and adding piece sheets. Today, as I separate the by piece—it reminds me of some- sheets from each other and take thing. It was before Gezi when I off the pins, I feel like I’m opening started the text I wasn’t able to up a spell. Pins—just like the finish. This text began before July objects, the pot, and the cutting 15. It doesn’t end. board in the text—are now on the “Is this the work from before?” table, sitting right next to me. “What is before?” November 18, 2016: He was In the etching studio, Can very upset when she said their asked for a sketch from a student: relationship wouldn’t work and “We need something to begin ac-cepted the job offer in London with.” on a whim. He wanted to get far Legends usually come out away from the city and from her. of accumulation or making up Then in 2013, they got together at things in different contexts, says a party, became lovers again, got Yerasimos. married, and had a daughter. But

24 25 he had to continue with the job in A few days ago, students from London and had to live between the etching class told me that I two cities. He said on the phone: look like someone who reads the “The London chapter is finally newspaper to look at classified closed.” We laughed. “Don’t make job ads. They didn’t stop talking hasty decisions, you learned that, even when I said this was not a right?” It takes time to be able to newspaper. correct mistakes. It takes years On page 4–5, on a photograph to correct them. It takes years to from Sabah newspaper, dated finally be correct. March 13, 2014, it says: “There is Speaking of haste, I want to no relationship between the news talk about the recent apology text and the image.” I had pre- of the Posta newspaper. In the pared a presentation years ago apology, it says that extreme within a similar framework. It was speed and haste brought about about the gap between the news a disaster. The apology for—mis- and the images. takenly—publishing on the front I stop here for a while, I’m not page that Hillary Clinton was sure whether I should write this elected as the president of the or not. I’m almost not certain. USA the day after the elections. Holy scraps! I didn’t get the newspaper for November 14, 2016: I took my the day after the elections, but daughters to the dentist and saw I wanted to get the newspaper the cover of a newspaper that of the day when it became clear said “Yasemin’s Victory.” What a that Trump was elected president. day, what a victory, I bought the I was curious about the cor- newspaper and put it aside. rection and the apology. This is Many years ago, I started another newspaper to put to the collecting clippings in which side. members of my family appeared I regularly collected newspa- in unexpected places in the news. pers and newspaper clippings The most surprising one was until 2012. I checked to see if I about my grandfather. In the have any one of the newspapers morning of a night I spent at my mentioned in Corrections and parents’ place, my mother came Clarifications. There are different by to tell me that my father sent newspapers from June 19, 2014. me a newspaper and asked me I read the publication exten- to find my grandfather in the sively and take notes right on photograph. This is how the news it—it takes me a while to read the piece began: “It was discovered whole thing. that Monroe visited the Turkish

26 27 soldiers in the Korean War for As I ran out of the house in the morale and took a souvenir photo morning, next to the publication with them.” Marilyn Monroe was that was boiled and the shell on among the soldiers. Above the top of it—all on the table—, there photograph, there was an arrow, was also a piece of paper that I pointing to Marilyn in the Turkish left in the water of a single rose uniform. I looked at the photo- that I boiled. Which rose it was graph—I only know my grandfa- and what happened around it ther from photographs and I had is in my records. The plate was heard that he had gone to the almost dry and I needed to take Korean War—and pointed him the paper out, but in a hurry, I out right away. decided to make it wait until I The uncorrected text, which came back home. When I came gives way to this one, ends before back, the paper was stuck to the a section that reflects the corre- plate. I took it off with difficulty, spondence between poet Turgut almost destroying it. I was watch- Uyar and the Turkish Language ing the veins happening inside Institution. There is a section its water every day bit by bit and where he writes on “founded/ how those veins were permeating unfounded” and that took me in the paper, waiting for the whole to “recorded/unrecorded,” transferral. “concerned/indifferent” and to As I think again about the the words in the publication, piece of paper that I couldn’t “untrue/true,” “with/without con- take off, this sentence connected straints.” I will perhaps make this me to the publication: “Maybe connection. such a publication will not be His letters begin with: “I will realized again.” It is not possi- not defend myself.” ble to reach that moment, that To defend for the sake of togetherness, those rushed expe- defense as a reflex. riences. It is a unique publication Constant defense. with its own process. I will not defend. To boil, to ease down what Uyar says, “They should is done, to fear as I don’t know enlighten me on how [their accu- much about spells, to get excited sations] are ‘founded.’” What is and to not be able to reach a unfounded is what isn’t settled word, I’m holding on to all the or ingrained. It’s not holding its essences. What I want to say is ground. It’s easy to weed it out. that it’s such a mix that it’s a spell I noted down that maybe such itself, it’s beyond just the reading. a piece of paper won’t exist again. I’m pushing my widow memory,

28 29 which I always rely on. Because and unjustified” I’m on record, I’m concerned. I “Targeted news and comments accumulate to go back to one are included” day. “Unfounded gossip that is not Now all of them are emerging based on tangible facts and doc- lusciously and erroneously. uments, news and comments of Lusciously and by mistake. such nature” There is a beautiful difference “Every citizen who loves their between mistakes and wrongness. country and their people and I thought about the newspapers I who actually values the essential put aside and pulled out one. The value of unity should be utmost first one said “the last victim of the sensitive” disease of recording.” The head- “There is not even a word of line said, “We are really scared!” truth in there” I can’t leave it, I’m holding it in “Based on wrong facts” my hands—it is ripped into pieces. “I don’t have anyone close to It’s in the freezer; the boiled me who would speak like that” one is on the table. “I didn’t look for it. I didn’t Corrections and Clarifications: find it” “The article, which obviously was “We will correct it and written to batter, all of the ele- apologize.” ments outside of what is in the “In regards to the matters that correction above are completely are based on false information” fictional and ill-intentioned.” “To give the right information” “Insistently creating new imagi- “A bug report was hastily nary constructions” prepared” “To try to include in new “It is said” constructions” “Never existed” “What we have encountered in “The article that we think have different phases and reprimanded been written on purpose” repeatedly” “It was published to prevent “The right to learn the truth” any misunderstandings” “Ill-intentioned pens” “It caused confusion” “Holding on to our legal rights” “The explanation to relieve “The target is well-known to any confusion” everyone” “We will let the press know “Completely constructed and the price” does not reflect reality” “The news article about the “Completely constructed” accident that was published “A huge mistake under the headline ‘Haggling for

