INTERVIEW BY : CİHAN ATS Ozan Emre Han is 21 years old and lives, works and studies in Bologne at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologne. He was born in Selçuk-Efes of Izmir, where he studied at the Izmir High School of Fine Arts and later came to Istanbul for university. In his 3rd year at Mimar Sinan, Ozan Emre went to Italy on an exchange course and was later accepted at the university there as a result of his successful work. His first important work became his participation in the Istanbul International Film Festival with 5 short films. (His 5 short films were first shown at Istanbul Film Festival in April 2009). His videos were also shown at Rennes University and Gallerie Art & Essai in France, and his collage work was shown at Accademia Di Belle Arti Di Bologna in 2010. I'm aware you still studying however there's a high demand for your work at the moment. How do you respond to this demand at this moment in time? To be honest I don't really want my work to be part of the art market in Turkey at the moment, in quotation marks. Getting away, hiding from or even keeping ...

INTERVIEW BY : MURAT BULUT AYSAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY : MURAT BULUT AYSAN Avni Ertepe is 35, he's a DJ, a producer, promoter, art director and the founder of Fakülte Management. Alongside his career as an art director, Avni realised his visions for Istanbul through clubs such as Dogzstar, Dirty and Machine, and by organising all sorts of events he constantly brings novelty to the city... First of all, tell us a bit about yourself... Everything started in 1997 when I moved to Istanbul. I had studied in Manchester in 1995, but instead of going to class I was going to Hacienda. When I first came to Istanbul I studied Radio and Television for two years. Having become so bored of not being able to find a single place in Istanbul to go out, after throwing house parties with friends and playing music we were making ourselves, we decided to open our own venue. There was the Magma period, after that there wasn't really any club with much of an identity. Clubs making money from trying to be "trendy" or following a popular culture started springing up. Apart from that there was a sub-culture of a certain group of us listening to Techno or Electro. We ...

INTERVIEW BY: ÇAĞIN TÜRKER Your first camera and the first photograph you took: Canon EOS 1000F. A photo that I had taken in Beylerbeyi Palace when I was 10. Your favourite food? Stuffed vine leaves with meat. The advantages of being in Spain/Europe? I don’t have commercial concerns when I’m doing my job and Spanish people are more intimate than people in Turkey. The disadvantages? We should think of Mediterranean countries separately from Northern Europe. Spain doesn’t have the moral coldness that other European countries have, although the mentality that has changed through overconsumption can be exhausting from time to time. What do you miss most? The mixed atmosphere created by the different cultures and of course my family. What do you get inspiration from? As everyone says; from everything. Crowds on the streets, all kinds of music and of course the dialogues in my social life. Additionally I'm a regular follower of blogs and some mags and each piece of paper that has writing on it is very important for me. When I'm late for an appointment it's because... Until now I haven’t been late for any appointments. What's your favourite storybook character? Pee-Wee The day when you feel you've succeeded is... The day that all my visuals have gathered different criticism from all kinds of people. A ........ ...

INTERVIEW BY : MURAT BULUT AYSAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY : SEDEF DELEN Our first guests in this series are Goodoubets, Timuçin Coşkun and H. Giray Sepin. Giray’s a fashion designer, Timuçin’s a fashion editor. Who is Goodoubets? How did it come about? GİRAY: Who is Goodoubets? First of all, we’re people who like going out – we love having fun and listening to good music… Recently though, when we’ve been going out we realised that apart from the music some of our friends play, there aren’t any too many places where we have much fun so we just said, “Well then we’ll play”. TİMUÇİN: In April 2009 we played for the first time in Lokal… We play in small, more cosy venues, places where people can meet up, chat and dance… We put together a combination of music which we listen to at home with the type of music our friends play and try to share our own style. What excites us is when a couple of our friends come up and go “Yeah!” or even “OK”, even if one or two of them are dancing it’s good enough for us. We have fun with each other anyway. We actually do other things apart from DJing, ...

