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071 Issue # 11/11 : PublIc Issues
vary, of course, but once you open yourself up to the
other's experience, that otherness can undergo change.
For instance in the neighbourhood, we were perhaps the
others ourselves, a minority group with a way of life
different from that of the majority of people living there
at the time. Isn't it more healthy if those who have
this other role keep changing? Empowerment is too large a
claim; it actually suggests that we have the power. Why
don't we take this as something done together, collaboratively?
At that point we can talk about empowering space
and everyday life rather than persons. Empowerment is
not something that can be done only by one side in a re-
lationship. Oda Projesi, which takes nourishment from urban
space, and whose survival is based on the city's dynamics,
cannot have power by itself.
Open-endedness
Derya: What is the role of open-endedness in Oda Projesi's
works? In her article in October, Claire Bishop (2004)
discusses the question of open-endedness, and argues that
it is a problematic artistic strategy. She thinks that art
can convey political messages by performing disruptive
gestures that make spectators question themselves rather
than by being open-ended.
Özge: Open-endedness is not something that those sharing
an environment (including us) are aware of in practice.
Rather, this is specified during the process; in other
words, we cannot design a project as open-ended from the
beginning. Only if the will of the participants has
continuity or if a state of action-reaction is created may
the project become open-ended. This is like not cutting
the process with an abrupt end; and if there is a halt,
it is a matter of resuming the process with new things
to say... the fact that objects appearing as products
actually function as vehicles defines open-endedness.
References
Agamben, Giorgio (2000). Means Without
end: Notes on Politics. University of
Minnesota Press, Mineapolis.
Babias, Marius. "On the Strategic Use
of Politics in the Context of Art".
In: IKSV (2005). Art, city and Politics
in an expanding World, Writings from
the 9th International Istanbul bien-
nial, Istanbul.
Barthes, Roland. "Authors and Writers
1960". In: Susan Sontag (ed.) (1982).
A barthes Reader. Hill & Wang, New
York.
Bishop, Claire. (2006). "The Social
Turn: Collaboration and its discontents".
In: Artforum Vol. 44, 2/2006,
pp. 178–183.
Bishop, Claire. "Antagonism and
Relational Aesthetics". In: October,
Vol. 110, 3/2004, pp. 51–79.
Bourriaud, Nicolas (2002). Relational
Aesthetics. Trans. S. Pleasance &
F. Woods. Les Presses du Réel, Dijon.
Deleuze, Gilles. "Intellectuals &
Power (A conversation between Michel
Foucault and Gilles Deleuze)."
In: Donald F. Bouchard (ed.) (1977).
language, counter-Memory, Practice:
selected essays and Interviews by
Michel Foucault. Cornell University
Press, New York.
Erdog˘an, Necmi (ed.) (2002). Yoksulluk
Halleri: Türkiye'de Kent Yoksullug˘unun
Toplumsal Görünümleri [States of
Poverty: Social Representations of
Urban Poverty in Turkey] Demokrasi
Kitaplıg˘ı.
Holloway, John (2002). change the
World without Taking Power. The
Meaning of Revolution Today. Pluto
Press, London.
Kravagna, Christian (1998):
http://www.republicart.net/disc/aap/
kravagna01_en.htm.
Lind, Maria. "Actualisation of Space:
The Case of Oda Projesi". In: Claire
Doherty (ed.) (2004). From studio
to situation. Black Dog Publishing,
London, pp. 109–121. See also www.
republicart.net/disc/app/lind01_en.
htm.
Negri, Antonio (2002). "The Multitude
and the Metropolis". In: Posse
[See Trans. Arianna Bove, http://www.
generation-online.org/t/metropolis.
htm].
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty.
"Can the Subaltern Speak?". In: Patrick
Williams and Laura Chrisman (eds.)
(1994), colonial Discourse and Post-
colonial Theory: A Reader. New Colum-
bia University Press, New York.
Ouroussoff, Nicolai. New York Times,
(12 March 2006): http://www.nytimes.
com/2006/03/12/arts/design/12ouro.
html?_r=1.