30 31 life on the sidewalk’ included a form of the publication. In the photograph of the person who color of its water. Now the piece died, but this photograph actually of paper is in front of me. belongs to O.B. who was a pas- December 7, 2016: I scared senger in the car.” away the musicians who came “A connection was attempted” by in Dedem-Aphrodite, a local “Ignorance could explain it” tavern. I’m still waiting for those “If they had sought his who will be meeting me after the statement” theater play ends. The publica- “I think it was relayed to you” tion and the text and the notes “Completely false” are on dinner table. “The mentioned intervention In some of the corrections, for did not take place” example in the one from April 26, “Without their knowledge” 2014, the correction is written for “It is very thought-provoking April 22, 2014. In some examples, that contrary statements were the date could even be earlier. made” They’re referring to a situation in “In order to create the percep- the past and publishing it on a tion that they were opposite side new date. An infinite past. people” I’m thinking about the date on “Photographs of two young the back of the sheet of paper women were included in the that is in the color of the boiled article” publication—the color of its own “Nothing to do with the afore- water. I’m trying to find out how mentioned young women” and according to what I have “It harms personal rights and written the dates on the backs of affects their bubble of social the sheets of paper. First is the environment” date when I pick what I boil. The “Some mistakes were included” second is the date when I put “Inexplicably, Cihat Aşkın the paper in the water where I became Cihan Aşkın” boil what I pick. The third is the I had boiled the publication in date when I take the paper out water. I had left the publication when it soaks all the water. If I to dry on the cutting board. I had write down two or three of these kept the water in a jar. And then I dates, that would correspond to poured that water on a plate and the dates that are repeated twice left a white sheet of paper in it. or three times in corrections and I kept it there. So that what is in clarifications. the water would be transferred on From the back of the sheet of the sheet of paper. The unwritten paper that has dried in the water

32 33 of Corrections and Clarifications: record was implied” “This sheet of paper was taken “It is sustained within the out early, framework of institutional The separation from before it memory and toleration and on went out. a normal course” I took it off before going on I’m trying to continue on the road, before it soaked up the normal course. water on the night of September October 1, 2016: “Mom, could 11, 2016.” we have some of the butter you This sheet of paper that was froze?” “Yes, but watch out for the taken out early, publication.” I never went on that road. He said, it is not handicapped, I was lusciously liberated, it is flawless for the antique Correcting should be caftan in his hand personally. It has an excuse Corrections and Clarifications: Excuse me “There was a mix-up with the pho- I thought about the similari- tographs in the news article” ties in names as I walked home. “This made-up news implied Just like a mystery coming out, a separation” these similarities showed other “I didn’t have such a contact” things that are unknown. The “I take on the responsibility” fact-checking comes after— “It will be more humane to saying, so it was really like that. apologize” When we discussed his lack “Was subjected to” of interest in the last few weeks, “We are open to criticisms” one of us said to the other one, “I hope that you will under- maybe there is someone else? stand my haste” Then I thought of a name that “I correct myself in your I picked from his last sentences presence” that I recorded in my mind. I then “It is thought-provoking” started to work with someone “As they didn’t change hands” with the same name in a new play. “Keeping all our rights” Then a student with the same “My haste and certain preju- name called for registration. I dices led to a mistake” kept hearing the same name. For “The aforementioned subject” these names to be confirmed “Based on scribbling” and it needs to be connected to “The publication was based on the first situation of the name enmity” being mentioned. Fact-checking. “That I was the person on The checking of that feeling that

34 35 starts with a name and these missing” similarities. Fact-checking besides “There is no relationship correction. Somehow checking for between the person in the image something else. and the content of the news” There is something else that is “Jurisdiction is the best way to similar or that is emerging inside be acquitted for everybody” the circuit. Besides names also “There is no relationship there are repeated objects. The between the article and the line of similarities begins with an photograph” object, a shell, and a needle. I “Behind the photograph in say similarities in objects. As we question” have touched upon this so much, “No foundation and the my similar repetitive object is red unfounded nature of it was also pepper—very hot pepper. The stated in the text” hot peppers remaining after two “As if it is a new piece of break-ups. The last time, I boiled information” the pepper and leave sheets of “The correct graphic is below” paper in its water. “Your text that makes a cas- Corrections and Clarifications: sette of the content of private life” “It no longer matters leaning “The information of that nature on what and how I made the does not reflect reality just like the mistake” others” “Anything outside of this serves “Unfortunately the press has to blacken and should not be been instrumentalized” honored” “Called and made a “There is no secret or open correction” thank-you here” “Reasonable number of “There is an insult in contrast” suspects” “It is meaningful to show the “Discussed over it” ongoing rudeness” “Conditions that will be sought “Carelessly trampled” in real people” “It is illogical for a person who “Ugly, crass, rude” has female friends with him to try “The betrayal of misdirecting to kiss another woman and when the information” the social status of my client is “Black pencil, black spirit, taken into consideration” black thoughts” “I overtly apologize” “Removed from such actions “I am very embarrassed” that will give opportunities to” “A note that denotes the pho- “The unskilled young genera- tograph as representative is tion has reached today”

