Past Seminars

Prepared by: Ela Başak Atakan

In this seminar, we will look at a different film each week and present an overview of the women who stand out gave inspiration in the cinema industry. We will recall Carrie Fisher and her unforgettable character Princess Lea in the program, also with the debated production of the year and Oscar nominated movie “La La Land” and will leave the scene to contemporary female filmmakers.

Program

 1st week: “Emma Stone” La La Land, Yön. Damien Chazelle, 2016
2nd week: “Tribute: Carrie Fisher” Postcards from the Edge, Yön. Mike Nichols, 1990
3rd week: “Jane Campion” The Piano, Yön. Jane Campion, 1993
4th week: “Andrea Arnold” American Honey,  Yön. Andrea Arnold, 2016
 

Prepared by: İnci Eviner

1st week: “Self-Portrait – The Artist Looks After His Own”
Artists seek to look for themselves in their self-portraits since Rembrandt. Self-portrait has become a way of recreating oneself as much as an aesthetic proof of the presence of the artist. Self-portraits take different forms from canvas to performative works like that of Sophie Calle’s, and give us important clues about the artist’s identity, time, and existence.
Looking at self-portraits is a brand new experience that takes one to the foreigner inside.

2nd week: “Picasso, Delacroix, Hirschhorn”
How do Picasso, Delacroix, Hirschhorn express the catastrophic side of human nature between victory and destruction? Discussing ethical values ​​in art by bouncing between three artworks without following a chronology, is a significant opportunity to understand the present day from a dynamic perspective.

3rd week: “Identity Issue in Art”
Can art history be read as a struggle to create space of freedom for the body that is trapped between the representation and the truth? How does the artist (subject) build oneself? Could art be a form of resistance? Are cultural and gender differences a threat to the universal values?

Prepared by: Ela Başak Atakan

The cinema, which is living its golden age, is now more accessible, more daring and younger by the courtesy of digital revolution. In this seminar series, we will observe the final scene of the evolution of the cinema. We will review the movies of last years; that are fresh, thought-provoking, taboo breaking and debating. Europe is the center and also the source.

Program

1st week: “Crazy Mares” Mustang, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Fransa-Almanya-Türkiye, 2015
2nd week: “The Forcing Cause” Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, İsveç, 2014
3rd week: “About a Giant” Leviathan, Andrey Zvyaginstev, Rusya, 2014
4st week: “45 Days to Find A Partner” Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos, Irlanda/Yunanistan, 2015
5th week: “Beauty of them all” La Grande Bellezza, Paolo Sorrentino, İtalya, 2013

Prepared by: Ela Başak Atakan

Like some recipes that are carefully kept as a secret, the recipe for each successful movie is hidden as well. If the movie is tasted carefully, the recipe can be found. In this seminar series, we will look at the kitchen of the cinema and try different tastes. Besides, hors d’oeuvres will be served little by little.

Program

1st week: “Classic” –  The Anatomy of the Classic, Casablanca, Michael Curtiz, 1942
2nd week: “Dogme 95” – A New Wave in Cinema, Breaking The Waves, Lars Von Trier, 1996
3rd week: “Species and Their Extraordinary Examples” – Rules Should Be Wrecked, Something Wild, Jonathan Demme, 1986
4th week:“Contemporary” – Talents of Today, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson, 2014

Prepared by: Osman Erden

The purpose of this 5-week seminar is to explain what contemporary art involves and what is the aim of it. The main subject of the seminar is, the headlines of today’s art scene by looking to the transition period of modern art to contemporary art, starting from the late 1950’s. Accordingly, the artists who are prominent in contemporary art and the works they produce will be examined, and the factors that shaped contemporary art will be discussed.

Program

1st week: Transition through modern art to contemporary art after World War II
2nd week: Contemporary art and politics
3th week: Contemporary art and feminism
4th week: Exhibitions, biennials, curators.
5th week: The factors that shaped the contemporary art market (gallery system, art fairs, auctions)

Prepared by: Marcus Graf

In this program, the formation process ofcontemporary art in Turkey will be evaluated within the historical contextthrough the people and witnesses that influenced this process. From the beginning of the 20th century, turning points of art perception in Turkey will be discussed, and pratics that are transitioned to contemporary art starting from 1960’s will be traced.

Program

1st week: An Outlook From Ending 19th Century to 1970s
2nd week: 1970’s
3th week: 1980’s
4th week: 1990’s
5th week: 2000’s

Prepared by: Süreyyya Evren

Final Judgement on the Meaning of Art
In this 5-week seminar series prepared by Süreyyya Evren, subjects such as history writing, fake art, political art, queer theory will be analyzed with examples in both local and international context. Besides, a critical and different view will be given to the participants on writing about contemporary art and art history in attempt to raise awareness.

