<nettime-ann> Sea of Marble: A Navigational Convergence by xurban collec

Project Lead Designer Mahir Yavuz (Linz) and Atif Akin (Istanbul)

Project Partners: Helge Mooshammer and Peter Mortenbock (Vienna/London)

One can identify countless physical traces of both natural and cultural events in any landscape. Endemic vegetation, landforms, as well as the remnants of civilizations are infused on top of each other and characterize a specific geography. The sea as an ever-changing, relatively flat space conceals all the traces of time and transforms them into mythologies. Both the land and the sea are in constant flux with different viscous properties. They touch each other and form a complex, oscillating line of infinite length.

The project Sea of Marble: A Navigational Convergence (2009â10) is developed as an exhibition and a symposium, and aims to address the seas as defined by various manifestations of global trade, economy, and the flow of bodies. It endeavors to develop visual and narrative strategies to tackle with the particularities and potentialities that the sea presents.

The sea of Marmara, located in between the Black Sea and the Aegean, literally means 'the sea of marble' hosts one of the major fault lines expected to bring a catastrophic tremor to Istanbul. In addition to several earthquakes, prison islands in Marmara mark Turkey's recent grim political history of coup d'etats and most recently hosted the country's most wanted Kurdish guerilla leader. The sea is highly polluted by manufacturing and oil industries. On any given day, hundreds of ships stay anchored, waiting for the next big global agitation. In this respect, the seas are transmitters of history, wealth and culture as well as a source of biological richness and are also the bearers of scourge, oil spills and chemicals, and the invading jellyfish and the disappearing reef. The oil tankers and container ships sail to the effect of millions of tons, accumulating and transferring immense wealth from one part of the world to another. Refugee boats also sail across sometimes to cat astrophic ends either while at sea or at their destination. Recent events such as the Gaza aid flotilla, the British Petroleum oil rig disaster in the Gulf Coast of USA, island disputes between China and Japan, the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 and the opening of the northern sea route are examples that we all follow with curiosity.

Sea of Marble: A Navigational Convergence project is conceived in three parts. First, xurban_collective's exhibition is based on the visual research in cities including Athens, Marseille, Istanbul, Izmir and New York. Second, a symposium will take place on December 4th, 2010 at Antrepo No:5, an old warehouse in Istanbul port. Participants of this symposium include Ursula Biemann (Zurich) and Shuruq A. M. Harb (Ramallah), TJ Demos (London), John Palmesino (London), Vyjayanthi Rao (New York), Alex Villar (New York) and Relli De Vries (Tel Aviv). xurban_collective and their project partners will take the role of moderators and respondents for each presentations along with Aslihan Demirtas (New York). The third of the project is part is a book and the website which will gather and archive the project's visual materials, presentations and discussions in a unified format.

About xurban_collective

xurban_collective is an international art collective founded in 2000 by Guven Incirlioglu (Izmir) and Hakan Topal (New York) as a transatlantic collaboration. Members include Mahir Yavuz (Linz) and Atif Akin (Istanbul). xurban_collective's mission is to instigate the questioning, examination, and discussion of contemporary politics, theory, and ideology, utilizing documentary research and take the form of media projects, installations and texts. The collective focuses specifically on areas of regional conflicts, military spatial confinement, urban segregation, nationalist and neo-liberal exclusion strategies. www.xurban.net

* For additional information and symposium outline, abstracts and bios please visit: sea.xurban.net

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Hakan Topal

xurban_collective