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KONSERVE

“Cultural and social changes brought about by globalization continue to transform societies and more than ever we ask ourselves how we can protect the values of our intangible cultural heritage: Which practices can we use to prevent the divide between urban and rural, whilst transmitting the endemic knowledge? How can we involve local communities in treating and making visible such values employing artistic practices? How can we carry artistic programs to the rural areas by abstaining from the approach of ‘exporting culture’?”

konserve/консерва, focuses on how to render the intangible cultural heritage with inclusion of local rural communities through participative, artistic, and creative methods while aiming to create a sustainable archive of the projects carried out by activists, artists, collectives, and civil society organizations looking for an answer to the foregoing questions in various parts of the world since 2010.

THE CHALLENGE

Currently, we all are witnessing how neoliberal policies collapsed rural areas by eliminating small-scale production and, thereby, the economic self-sufficiency of the nations. As in Bulgaria and Turkey, youngsters across the world are leaving the rural areas where they were born and grown up for metropolitan cities or other countries with the hope of employment and regular income. The endemic body of experience and knowledge on traditional agriculture, folklore, and local crafts is day by day fading away due to the rapid aging of the population in the rural areas. Furthermore, the given conditions indicate that these assets are degrading because of the experienced erosion and cultural diversity is taking up a mono-cultural structure. Accordingly, villages are turning into touristic resorts or temporary festival grounds rather than sustaining as living cultural spheres. Audio-visual documentaries aiming to draw attention to this challenge are only accessible to a limited audience and fail to create the desired social impact.

THE APPROACH

konserve/консерва network, aims to develop a model which allows the treatment of intangible cultural heritage in artistic practices and makes the inhabitants of rural areas effective participants in content production. While developing this model with a participatory manner, it invites independent artists, initiatives, cultural managers, curators, and civic organizations with an ongoing open call to participate in the expansion process of this ever growing network. Please feel free to drop us a line by sending a mail to info@konserveproject.com

You can access the project publication prepared in Turkish, English and Bulgarian here:

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CO-DIRECTORS

Sarp KESKİNER (KARANTİNA collective – Teos Arts and Culture Association, İzmir)

Gökçe SÜVARİ KANTÜRK (KARANTİNA collective, İzmir)

Diana NEDEVA (Meeting Points, Sofia)

Vesy DEYANOVA (Meeting Points, Sofia)

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR

Yanina TANEVA (Ideas Factory, Sofia)

GRAPHIC DESIGN AND APPLICATION

Emre DUYGU

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION

Alexandra NIKOLOVA

PHOTOGRAPHER – EDITOR IN CHIEF

Sarp KESKİNER

CO EDITOR – TRANSLATOR

Hale ERYILMAZ

PROOF READERS

Will BUCKINGHAM (Wind & Bones, UK)

Hannah STEVENS (Wind & Bones, UK)

Sarp KESKİNER

DESTEKÇİLER

Branimir MORFOV

Borga KANTÜRK (KARANTİNA collective)

Esra OKYAY (A Rook of One’s Own Arts Initiative)

Melih ERGEN (Teos Arts and Culture Association)

Yaşar KOÇAK (Teos Arts and Culture Association)

FOUNDER ASSOCIATES OF KONSERVE NETWORK

ORGANIZATIONS

The House of Activity and Creativity
Daiva Vaišnorienė – LITHUANIA

Koopkultur e.V.
Petronela Bordeianu – ROMANIA – GERMANY

Eithne
Ruxandra Lupu – ROMANIA

Pro Feelfolu Association
János Kovács – ROMANIA

Transylvania Art Therapy Centre
Ruth Borgfjord – ROMANIA

Sofia University
Nelly Stoeva – BULGARIA

Art Tours Berlin
Pauline Georgieva – GERMANY

IRE theatre-art-culture FOUNDATION
Plamen Radev – BULGARIA

LALETA
Tsvetomila Mihaylova – BULGARIA

 

NPO Daskal Geno Serafimov
Hristina Taseva – BULGARIA

Discovered Spaces
Milena Stanojevic – BULGARIA

Varna Dance Theater
Karina Ilieva – BULGARIA

Business Foundation for Education
Nadezhda Paunova – BULGARIA

B-Arts
Martin Gooding – Kath Walton – UNITED KINGDOM

Senza Studio
Marco Terranova – ITALY

Theater Arbeit Duisburg TAD
Stella Cristofolini – GERMANY

Forte Organization
Marlene Flora Geißelbrecht – AUSTRIA

A Corner in the World
Fatih Gençkal – TURKEY

K2 Güncel Sanat Merkezi
Ayşegül Kurtel – TURKEY

 

İzmir Sinema Evi
Tahsin İşbilen – TURKEY

Sarı Denizaltı Sanat İnisiyatifi
Günseli Baki – TURKEY

Atölye Deneme Sanat ve Ekoloji Der.
Ekin Özdemirci – Pelin Topçu – TURKEY

Nomadmind
Çiçek Tezer – TURKEY

TIAFI
Anne O’Rorke – TURKEY

SUB Collective
İlayda Tunca – TURKEY

Barbaros Su Mirası Projesi
Hazal Öztetikler – TURKEY

Ne Yerde Ne Gökte Derneği
Nesrin Ermiş – TURKEY

Mersin Üniversitesi
Nurseren Tort – TURKEY

INDIVIDUALS

Daniela Andrade – PORTUGAL
Melina Vlachou – GREECE
Nesrin Ermiş Pavlis – TURKEY
Mila Buria Strashimirova – BULGARIA
Elena Stoycheva – BULGARIA
Mirela Petrova – BULGARIA-GERMANY
Janine Boehl – GERMANY

ASSOCIATES

GRANT PROVIDERS

Research and networking phase of konserve/консерва is funded by Civil Society Exchange [CSE] Program that intends to contribute to the formation of a resilient civil society through supporting stronger relations among the CSOs and civil initiatives based in Turkey and EU. The goal of the program is to develop the capacity of CSOs from Turkey and Europe by providing them international mobility possibilities, as well as space for mutual learning.