36 37 “In my article titled ‘If the When I was telling tell Seçil women gets excited’” about the unfinished text, I kept “I definitely didn’t go” saying, it’s like a shell. Tonight, “I didn’t let anybody see each I took the Corrections and other” Clarifications that I boiled in its “I didn’t see” own water-essence and then let “Expressed that they are not it dry. I had folded it to make it related” fit into a pot. It dried as such. “This piece of news written with I put it on the table with other wry sentences that poke needles” things. Days later, I brought a “It revealed a nice sense of dried zucchini shell—that we used humor, but I will correct it and at the play—, a small piece of apologize” shell that could fit into my palm, “Within the measure of its and placed it on the publication. deserving” And until now, they’ve been there I continue with the notes on the together. They are together but page: “Hüsna came. She brought why? What kind of a bond is it? licorice root dye. What kind of a harmony? Kara Memi aher. I call Hüsna They stand just fine together, now. I ask her what aher is. She but why? I’ve been always curious says: “We use aher to make cor- about how good and natural they rections. The material makes the stand together and what happens surface of the paper shine. After there. What is happening in we apply aher, the surface of the Corrections and Clarifications? paper is wrinkled and to make Why does it happen? it smooth again, we often use a As the photographs and the seashell or an onyx stone. Onyx is texts cannot fit together, next to used to make gold shine too.” each other, the shell and the cor- Clarification for myself. It’s rections and the clarifications can good that I used different pencils be well next to each other. on the newspaper so that I can Today, at BAS I told Seçil see that I wrote different things on about the text, what happened different days. I took notes on the last week, the encounters and publication over what we talked the day when I found the article about. I hadn’t finished. At that time, I Etching studio, Monday. was working with small pieces of Scrubber: Used in the etching paper on the wall, adding one studio to erase bad drawings, after the other. Later, I took these stains, areas by scrubbing differ- pieces off of the wall and closed ent metal surfaces and to correct. them on each other. They were

38 39 like a shell. the subway, on my way home. Not Corrections and Clarifications: many people have newspapers in “With respect” their hands anymore. I’m taking “It was a mistake but not a notes with a pen, which draws disaster” suspicious, interested looks. “Working with zero discharge” “It is not right that traces of “Moreover” innocence are violated” “Showing loyalty when naming” “The file of different jobs” On Wednesday, I’m waiting for “We will warn by proxy” Elif at Peyote, a local bar. On the “There is no other city that table, the publication is scribbled loses” with arrows and headlines. The “It would be clear if one looked publication becomes crowded at our profile” and so does Peyote. A passerby “You should know” puts some popcorn on the publi- “An innocent use” cation. The publication becomes “Not everything is what salty. appears” Corrections and Clarifications: November 26, 2016: “The one “It is strange that they made news in the photograph is Fatma Şahin out of this” Hanımefendi.” I take a note on it. “Dear respondent” Last night there was an explosion “Lightly put” in Antep. Fatma Şahin, the mayor “Not everybody can be of Gaziantep, made a statement: deceived” “There are no facts that we could “Efforts to prevent the beauties verify about the explosion in produced” Gaziantep. The most accurate “Working with emotions” statement will be made by the “With the same love and officials.” enthusiasm” “Not going beyond gossip” “This news is very important” “To reach a ‘funny’ conclusion “As there is no real possibility from this situation” of relating to reality” “The statement ‘I am not that “I am not interested” person’ was made” “There is no such possibility” “The headline, mistakenly, “It was up to me to give and to reads smallpox” take” “The need to receive the infor- “Isa Gök’s photograph was mation from the source” used instead of one of Levent Boiling from the source. Gök” “It can be seen that the falsi- I’m reading the newspaper on ties were montaged on”

40 41

“It is being rid of addiction” To permeate inside and to “There are no provocative satisfy so that it permeates. statements in the draft text” “It is necessary to be more “In whichever way I managed” careful” “Essential seed” “Will be left defenseless” “Was able to return to the “I was not less informed” world” “The loser outlaws ” “If a kinship could be (The repetition of December contributed” 10, 2013 “Was not placed there on Also from December 10, 2014) purpose” “A photograph of İsa Gök was “We urgently recommend” used instead of one of Levent “This newspaper” Gök” “But it is not right to turn this “Reel was written as keel” into an expectation” “All the information is there, the “This is a nuance” name is not” “We correct the piece of infor- We found the magic. It is nec- mation from yesterday’s newspa- essary to accept it. per that the panel was to take “Because they visited both place yesterday” the CHP women’s division and “But I expected you to call” parliament of women of the city “It is difficult to stay quiet but council” we have to stay quiet” “I deeply upset those from How quick was I to put up Kalecik by saying it is a ‘village’” shells, she said That Saturday when we found I fell asleep on the couch. the secret I thought I was poked with a “Some days, it escapes you, needle. I woke up. I returned to even if the text that you are the kitchen to read the publi- reading is different from the text cation. Tonight I realized that that you wrote” I wrote down what she told me “Instead of writing PTT branch, when I first started writing the PKK branch was written by text. Some women poked me mistake.” with a needle in my arm on the (Notes from our talk with subway. I said, I’m coming to you, Umut) if there is a spell cast I’m coming “Those children are also tired” to you. “It is to desire clarity” “We said we should be loyal (Ceren said) It permeates the to the text but we became the sheets of paper, right? victims of our ignorance of history

