Baksı Museum aims to rediscover traditions

ISTANBUL

The new events and concept of Baksı Museum will be open to the public beginning in June 2012, and will include exhibitions and in-studio works.

The Baksı Museum in Turkey’s northeastern province of Bayburt, has organized its events for 2012 under the theme of “Space and Contact.” The museum is once again gathering different art disciplines together to illustrate a single theme. This year’s events are designed to break down barriers and bring art closer to its audience.

The museum, which brings together contemporary and traditional art, announced its new concept and events March 26. Baksı, located in a remote Black Sea village, exists to fulfill the needs of locals in Bayburt. The new events and concept will be open to the public beginning in June 2012, and will include exhibitions and in-studio works. This year the Baksı Museum has organized events in the four main categories of art, design, fashion and gastronomy.



The design category will be organized by Faruk Malhan, managing a team of 15 young designers from different universities. The fashion category will be overseen by Arzu Kaprol, who will also work with young designers. In both categories, the students’ designs will not only be exhibited. The goal is to create designs with a focus on producing them commercially in Bayburt, and contribute to the local economy. These workshops and events thereby also support the museum’s main mission, as the ongoing migration out of the area has negatively affected social and economic life in the village. The owner of the museum, artist and educator Hüsamettin Koçan, came up with the idea for the museum in 2000 and has worked with other artists and volunteers to make it a reality.

The gastronomy category of this year’s concept also aims to affect the social and economic development of the area. Egin Akın will be managing the gastronomy “studio.” Akın hopes to rediscover forgotten tastes of the area, and will focus on traditional ingredients. The goal is to bring local food products to market, also contributing to the economic development of Baksı and Bayburt.

Interdisciplinary art event

The artistic curators will be Fırat Arapoğlu, Mürteza Fidan and Kurucu Koçanoğlu, who chose the concept “Space and Contact” as an over-arching theme, focusing on the cultural gaps which occur due to migration, and ways to transform them through communication, while also referring to the quest for other cultures.

The exhibition is open to all art disciplines, and the curators have called for young artists to apply. The curators want to eliminate limits on art and to open the concept up to anyone with creativity, talent and experience. The application period will stay open until April 30.

This project is also designed to create employment and contribute to the welfare of the area, especially by providing employment to local women. Last year, the Baksı Museum exhibited its handmade original carpets, created by women who live in the area of the museum, at a fair in Berlin. The carpets were made in workshops attached to the museum, created with the goal of transferring this part of the region’s heritage to the next generation.