The exhibition and panel discussion, "70TK From Tatavla to Kurtuluş: The Metamorphosis of a Neighborhood" developed around the question of the essence of the city’s identity: Is a city a static format to which different people and communities integrate to or is it a fluid format that is constantly being transformed? How is a city co-shaped and enriched by its diverse inhabitants living together
Thematic focus: The exhibition focused on the history and changing processes of the Greek community’s neighborhood of Tatavla in Istanbul. With this community ‘s story as a starting point, the opening event panel discussion attempted to connect the exhibition to the local Athenian context, through stories of diverse people and their communities that came to live in Athens co-shaping the city’s identity by living together.
Description: The 70TK exhibition, sheds light on the history of Kurtuluş district in Istanbul since its foundation as a small settlement in the 17th century to the present day. It includes archival documents and findings revealed through a 2-year research including oral history interviews and architectural survey and was enriched through further research and interviews in Athens during 2018.
With the above exhibition as a starting point, COMM’ON designed and developed a panel discussion during the opening event of the exhibition, bringing together Athenians holding their own very different stories of coming to live to the city, to share their experiences and reflect around the issue of how a city is co-shaped and enriched by its diverse inhabitants living together?
Five Athenians, Nikos Ouzounoglou - President of the New Circle of Constantinopolitans, Hanna Oliynych - member of the Club Ukranian Women in Greece-Borysthnes, Natassa Dourida - President of Communitism Association, Wael Habbal - Syrian Survivor and Artist and Silke Wittig - Curator and Cultural Manager shared their own stories on what brought them to live in Athens and from where, on the habits and elements from their context they brought along and their feelings on whether and how the elements they bring along “change” the city. Thomas Maloutas, Professor at Department of Geography, at Harokopio University in Athens introduced the audience to the sociohistorical development of Athens especially during the last 100 years.
The 70TK exhibition, co-organized by Association for Protection of Cultural Heritage, Paros Magazine in Istanbul and COMM’ON in Athens, is a project born within Actors of Urban Change, a program by the Robert Bosch Stiftung in cooperation with MitOst e.V.
Exhibition duration: 13 - 22 July 2018