Program

1st week: Art Is Not to Agree, It Can Be Bought Without a Cause
2nd week: Even Francis Bacon Can Do It
3th week: I Haven’t Seen Anyone Better Than You
4th week: I Will Tell You The Truth Tonight
5th week: The Sense Of “I Live With The Camels”

Prepared by: Marcus Graf

The purpose of this 5-week seminar series, is to share the necessary information with participants in order to understand and absorb contemporary art. Starting from the transition through modern art to contemporary art, important movements of the second half of the 20th century will be discussed, and contemporary art history will be viewed through artists and related concepts. As the closure, today’s tendencies will be reviewed.

Program

1st week: Introduction to the Important Concepts of Contemporary Art
2nd week: Contemporary Art History I
3th week: Contemporary Art History II and Introduction to Turkish Contemporary Art
4th week: Contemporary Art History III
5th week: Introduction to being a Collector the contemporary art market (gallery system, art fairs, auctions)

American Express and SPOT International Seminars
May 4,  2013 | Pera Palace Hotel, Istanbul

Speakers: Roxane Zand, Salma Tuqan, Antonia Carver, Haro Cümbüşyan, Mehveş Arıburnu, Bashar Al-Shroogi,  William Lawrie, Yasmin Atassi
Moderator: HG Masters

Third edition of the collaboration of American Express and SPOT Projects International Seminars will be held under the title of “The Dynamics of the Art Markets: Turkey, Iran and the Middle East”. Speakers will discuss developments of contemporary art institutions in the Middle East and will interpret trends and developments in the arts market.

The seminar will start with curator of Victoria & Albert Museum Salma Tuqan’s speech including the evaluations on the art that has been produced in the region. With two sessions lead by HG Masters, the event will be over after Sotheby’s Middle East and Gulf Vice President Roxane Zand’s speech on the present situation and future scenarios of contemporary art markets.

25 April 2013
Prepared by: Ali Taptık

This workshop will discuss the history of photography, from its invention until today.  There will be comparisons made between the benchmark works in history and today’s important samples; we will do these comparisons through similarities in theme, visuality and procedure. Technological and social changes in photography will be tracked, while looking closely at photographs from different geographies and different times. The relationship between photography and other fields of art will be examined as well as photography’s various presentations, such as  book, print and projection, and the differences the presentations made in meaning and visuality.

We will walk through the history of photography: The portraits of young couples from Germany in 1930s (Sander), today’s Spanish matadors (Dijkstra), the conditions of everyday objects from Texas (Eggleston), dark winters of Sweden (Tunbjork), the people from New York streets (Klein) and the backstreets of Tokyo (Moriyama).

10 April 2013
Prepared by: Mari Spirito

This workshop will simulate a walk through Chelsea, the gallery district in New York, visiting many different kinds of galleries, looking at exhibitions and art works in galleries and private viewing rooms, as research for one acquisition that day.  On this journey we will meet dealers, artists, other collectors and look a wide range of art works in a range of prices and discuss the process of acquiring a contemporary art work. While the selection of works are personal and subjective, there are existing behavioral norms, expected etiquette and informal formalities that wil be discussed and challenged during the workshop.

Prepared by: Nazlı Gürlek & Zeynep Öz

Although medium in contemporary art has lost its conventienal meaning when we examine the contemporary art, it is important to know its history in order to give a historical perspective to art works. In this seminar which will contunie for 7 weeks, we  will examine the history of painting,  sculpture,  photography, installation, printmaking, drawing, performance, new-media and later examine their use by today’s artists.

Program

1st week: Mediums in 20th and 21st Century Art
2nd week: Mediums in 20th and 21st Century Art
3rd week: Mediums in 20th and 21st Century Art
4th week: Mediums in 20th and 21st Century Art
5th week: Mediums in 20th and 21st Century Art

Prepared by: Mürüvvet Türkyılmaz

This program, which is 5-weeks long, will look at the contexts in which art movements happened from the end of 15th century until Late Impressionism. It will also examine the chronological transitions in the Western Art History and certain attitudes and interactions that could be said to have formed the basis for Modern & Contemporary Art: The fields of painting, sculpture, architecture and music will be equally talked about. This program will also invite participants to discover the movements as they developed in different geographies through exhibition visits, and to compare these with the same fields in Turkey.

