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Orienting Istanbul: Cultural Capital of Europe? Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul Movie Screening

Organized By : The Middle East Center at Berkeley

Conference :

Istanbul is one of many world cities that turn to culture to establish a place on the world map. It is also the site of a unique debate on European integration entwined with the memory of earlier Orientalist
representations. The selection of Istanbul as one of the Cultural Capitals of Europe in 2010 highlights the social and spatial tensions of staging cities and imagining citizens as consumers of culture.

Taking this spectacle in the making as a departure point, this conference brings new research on technologies of government, carried out in the disciplines of architecture, planning, sociology, geography, and anthropology, together with humanistic studies on the production and consumption of literature, art, and film. The panels focus on
Architectures of Exclusion, Spaces of Nostalgia, the Cinematic City, Art in the City, and Cultures of Spectacle.

Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul:

Istanbul's vibrant music scene comes alive in this exuberant documentary from Fatih Akin, the prizewinning Turkish-German director of Head On and The Edge of Heaven. If you come to a place and want to understand it, listen to the music that is played there, reads a Confucius quote, and so Akin dives headfirst into the sounds of Istanbul to grasp the citys rich cultural and social mix. The proverbial crossroads of two continents, Istanbul straddles Europe and Asia, and from that weave arise countless musical strands, not to mention artistic movements and ethnic identities. Alexander Hacke, bass player for legendary noise band Einstzende Neubauten, plays interviewer for this sonic tour, featuring legendary singers Orhan Gencebay and Sezen Akzu, the rapper Ceza, experimental rockers the Replikas, sixties guitar hero Erkin Koray, Romany performer Selim Sesler, Kurdish singer Aynur, and 1940s radio star Meyyen Senar, who performs with orchestra in several musical bridges.

Most of the events are open to public.

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