44 45 of religion” which became open to misinter- “A fiction based on lies” pretation because of a missing We had to lie to correct to set letter” the ground. It’s difficult for me “Everyone makes a mistake; to face this. But I have to do it. it is important to know how to There are lies told to fix the situ- apologize” ation. Those that are said to get “Nobody has yet apologized through. But you shouldn’t be for the mistake they made” caught unprepared. Then the lie “Those who keep poking others draws you in. with bodkins still have not tried “It is impossible for them the needle on themselves” to ‘work’ where they are not “That they are deeply regretful” present” I shouldn’t sleep with it—the “To touch themselves with the publication. tip of the needle” Is the needle in there? “I’m making this correction in “Reached the conclusion that the name of the minister, but I’m they are not beyond the appropri- still thinking about it” ate level of skepticism” “I’m using the right to correct in “I learned near the end that the name of ‘respecting the right the exhibition was over” to correct’” “No such offer was made” “The champion of doubles” “I correct it with pleasure” “There was fear over “A circumflex is placed on the possibilities” word, changing its meaning” “The woman scared of “These are statements about possibilities” the system of performance that I placed the needles in a could not be relevant” bowl full of water. I salted the “Sometimes ‘mind eclipses’ that water so that bad spirits would come out of nowhere stand in come out. In the beginning, there front of everything” was salty water, not rust. I took “Unfortunately sentences could out the needles and left a piece not explain themselves” of paper in the rusty water to “I noticed my mistake in the have it seeped. Now I have to morning” go back to the text to check the “I recommend that they look at date of the dried sheet of paper. the forest instead of being stuck I also entered the circuit through on the trees” this text. “How the seconds became “The sentence in quotation the firsts” marks refers to the permeation, “Can only see by looking at

46 47 what has been experienced” “There is no other reason to “Incidents cannot be corrected keep us from imagining.” with disclaimers” I continue from here up—to- “We state that the picnic was wards the text, adding and sub- organized for members of the tracting. media and we apologize” “That the things were carried Translated from the Turkish by Merve Ünsal. You can read the original text in Turkish on the day of the news” medium.com/@yasemnaan “I wrote ‘Fişne’ bay instead of ‘Şifne’ bay” “Our readers are right” You’re chewing and rolling years in your mouth. Last Saturday, I returned to the notebooks with clippings from 2008. Again from a similar clipping, again from a similar perspective, a familiar tone: “And whoever thinks that we could make this mistake will receive a response in the same tone. That’s what it is.” Thus, I would like to place this tone next to the sen- tences that are right after each other. At the beginning of the sen- tence, the tone was “We’re almost certain.” Kostantiniyye: “We had to trace many false lines.” “There is a gap that we could believe to have lost their legitimacy.” “The tendency to understand.” “This story holds together all that happened.” “There is a chance that it was copied from another text.” “It will be articulated when it’s too late.”

48 49 Keeping them together confirmed they were not a singular, one-off Body of phenomenon but a category. With the handwritten books, Books: Closky makes piles. With the multiples, he unravels, draws out, and exhausts all possible Collection combinations. Yet the note- Philippine Hoegen books and multiples quite often reveal the same preoccupa- tions. . . The book is a product Part 1: A History in B♭ (to be read of thought as well as a vector out loud) linking author and reader. One . . . Brush off poppy seeds. “writes” or “reads a book” as Capture a warm memory. Change one “drinks a glass,” accord- your eye color. Cross Canada shop- ing to the same metonymical ping. Do compound exercises. Don’t shortcut that confuses content be all business. Wash away perm and container, work and “pub- dryness. . . Put time on your hands! lication,” “volume” and its con- Get away from the pill. Plant some tents. It was this double game mini-tulips. Escape the daily grind. that brought Closky to the Live the sporting life. Don’t blame artist’s book. . . As single edi- .1 your hair. Expect the unexpected tions, books are condemned to New York, around the year 2001. confinement, to be distributed There was a book called A 1000 clandestinely and exhibited things to do by Claude Closky, under glass. Multiple editions and probably there was a book can be read more widely, which called Cahiers d’Images by Céline breaks our fetishist relationship Duval and Hans-Peter Feldmann. to the object while giving it the Certainly there was a news- undeniably hypnotic status of paper called Corrections and industrial product, that is, of an Clarifications by Anita Di Bianco. object resulting from a more or They were kept together, not less long series of mechanically because they were inseparable produced transformations or even needed each other very (a sterile object, produced by a much, but because together they machine, which itself was made represented a possibility, a form of by a machine, which…).”2 thinking, and a manner of making. 2 Frédéric Paul, Claude Closky, trans. David Wharry 1 Claude Closky, A 1000 things to do, 1994–1996. (Paris: Hazan, 1999), 9–15.

50 51 Some more books were added “brochure”—a definition unlikely but not too many; they had to fit to be put into question.3 in a bag and they couldn’t weigh . . . Practice like the pros! too much—a portable category. Recharge an active dog. Put style In 2002, the bag with the books in your step. Request itemized bills. traveled to Amsterdam. The body Care for indoor plants. Stay free in started to expand, because it was Las Vegas. Pull out your lip balm.4 introduced into an environment In the year 2005, the bag moved where this manner of thinking, to Istanbul. The body of books this category was thriving. It was tumbled out of the bag and it a shared discovery—for some, finally began to stretch its limbs. It perhaps a common code. Not all was given a space in a place and books that were offered for the a place in space, as BAS opened bag made it into the bag. They its doors in Şişhane, Istanbul. were kept, so as not to snub the Fasten your seatbelts. Plump out book nor offend the kind donator, facial lines. Grab life by the beans. but separately, a second bag, a Add spice to your life! Go on a limb hors catégorie. balloon safari.5 Through similar force of habit, The first books to come out of the term “catalogue” desig- the bag were the ones that had nates any publication pro- been there longest: duced to accompany an exhi- bition (even if it has neither Artists’ books and videos the form nor the taxonomic conceived by documentation aim), and “slim volume” is the céline duval combine classifi- term used for a short book of cation, editing, re-mediation, poems with only limited dis- and re-circulation of images, tribution. Due to ignorance or with a view to a kind of artis- neglect, the term “artist’s book” tic anthropology of visual continues to conjure up prin- culture… While introducing cipally the image of a hand- a documentary bias into her painted book, a book-object, works (Les Photographies du or perhaps even a collector’s géologue and Les Images de piece, but certainly not a Thouars bavardent, videos, banal offset-printed edition of 2014), the artist also pays five hundred to a thousand. every greater heed to the For the printer, who happily plastic, not to say pictorial has no feelings one way or 3 Ibid. the other, any bound collec- 4 Claude Closky, A 1000 things to do. tion of a few pages is termed a 5 Ibid.

