With the rise of globalization, the spread of information and the possibility of moving across the world have increased rapidly. People of diverse cultural backgrounds coexist in new contexts, but does harmony come easy?

Köken Ergun’s exhibition Young Turks approaches this question from different angles: for instance, how difficult is it to accept and comprehend a foreign culture? How do media, advertising, TV, and film portray the representatives of other nations, religions, and countries? And is it possible for an artist to also be a researcher?

Using the exhibition as our main source material, we will try to trace the ways in which visual culture records these processes, revealing their pros and cons. The seminars are aimed at analyzing and deconstructing how TV, the Internet, mass culture, and even art itself use imagery for representation and manipulation. Elaborately selected reproductions, photo and video materials, documentary and fiction films, cartoons and comic strips will help the group to clarify the categories of sociology, anthropology, and historiography, and understand their close relation to contemporary art.

During the practical modules, participants will create individual projects based on their acquired knowledge of exhibition-making, cultural products, and ideology, as well as the main themes of contemporary art and the research methods an artist uses today. One of the main goals of the course is to learn to develop multiple approaches to any issue instead of looking for straightforward solutions.

The course is intended for children ages 12+.