Program

1st week: Classicism / Mannerism
2nd week: Baroque, Rococo, Neo-Classicism
3rd week: Ottoman Period / Lale Devri (1718-1730)
4th week: Romanticism, Realism
5th week: Impressionism, Age of Enlightenment, Orientalism

15 January 2013
Prepared by: Adrian Notz

This workshop presents the context in which Dada happened, the target of Dada, as well as its strategy, realisation and the historic effects. It also looks at how this can be mirrored in the contemporary situation, and the projects of Cabaret Voltaire as reactualization examples.

The workshop will be held as a participative lecture and will be structured in 5 chapters, which will allow for the management of the enormous content of Dada and its translation into a reactualization today.

Prepared by: Özge Ersoy & Zeynep Öz

This 5-week seminar will discuss the themes which are taken up by local and foreign artists especially after 2000. At the end of this program in which we will examine the curatorial developments while looking at artists’ practices, the participants will have learned about contemporary art production and how media has changed visual arts. We will also get a chance to have discussions in these areas.

Program

1st week: Themes Before the 2000s
2nd week: Architecture and Contemporary Art
3rd week: Art, Activism, Politics
4th week: Institutional Critique
5th week: Documentary and Archive

13 December 2012
Prepared by: Fatma Çolakoğlu

Virgina Woolf asks about films:  “Is there a secret language that we feel and understand but can never  speak? If there is, can it be visible? Is there a way for thoughts to be visible without words?”

In this workshop,  film theoretician Rudolf Arnheim’s book “Film as Art” will lead our way from 1900s to today’s significant works of photography and the nature of film as art.

19 December 2012
Prepared by: Sinem Yörük

This seminar will look at the history of photography and its development. We will discuss key figures and their relationship to important art movements of the time. We will also concentrate on collecting photography and discuss crucial information (such as different themes, styles, the value of the print, storage and preservation).

13 December 2012
Prepared by: Burcu Yağız

In this workshop will look at the relationship between art and design while discussing interdisciplinary practices. We will focus on the designer- artist identity while looking at situations in which artistic and designer practices overlap. Among the content presented will be work by designer-artists producing in the intersection of product design, graphic design, architecture, design, fashion design, service and service design, interaction design. Information will also be provided on moments in art – design histories when the references approach one another.  The conceptual content of the workshop will be supported by tours to major designer shops and artist / designer studios / exhibitions in Istanbul.

Prepared by: İz Öztat & Zeynep Öz

In this program, the formation process ofcontemporary art in Turkey will be evaluated within the historical contextthrough the people and witnesses that influenced this process. From the beginning of the 20th century, turning points of art perception in Turkey will be discussed, and pratics that are transitioned to contemporary art starting from 1960’s will be traced.

1st week: An Outlook From Ending 19th Century to 1970s
2nd week: 1970’s
3th week: 1980’s
4th week: 1990’s
5th week: 2000’s

Prepared by: Mürüvvet Türkyılmaz

This program, which is 5-weeks long, invites participants to discover the interactions between various 20th century art movements in different geographies, through a prism of social and political resources. We will examine the historical context in which major movements developed and their reflections in Turkey comparatively. We will be looking closely at: Art Nouveau, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Abstract Art, Dada and Surrealism, Supremacist, Bauhaus, Constructivism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Op Art movements.

Program

1st week: Art-Nouveau, Fovism, Expressionism
2nd week: Cubism, Futurism, Abstract Art
3th week: Dada and Surrealism, Suprematism, Bauhaus, Constructivism
4th week: Turkish Architecture and It’s Periods
5th week: Abstract Expressionism, Optical Art, Pop Art

29 November 2012
Prepared by: Bengü Karaduman

In this workshop, video art will be considered how and where emerged and which other art movements and technological advancements triggered its development. The disciplines influenced by video art will be examined through the examples and which The evolution of video art to media art and media art in the context of “art and technology”, “art and science” will be the other themes of the workshop.

20 November 2012
Prepared by: Leonie Moschner & Paul Hewitt

This workshop will be moderated by art experts from the international and local auction house will be focused the role of the auction house in the art market and includes practical advice on the fundamentals of buying at an auction. Following the presentations, a representative auction lecture will be held.

American Express and SPOT International Seminars
9 November 2012 – Divan İstanbul (Elmadağ)
Speakers: Uli Sigg, Karen Smith, Defne Ayas

The seminar that will be given under the title of “Being a Successful Art Collector: The Chinese Model”; consists the speeches by Art historian and Chinese art expert Karen Smith; most famous and respected art collector and International Advisory Board member of Tate Museum Uli Sigg; and Asia representative of Prince Claus Foundation, co-manager of Arthub Asian Cultural Foundation in Shanghai & director / curator of Witte de With Museum Defne Ayas. The seminar will focus on the examples of contemporary Chinese art, and interaction between the collector and the development of the art world in this geography will be discussed.