52 53 dimension of the images which structures, offered up to anyone she appropriates and whose who would give it the time of day. cultural and social represen- It was generous, eager, impatient, tations are reliant on visual frail, meticulous, and hospitable. forms and constructions.6 Take a summer vacation. Wrap up Get your head together. Carry in a wink of time. Start a stable 9 a winning smile. Fill the social career. Take time to make time. column. Don’t work in the dark.7 The fact that there was a It is no coincidence that the first space had a huge impact on the books in the collection are what collection. It started to snowball they are. Each, in its own way, with people passing by, bringing represents a state of mind. books of their own, and packages arriving from all over the world. Corrections and Clarificationsis The body itself, as bodies do, had an ongoing newsprint project, a magnetic effect, attracting more an edited compilation of daily books with books, through affinity, newspaper corrections. . . familiarity, similarity, or through A catalog of lapses in naming coveted familiarity or similarity. and tangling of catch-phrases, But attraction also works through Corrections and Clarifications oppositeness, or dissatisfaction, suggests a more than inciden- a notion of something lacking and tal relation between news mis- the desire to add. The BAS body speak and consolidated media 8 incorporated what was offered interests. without losing its firm focus on the In the same year when the category, simply by ordering and books found their space in arranging in space its head, its Şişhane, I met Banu Cennetoğlu, torso, and its limbs—some limbs BAS, and the body of books. It looser from the body than others. had just arrived, it was still quite Resolve an inner conflict. Put on scrawny, even a little heart- some sun scream. Make it simple, breaking, this bundle of parts stupid. Keep beaches beautiful. that had been scraped together In 2006, BAS, Banu and I and hoarded, now tentatively became more firmly entangled, spread out across some spindly as we embarked on a produc- 6 Jérôme Dupeyrat, “Portrait d’artiste: documentation tion project called Bent—editing, céline duval,” Critique d’art: Actualité internationale producing, and disseminating de la littérature critique sur l’art contemporain (No. 44, ten artists’ books in total, by dif- Spring–Summer 2015): 104–108. ferent artists and art collectives 7 Claude Closky, A 1000 things to do. from Turkey. Besides Bent, BAS 8 Anita Di Bianco’s website, accessed July 11, 2016, http://www.anitadi.net. 9 Claude Closky, A 1000 things to do.

54 55 engaged in other collabora- production without a discourse tions, producing and publishing would always teeter on the brink research, as well as artists’ and of being a hollow exercise. As other books. Because of these a consequence, BAS shifted its publications and the need to focus from production to more disseminate, BAS began to travel discursive events and projects. to art book fairs in New York, Learn how to multiply. Don’t be dis- Paris, London etc., recently even appointed! Make sleep a priority. to Mexico City. The fairs contrib- Put the world on hold. Show your uted substantially to the further true colours.11 expansion of the body of books, Discover another world. Do as books were the currency with something delicious. Face up to which to barter and broaden the your future.12 Unchangingly, at scope of the collection. the core, the backbone and the In addition to being fields base structure continue to be a for hunting and gathering, the body of books that began in a fairs also brought people from bag and were brought together everywhere you can imagine into by one person’s obsession. There contact with BAS, resulting in have been interns, volunteers, and a far-flung circle of friends who collaborators involved with BAS, order and contribute books, visit but even so, it still mainly evolves BAS when they travel to Istanbul, around that person, being Banu or invite BAS and Bent for pre- Cennetoğlu, its founder and initi- sentations, exhibitions, talks, and ator—the driving force determin- projects. Sell your house online. ing its mental and physical frame- Dress better for less. Think before work and its critical conscience. you speak. Achieve all your goals. Being an intrinsic part of Banu’s Shop the world by mail. Uphold practice, BAS is an element your reputation.10 within a constellation of other Although basking in this bright elements—artistic production, global gaze was fruitful and for- research, and exhibition practice. mative, BAS would be pointless Therefore, the project falls under unless it confronted and engaged the same scrutiny for urgency and with its own physical and local necessity, and that “personal” context. A period of self-reflec- and artistic scrutiny exists under tion ensued, and a product of the pressure of the complexity that scrutiny was the decision, or of BAS’s immediate geographi- the realization, which occurred cal, social, and political context. sometime around 2009, that a 11 Ibid. 10 Ibid. 12 Ibid.

56 57 The project has always been of artists Yasemin Nur and Seçil suspended in between conflict- Yersel. Forget exotic imports. Get ing internal and external forces. a free travel bag. Don’t just make Forget science fiction. Drink plenty dinner. Reveal your best skin. Get of fluids. Exercise without angst. the best fake tan. Send yourself Find the time you need.13 to camp.15 The conflict of internal forces Part 2: Scoring the collection came to a head around 2013. Since the day in 2005 when A recurring desire to stop, quit, I first entered BAS’s space in break, change the confines of Şişhane, I have spent intense habit, to resist the existing for moments up close and personal the sake of the existing and the with the body of books, and more unresolved (perhaps unresolv- recently with vast amounts of able) plaguing questions on the space and time between us. In who-for, where-for, and the why order to reconnect with the col- of the BAS project, caused it to lection, but also to choreograph almost grind to a halt. It didn’t, interactions between the human however, close its doors, and in bodies at BAS and the body addition to continuing activities of books, I sent several scores concerning Bent, the work of to be performed in or with the 14 Masist Gül and sporadic collab- collection. orations, other less spectacular, more reflective practices devel- 14 Masist Gül (1947–2003) was an Armenian artist who was born and lived in Istanbul. He made his living oped, including a monthly reading in cinema, working as an extra in more than 300 films. group: a varying yet somehow He made collages, drawings, and copper gravures, consistent formation that gathers wrote poetry, painted portraits, and produced graphic every month around one of the novels. None of his work was published or exhibited books in the collection to read, during his life. During the 80s, he conceived and made by hand a series of six books entitled Kaldırım Destanı analyze, contemplate, and to – Kaldırımlar Kurdunun Hayatı [Pavement Myth – The consider that object. Life of the Pavement’s Wolf], using a periodical comic The possibility of closing, tem- book format. In Bent 001 1–6, we reproduced and porarily or permanently, is as yet published these books as facsimiles of the originals. unexplored. A different option BAS is the caretaker of the collection of Gül’s original works on paper, copper, and books. The collection has and a potential “emancipation” been exhibited on various occasions, most recently of BAS from Banu and her prac- in the exhibition The Beast and the Sovereign at tice is now given a trial run: From Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, October 17, June 2016 on, for at least one 2015–January 17, 2016. year, BAS will be laid in the hands 15 Claude Closky, A 1000 things to do.

