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Labor in Contemporary Art, Precarious labor workshop in Gezi Park, June 2013. Photo. Courtesy of Pelin Tan.
Labor in Contemporary Art, Precarious labor workshop in Gezi Park, June 2013. Photo. Courtesy of Pelin Tan.

November 16, 2015

Methodology is not only the means of a system for describing realities; it is a political tool that takes part in the process of knowledge production. From the perspective of an integrated relational practice in the field of urban, pedagogy and contemporary art, Pelin Tan conveys how collective experience of the translocal production of knowledge and of instant alliances leads to the creation of common spaces. How can transversal methodology function within it? As Felix Guattari puts it, rather an analytic method that cuts across multiple fields– is often affiliated with models of knowledge and pedagogy, such as methods of “assemblage”. Both on theoretical and practical levels, such processes could well be vital in enabling the knowledge of everyday life to intervene in institutional bodies, and vital to the flow of alternative pedagogies into different platforms, resulting in the emergence of creative forms of solidarity in extra-territorial spaces. Tan will speak about possibilities and limits of transversal methods in art and spatial realities.

Pelin Tan studied sociology and art history, completing her PhD on socially engaged art in urban space (ITU-Turkey) and her post-doc on the methodology of artistic research at MIT. Tan has received several research grants & residencies such as DAAD (2006-07), The Japan Foundation (2012), IASPIS curatorial (2008), Kitakyushu Contemporary Art Inst. (2015). Tan is an Associate Professor in the department of Architecture at Mardin Artuklu University. In spring 2016, Tan begins an appointment as Research Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic, Design Strategies (Spring, 2016).

Tan’s research on artist run spaces and urban justice spans continents– in Europe (2004), Asia and Japan (2012, 2015). She currently co-directs the sci-fi film series “2084” about the future of art with artist Anton Vidokle. Tan has participated in numerous biennales, including the Montreal Biennial (2014), the Bergen Assembly (2013) and most recently, the Istanbul Biennale (2015). She is a member of video collectives Artıkişler and co-founder of videoccupy and the bak.ma digital media archive of political movements in Turkey. In addition, Tan was the curator of Adhocracy– Athens exhibition (May, 2015). Tan’s publications on architecture, urbanism and art include, her recent chapter “Transversal Materialism” featured in 2000+: Urgencies of Architectural Theories (GSAPP, 2015) and Arazi (Sternberg Press, CSPS, Berlin, 2015). Tan is a principal researcher at the “Spatio-Social Analysis of Refugee Camps in Southeast Turkey” (2015 – 2016, MAU) and is currently working together with Ö.Özengi on the research project, Labor in Contemporary Art in Turkey (2013-2016).

Pelin Tan’s lecture will lecture will be moderated by Ursula August (ACT) and Angel Chen (ACT) with response by Ethan Zuckerman, Director of the Center for Civic Media, (MIT Media Lab) and Lillian Hsu, artist and director of Public Art, Cambridge Arts Council.