Prepared by: Zeynep Öz

The program that will be presented as the continuation of the first seminar titled “Understanding Contemporary Art”, will examine deeply the most important artists and works of the 20th century and discuss the connection between the practices of current artists. In order to understand the contemporary art, it is necessary to understand the historical examples and to know the outlines. This program, which will be moderated with artist presentations and Q&A’s, compares the artistic practices of contemporary artists and art history. In addition to references from Western Art History, the end of the 1990’s and the 2000’s of İstanbul art scene will also be examined deeply.

Program

1st week: Heritage of the Dada: Anti-Art and Artistic Avant-garde
2nd week: Heritage of the Minimalism: Post-minimalism
3rd week: Heritage of the Conceptualism: Death of the Object
4th week: Communal Gender Roles: Feminism and the theory of “Queer”
5th week: Gallery Tour
6th week: Public Art
7th week: Institutional Critism

Prepared by: Zeynep Öz

In this program, the formation process of contemporary art in Turkey will be evaluated within the historical context through the people and witnesses that influenced this process. From the beginning of the 20th century, turning points of art perception in Turkey will be discussed, and practices that are transitioned to contemporary art starting from 1960’s will be traced.

Program

1st week: An Outlook From Ending 19th Century to 1970s
2nd week: 1970’s
3rd week: 1980’s
4th week: 1990’s
5th week: 2000’s

American Express ve SPOT International Seminars
17 March 2012 | Four Seasons Bosphorus Otel
Speaker: Louisa Buck

SPOT is proud to announce international seminars in collaboration with American Express, under the title of “Risk- taking in Contemporary Art / Being a Successful Art Collector: Collector’s Handbook” that is given by one of the most important writers and critic of the international contemporary art platform, Louisa Buck.

This seminar will look over and examine the collecting and sponsorship models abroad and will be an extensive guide for contemporary art market, and it’s actors, organizations and events.

Prepared by: Zeynep Öz

The purpose of this 5-week seminar series, is to share the necessary information with participants in order to understand and absorb contemporary art. Starting from the transition through modern art to contemporary art, important movements of the second half of the 20th century will be discussed, and contemporary art history will be viewed through artists and related concepts. As the closure, today’s tendencies will be reviewed.

Program

1st week: Introduction to the Important Concepts of Contemporary Art
2nd week: Contemporary Art History I
3th week: Contemporary Art History II and Introduction to Turkish Contemporary Art
4th week: Contemporary Art History III
5th week: Introduction to being a Collector the contemporary art market (gallery system, art fairs, auctions)

Prepared by: Zeynep Öz

The purpose of this 5-week seminar series, is to share the necessary information with participants in order to understand and absorb contemporary art. Starting from the transition through modern art to contemporary art, important movements of the second half of the 20th century will be discussed, and contemporary art history will be viewed through artists and related concepts. As the closure, today’s tendencies will be reviewed.

Prpgram

1st week: Introduction to the Important Concepts of Contemporary Art
2nd week: Contemporary Art History I
3th week: Contemporary Art History II and Introduction to Turkish Contemporary Art
4th week: Contemporary Art History III
5th week: Introduction to being a Collector the contemporary art market (gallery system, art fairs, auctions)

Prepared by: Zeynep Öz

The purpose of this 5-week seminar series, is to share the necessary information with participants in order to understand and absorb contemporary art. Starting from the transition through modern art to contemporary art, important movements of the second half of the 20th century will be discussed, and contemporary art history will be viewed through artists and related concepts. As the closure, today’s tendencies will be reviewed.

Program

1st week: Introduction to the Important Concepts of Contemporary Art
2nd week: Contemporary Art History I
3th week: Contemporary Art History II and Introduction to Turkish Contemporary Art
4th week: Contemporary Art History III
5th week: Introduction to being a Collector the contemporary art market (gallery system, art fairs, auctions)

Prepared by: Zeynep Öz

The purpose of this 7-week seminar series, is to share the necessary information with participants in order to understand and absorb contemporary art. Starting from the transition through modern art to contemporary art, important movements of the second half of the 20th century will be discussed, and contemporary art history will be viewed through artists and related concepts. As the closure, today’s tendencies will be reviewed.

Program

1st week: Introduction to the Important Concepts of Contemporary Art
2nd week: Contemporary Art History I
3th week: Contemporary Art History II and Introduction to Turkish Contemporary Art
4th week: Contemporary Art History III
5th week: Introduction to being a Collector the contemporary art market (gallery system, art fairs, auctions)