13 Ibid.

58 59 Two scores: be in physical contact with it Day 1, Tuesday, March 15, as much as possible: Have it 2016 on your desk as you work, take The Middle of the Middle it out of your bag and hold it - Decide on which direction is when you’re in a taxi or walking the right direction for you to down the street, put it on the make a complete circle of the table in the café or restaurant, space (For example, starting on the kitchen counter as you at the left of the door as you cook, on the table when you come in, making your way have dinner, beside your bed clockwise, past all the book when you sleep. cases/shelves/tables until you Things that could happen: reach the door again. Or coun- You may choose to talk to your terclockwise, or starting from companion. It may talk back. the desk, or the window, etc., You may choose to arrange whichever makes most sense your day a little differently so to you). that it’s more interesting for - Place yourself in front of your companion. every book case/structure. You may get annoyed with it. Decide which one is the middle You may introduce it to of that structure, take out the someone else. book or the object that is in They might talk to it. the middle of the middle, and It may get damaged, or worse, let it fall open at its middle lost… page. What do you see? How to finish: - Do this for every structure, When you get back to BAS including tables, until you (1) tomorrow morning, assuming are fed up, (2) have run out of that your didn’t lose it, put the time, or (3) you have come to book in a place that feels like a full circle. it’s the right place for it to be. Day 2, Wednesday, March 16, I received a video, thirteen 2016 photos, and fifty-three text mes- A companion for the day sages on WhatsApp, documenting What to do: Banu’s interpretation of these two Choose a book from the col- scores. The Middle of the Middle lection. Any book. The book produced a journey through a will be your close companion cross section of the collection, all day today. Take it with you through old and new, heavy and whatever you do. Keep it in light, recently acquired books and your line of vision or otherwise old acquaintances. And we now

60 61 know the exact measurements of like vaginas if you hold them all the support structures at BAS. the right way.18 A metal structure is divided The next viewpoint introduces into two halves. Please do not a completely different perspec- place drinks on the vitrines or tive, looking down, perpendic- books. It is lit from the inside ular to the shelf. There is an or from the back, so that the array of mostly white books figure moving around in front with black lettering, one year, of it is a silhouette. The struc- the birthday, the future, and ture has shelves. The objects— under the arm to death are 19 rectangular stacks on the amongst them. The shelf sup- shelves—are lying flat; from porting them is transparent. It this angle, I can only see their is in fact a drawer that can be slit sides. pulled out. Between the books, On the wall behind the struc- I catch glimpses of other books ture is a shimmering foil, gold floating beneath and the grey or silver, and a cowgirl with carpet beyond. glasses asks to be taken to There is a publication that the curador.16 Then there is a has the color of an old-fash- window, it has thin bars; the ioned beige envelope, which lines do not align with the opens by unhooking a small stripes of the chaise longue, string, making a quick circu- 20 and a skinny palm tree is lar gesture. Another book eccentric. has things between the pages, There is a determined crack something that looks like a 21 where the wall and the ceiling used black glove, and there is 22 meet. a future dictionary : Patricide In the middle of the middle of will come to mean the act of the left structure is a double killing one’s (obsolete) father, black star17 that is a very old a term used during the human friend. In the middle of the physical annihilation era, middle of the right structure, ending in the 21st century… there is a small book with, Of the next structure, the amongst many others, two middle shelf slides open. images of a mouth. They look 18 Isabel Carvalho, Crónicas escritas por autoras anónimas, 2009. 16 Sophie Nys, Take me to the Curador or A Poster a 19 Pierre Huyghe, One Year Celebration, 2006. Day Keeps the Curator Away, 2005. 20 Gülçin Aksoy, Duble Hikaye, 2014. 17 Banu Cennetoğlu, 15 Korkutan Asyalı Adam – 15 21 Daniel Knorr, Cudesch d’artist, 2009. Scary Asian Men, 2005. 22 Jim Drobnick, Rudolf Baranik’s Dictionary from the 24th Century, 1990.