WRITTEN BY : ÇAĞIN TÜRKER "I don't care about the questioning of what art is. My understanding of art is the filling in of empty spaces" says Erkan Esenoğlu.  These empty spaces can sometimes be in paintings, music, and sometimes in animations. "On top of the synthetic understanding of happiness, I like to produce work which excites me, and people shouldn't try to explain the things they like, it just makes them question them and then things just get monotonous". Your favourite colour Black, but for those who say that's not colour, vermilion red. The colour you like using most in your paintings Red again, for me it's the colour that gives the finishing touch to a painting, the colour that easily adds effect, the colour that adds feeling, it's the questionable colour. And you know that there's also light, that's one too... And of course no light, times when it can't reach. Colours are artificial. 3 living artists whom you admire I'll say Chris Cunningham, Jenny Saville and Baselitz. Thanks to so many artists including the artists I've mentioned, ugly things are beautiful now. There's both ugly and beautiful in the window now. Greatest hero in history? Conan, because he's not real. What can I say I don't ...

WRITTEN BY : ÇAĞIN TÜRKER She was born in 1986. She graduated in Graphics in the Arts department of Gazi University. Like many who live in this country, the whole time she studied she was wondering what she would eventually do after she graduated. After her graduation, she ended up travelling, looking around and eventually winning! She was constantly observing and watching her surroundings, looking for a guide to show her the way. While taking photographs one day on the Izmir metro, she noticed the linear map which lays out its route and in that moment she found her "guide". With two fun and interesting designs - Umbrella, the guide and The Angry Handbag, she succeeded in getting attention, first from foreign blogs and then from manufacturers. She's a young designer who takes her work seriously, refers to herself in 3rd person and has a head constantly filled with design ideas... Cansu Cender... Is being outside Istanbul difficult in terms of work? As I do freelance work which involves working over the internet, the difficulty of being in or out of Istanbul isn't really that important. Your Mp3's favourite? Dusty Kid. What advantages did you get from having a place on a foreign blog, or ...

WRITTEN BY : ÇAĞIN TÜRKER While Derin aka Mekazoo was designing furniture and fair stands, one day he decides to start making toys. One day, whilst designing furniture and fair stands, Derin Çiler, aka Mekazoo, decided to start making toys. He asked the Mexican Lucha Libre wrestlers for help, and started wrestling with them. No, no, I don't think so. If he'd done that I'd probably be writing a piece in his memory right now. Derin Çiler used the wrestlers he really was interested in as inspritation and created Robolucha. When he won a competition run by www.patchtogether.com, a website followed closely by toy designers, he also became the first person in Turkey to make a design toy. Robolucha then went on a world tour and the world then heard the footsteps of a Turk in vinyl. Your favourite designer? There are a lot of designers whose work I follow closely. At the moment it's hard to pick one name but for the World War Robot series toys and illustrations I'd say Ashley Wood. Food you can't say no to? The combination of köfte and potatoes. Your favourite cartoon character? Stimpy from Ren and Stimpy. Peter Pan or He-man? The question you should really be asking me here is Captain Hook ...

Can Su is an established Istanbul based photographer. Her photographs are made especially memorable by the quality and colours she uses to express herself. You may have already seen some of her work, her concert photography or her portraits of those including Fazıl Say and Göksel. Not only is she a photographer, when she gets the chance Can Su also enjoys writing and has a strong interest in music. Her website has a dream-like air of its own and is a very successful representation of her work. We took the opportunity to catch up with Can Su to learn a bit more about the person behind the camera... Hi Can Su! Could you introduce yourself? I'm Can Su. I'm not that good at describing myself with words. I'll use some from my biography- I like drinking water, breathing and producing, and I do all of these equally frequently. I studied Communication. I take photographs; I watch people, objects and sometimes even sounds. When did your interest in photography begin? Besides photography, I always had feelings for particular moments. The desire to make these moments permanent came about in my highschool years. I used to constantly take photos and make albums for myself. I started ...