62 63 Passing over SERVICE,23 pouch, and the book. Four moving to the 75th centime- pennies push down heavily on ter takes us to Woodstock,24 the downy duvet. The book lies and to dark black and white slightly apart from the other photographs of urban scenes objects; it barely makes an that could be anywhere, in any indent. 25 town, in any country. and it accompanied her to a The last structure is a low restaurant. She introduced it to one. The measuring process is someone, who was attracted to crooked and brings to view a its design, but this design also 26 Radical Journal of Shimming makes the book hard to read, 27 and some Pages. Pages #4 is they realized. There was some a voice. annoyance, but this was cush- A Companion for the Day led ioned by its content. Back at BAS, Banu to take a book home: it was given a new place in the There is the chaise longue space. 28 again. The book is resting on The new place is upon a a pile of newspapers lying on record player. The orange of the chair. The letters on the its letters is very different from book are staring straight up. the orange of the purple and I imagine it is waiting to be the orange memorial album.29 picked up. It has a bottle of The face in purple looks us water beside it. in the eye, whilst behind his It lay with her on her bed, right ear, we can read that There is a picture of a bed: the midheaven mission of the birds eye view, a white bed- library has to do with giving spread with an implicit cir- allowance, with springing the 30 cular pattern. Lounging lazily suppressed. on the bed are a wallet, a lip 29 Sunfoot, Chris Johanson, Brian Mumford, and Ron balm, a receipt, a grey leather Burns, Purple and Orange Memorial Album, 2012. 30 Genevieve Jacobs, “The Brautigan is a Taurus,” 23 Martha Rosler, SERVICE, 1978. The 23 (Vol. 2, No. 3, June 1992). 24 Haktan Özer, Woodstock, 2010. 25 Nobuyoshi Takagi, Deep #1, 2010. 26 Journal of Radical Shimming (Issue 5, 2009). 27 Nasrin Tabatabai and Babak Afrassiabi, Pages (#1, #2, # 3, #4), 2004–2005. 28 Pelin Başaran and Ulaş Karan, Sanatsal İfade Özgürlüğü Kılavuzu [Guide to Freedom of Artistic Expression] (Istanbul: Siyah Bant and Istanbul Bilgi University Human Rights Law Research Center, 2016).

64 65 New alliances were formed. A limb was lifted, the body shifted its position just significantly slightly

66 67 display. After a while, she left the kiosk, In Conversation annoyed, when she got her hands dusty. On the other hand, the dust and with Banu the sun, especially hitting the books on the top, all become part of the story. Cennetoğlu In the last 15 years, I have worked intensely with databases, as well as Özge Ersoy: In an earlier conversa- personal and public documents—for tion, you talked about the owner of a some reason, often with, for or from kiosk in central Athens, who sells all the deceased ones. Sometimes you types of newspapers, magazines, and meet someone through a book, a publications along with souvenirs, per- sentence or an object, and you want fumes, and cigarettes. I remember you to share it with others because it’s just saying that you’ve been fascinated by too great. In other words, I try to give his display. What makes you excited them the value I think they deserve. about such a selection or collection, if I may use that term? Does it reveal any- But also, who am I to speak or to think thing about the sensibilities of the BAS on behalf of them? Collection? ÖE: Talking about the kiosk in Athens, Banu Cennetoğlu: The owner, I thought about the fruitsellers in Mr. Dimitri, is originally from Beyoğlu, near the fish market. They Constantinopolis and has been have the most meticulous displays for running this kiosk at Omonoia Square fruits and vegetables, on such a level with his brother for the last twenty that you would assume the owners years. They keep it open for twen- suffer from OCD. I’m sure they spend ty-four hours a day—Dimitri stays hours organizing and exhibiting their there during the night and his brother products. I wonder if this comes from during the day. Here you find maga- an addiction or if it’s only a marketing zines, cigarettes, and beverages next strategy. to I-Love-Greece t-shirts, bags, and BC: Of course they have to be prag- books on the Acropolis. Imagine porn matic, because they have to sell to literature, Donald Duck, Mister No, make a living. Both these sellers and and the best-selling S.A.S. espionage Dimitri use a display that depends on series all together. So it’s not a regular their very resources. Dimitri wouldn’t kiosk—there’s something more to it. be able to beautify his display as much For me, Dimitri is a truly collector. as the fruitsellers do, because he’s got When you look at his kiosk, every jux- very little space. But I’m sure he thinks taposition creates a new story—a story about functionality when he displays that is quite personal, and this is possi- stuff. For instance, beer, condoms, and ble only in Dimitri’s way of display. Last pornographic magazines sell better at time I visited him, I was next to a cus- night. He also has Donald Duck maga- tomer who was perusing the books on zines but they’re always in the back, as

68 69 he doesn’t have many children around. “neighbors,” and also of their collec- Dimitri has to sell whatever sells. But tors, guardians, and visitors. That’s why you can still see his interests and curi- I tend to think about collections as a osities. For me, he’s not very different whole. from a second-hand book collector or ÖE: There are many stories that build a dealer, as he always explores what up over time. But what happens to he could contribute to his collection. these stories when the collector is He’s in a constant state of searching. not there anymore? Do they become And whatever he adds to his display, orphans? that thing becomes a “bare necessity.” BC: You can get a substantial story Libraries and bookshops have prac- even when you put the works’ captions tical categorizations, whereas at the next to each other. Imagine the artists’ kiosk, you feel as if you’re walking into books we have at BAS. If you make a someone’s home and not just Dimitri’s list of the authors/artists, dates, and home. He sells some of the items, for place of production, you would have sure, but for me he’s still a collector. enough data to map the collection. When the time comes, gatherers or That’s why I very much care about collectors might leave their collectibles inventories. Anything beyond this pool behind. What matters is the story they of data is personal. Having said that, tell through their proximity. the following question remains: What When I look at a collection, I don’t happens to these works after one see individual works but a totality— ceases to exist? I’ve collected so many something that represents an indi- books, bottles, and spirits in the last six vidual’s process of accumulation and years. I’m sure they would cause a big collection that reveals his or her own hassle to whoever remains after me. I memory. When you look at Dimitri’s find it very tempting to get rid of it all. kiosk, you would want to imagine ÖE: I remember being shocked when whom he’s friends with, who he talks I heard that a friend of mine, a music to, and what he’s curious about. therapist in his 50s, sold his entire The books he has have all the clues records collection a couple of years needed. I simply wish I could make a ago. It was a collection that witnessed list of his inventory. at least thirty-five years of his life, We have a similar situation at BAS. putting aside the historical value of We have around 1,000 books but every single record he had. He could only twenty of them are “rare books,” have donated or sold the collection as so to speak. What’s curious is how a whole, but instead he chose to give every single artist’s book changes over it away to a second hand shop around time, because they all witness what the corner of his house. He knew that happens at BAS in particular and in the records wouldn’t stay together, so the world in general. Objects or books in a way, he wanted to get rid of the hold a memory of themselves, of their stories as well.

70 71 BC: He was probably exhausted. I such an ambition. Well, if I have to also consider this decision from time be honest, this is not exactly true, as I to time. This is a familiar dilemma always wanted to have books by Ulises for artists as well. You keep working Carrión. But I never ran after them and producing independently from and never had enough money to buy whether or not you are able to sell them. When I had the means to afford them, and you wonder if one day your one book by him, I chose to buy ten works will have another type of value, books by various other artists. both content- and money-wise. And In the beginning, I had a budget for the whole maintenance work—both buying books for the collection, but I physically and emotionally—could didn’t have that luxury for a long time. become a burden. And frankly, I haven’t pushed my limits I have to admit that I have bouts of so much to buy more. Slowly but surely, extreme attachment and detachment. BAS has grown as I met different I can work endlessly to make some- artists, books, publishers, friends, and thing happen, but when it’s finished, supporters. It has grown with acquain- I might not be able to sustain the tances, constructed coincidences, and same intensity to maintain it. This is of course with love. somehow contradictory to what I do, ÖE: Last summer, only by chance, I as I work a lot on classification, on met an artist/designer who published some kind of preservation. One day, his first short story. The books were all of this might be too much to carry, freshly out of print when we met for a and I might simply get rid of them. Or tea. I couldn’t stop myself and bought even burn them. At the end of the day, one to donate it to BAS, as I knew who cares? you would appreciate the outcome ÖE: Are there any artists’ books that of a random encounter. I read the you really wanted to have in the col- story when I got back home, and to lection, anything that you had to run be honest, I really didn’t like it—it was after? Or do you simply grow the such a disappointment. For the last collection organically, as you encoun- couple of months, I’m trying to decide ter new works, new books, and new whether or not I should give that book artists? to you. BC: BAS has an eclectic collection BC: No one would have noticed if you that has been shaped according to the simply left it on one of the shelves at changing life conditions. I’ve always BAS. But now that you told me this appreciated the juxtaposition of a story, I simply want it. book I love, a donated book, and a book I simply don’t like. I often get this question from artists’ book lovers: Do you have such and such book from this great artist? I’ve never had

72 73 Anita Di Bianco lives and works in Berlin. Her films, videos, and texts About the involve re-considerations of previ- ously published, assumed, or familiar patterns of characterization from the Artist worlds of cinema, literature, theater, and political media. Di Bianco’s moving image and print works have been shown at PS1, Kunstwerke, the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Kunstverein Braunschweig, the Rotterdam Film Festival, K21 in Düsseldorf, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, and the Glasgow International, among others. She received her MFA from Rutgers University in 1997 and was awarded a research stipend at the Rijksakademie by the Dutch Ministry of Culture in Amsterdam in 2000–2001. Corrections and Clarifications is distributed in New York by Printed Matter and is held in the collection of the MoMA, New York.

74 75 Banu Cennetoğlu lives and works in Istanbul and Berlin. Her practice explores About the politics around information production/ dissemination, particularly through referential compilations. In 2006, she Authors initiated BAS, a project space in Istanbul focusing on collection and production of artists’ books and printed matter. She is currently a resident at the DAAD Artists- in-Berlin Program. Recent exhibitions include House of Commons, Portikus, 2017; It is obvious from the map, REDCAT, 2017; Documenta 14, Athens & Kassel, 2017; FOOD – Ecologies of the Everyday, Fellbach Small Sculpture Triennial, 2016; Banu Cennetoglu, Bonner Kunstverein, 2016; and Burning Down The House, 10th Gwangju Biennale, 2014. Duygu Demir is an independent curator and a PhD student in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and Architecture program at MIT. Her research focuses on transnational encounters in art, pedagogy, and exhibi- tion-making in and about Turkey. Before her graduate studies, she worked as a programmer at SALT in Istanbul. She has curated exhibitions at Arter Space for Art, Istanbul, SALT, Istanbul and Ankara, as well as Tate Modern in London. She received a combined BA degree in Art History and Visual Arts from Columbia University in 2008. Philippine Hoegen is an artist based in Brussels and Amsterdam. Her work consists of performance, writing, and video installations, engaging with issues of display, objecthood, and personhood. Her recent performance Regarding David took place at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam and at Gallery Tegenboschvanvreden, Amsterdam. Hoegen teaches at the AKV St Joost academy in Den Bosch and Breda, and since 2016 she is conducting a practice-based research commissioned by the Expertise Centre Arts and Design

76 77 of Avans University. She regularly acts as moderator in debates and conferences, most recently at The Fantastic Institute, Buda, 2017 and The Body is a Battlefield, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, 2016. Yasemin Nur is an artist based in Istanbul. Her work explores the practice of collecting objects, ephemera, and stories. Nur holds a Doctorate in Fine Arts from the Painting Department of the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and cur- rently teaches at the Printmaking Studio of the same department. She has an MFA in painting from the same university and an MFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Nur was a founding member of Atılkunst, an Istanbul-based artists’ collective active between 2006–2013. In 2013, she started collaborating with theater director Emre Koyuncuoğlu for creative background and stage instal- lations. In 2014, she started taking Kat’ı (Ottoman art of cut-paper) lessons from Emel Nurhan Oğan.

78 79 Published in 2017 by collectorspace

On the occasion of the exhibition Corrections and Clarifications from the BAS Collection February 5–March 22, 2014 collectorspace Taksim-Gümüşsuyu Mah. İnönü Cad. No: 9c Beyoğlu 34437 İstanbul

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Photograph: Sevim Sancaktar collectorspace is a nonprofit organization that brings private art collections to public view, and promotes critical discussions and writing on contemporary art collecting practices. collectorspace.org [email protected] facebook.com/collectorspace instagram.com/collectorspace_ist

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