Forecast Condensed Istanbul:
Open Call
October 21 – October 31, 2024
A slide from Nezih Eldem’s lecture titled “Spatial Organization”
Salt Research, Nezih Eldem Archive
Salt Research, Nezih Eldem Archive
Salt is collaborating with Forecast, a Berlin-based international platform that supports, mentors, and promotes trailblazing creative practices.
As part of this collaboration, the workshop and presentation program Forecast Condensed offers researchers and artistic practitioners from various disciplines the opportunity to develop their ongoing projects related to planetary well-being and enhance their applicability with insight and feedback from mentors.
Applicants are invited to submit projects they are already working on. Submissions from diverse disciplines and mediums that explore social and ecological regeneration and the resilience of natural systems are welcome. Projects challenging existing conceptual frameworks that fall short in addressing current environmental and societal crises are particularly encouraged.
The open call runs until October 31, with selections announced on November 7. Ten projects will be selected to participate in the workshop and presentation program, where participants will engage with questions around planetary well-being, together with a panel of mentors comprising Freo Majer, Aslıhan Demirtaş, Başak Ürkmez, and Deniz Ova.
Submit the proposal here.
Application Deadline:
Thursday, October 31, 18.00 (TRT)
Workshop and Presentations:
Thursday, November 14, 10.00-19.00
Salt Beyoğlu, Walk-in Cinema
This free-admission program is open to all.
Freo Majer is the founder and artistic director of Forecast. Trained as an opera director, Majer has worked as a director and producer in European theaters, opera houses, and festivals, including Mainz State Theater, Lucerne Theater, Bremen Theater, and the international festival Theater der Welt. Recognizing a gap in support structures for cultural work, he founded Forecast Platform in 2015 and initiated the interdisciplinary research project Housing the Human (2017-2019) with curators and festival directors from various European cities. In 2020, Majer began a three-year collaboration with the ZKM and HfG in Karlsruhe and the National Academy of Science and Engineering in Munich, developing prototypes for the eco-social research program Driving the Human.
Aslıhan Demirtaş founded KHORA Office, an expanded architectural practice based on research, art, and ecology, established in New York and is now based in Istanbul. Her practice is situated at the intersection of various disciplines engaged in making and questioning, formally manifested as buildings, gardens, installations, research, and design studios. She holds an undergraduate degree from Middle East Technical University and a graduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before establishing her practice, she worked for Pritzker Laureate I.M. Pei as the lead designer for the Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, Qatar, and the Miho Chapel in Japan. She is a Graham Foundation Grant recipient for her book Graft, to be published by Salt, which explores the relationship between modernity and nature through hydraulic infrastructures. In 2022, Demirtaş served as a technical reviewer for the 15th Aga Khan Award for Architecture. She is an active member of the Initiative for the Protection of the Historical Yedikule Urban Gardens and a founding member of Anatopia Coop.
Başak Ürkmez completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in the Department of Animation at Anadolu University, where he served as a lecturer from 2002 to 2004. He earned his doctorate from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2011. He has led several educational projects on animation in Turkey, England, Peru, and Cuba. In 2011 and 2012, he received the Exhibition Design Award from the Association of Graphic Designers in Turkey (GMK). He has been a committee member of “Grafist: Istanbul Graphic Design Days” since 2004. He was also among the founding members of a research center within Mimar Sinan University, where he was involved in archiving over 3,000 posters and animation materials. Ürkmez contributed to Animation in the Middle East: Practice and Aesthetics from Baghdad to Casablanca, published by I.B. Tauris in 2017. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Graphic Design at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, where he has been the Head of the Department of Animation since 2021.
Deniz Ova has been the Executive Director of Salt since 2022. Between 2013 and 2022, she was the Director of the Istanbul Design Biennial at the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV). She previously served as the project leader (2007-2010) and director (2010-2013) of the International Projects department at İKSV, where she developed and organized festivals and events in various European cities. She has also coordinated the Pavilion of Turkey at the International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, the artist residency studio “Turquie” at Cité Internationale des Arts, and the participation of Türkiye in the London Design Biennial in 2016. From 2014 to 2022, she was an advisor to the Pavilion of Turkey at the International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Ova has been a guest lecturer on event management at Istanbul Kültür University and Yeditepe University. She teaches art and design culture in the Department of Graphic Design at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.
Forecast runs a mentoring program geared towards projects whose social ambition and innovative potential stretch beyond their immediate scope. The organization has initiated collaborative projects with multiple institutional partners, such as Driving the Human (2020-2023) and Housing the Human (2018-2019), supporting sustainable knowledge exchange across disciplines to promote open discussions.
As part of this collaboration, the workshop and presentation program Forecast Condensed offers researchers and artistic practitioners from various disciplines the opportunity to develop their ongoing projects related to planetary well-being and enhance their applicability with insight and feedback from mentors.
Applicants are invited to submit projects they are already working on. Submissions from diverse disciplines and mediums that explore social and ecological regeneration and the resilience of natural systems are welcome. Projects challenging existing conceptual frameworks that fall short in addressing current environmental and societal crises are particularly encouraged.
The open call runs until October 31, with selections announced on November 7. Ten projects will be selected to participate in the workshop and presentation program, where participants will engage with questions around planetary well-being, together with a panel of mentors comprising Freo Majer, Aslıhan Demirtaş, Başak Ürkmez, and Deniz Ova.
Submit the proposal here.
Application Deadline:
Thursday, October 31, 18.00 (TRT)
Workshop and Presentations:
Thursday, November 14, 10.00-19.00
Salt Beyoğlu, Walk-in Cinema
This free-admission program is open to all.
Freo Majer is the founder and artistic director of Forecast. Trained as an opera director, Majer has worked as a director and producer in European theaters, opera houses, and festivals, including Mainz State Theater, Lucerne Theater, Bremen Theater, and the international festival Theater der Welt. Recognizing a gap in support structures for cultural work, he founded Forecast Platform in 2015 and initiated the interdisciplinary research project Housing the Human (2017-2019) with curators and festival directors from various European cities. In 2020, Majer began a three-year collaboration with the ZKM and HfG in Karlsruhe and the National Academy of Science and Engineering in Munich, developing prototypes for the eco-social research program Driving the Human.
Aslıhan Demirtaş founded KHORA Office, an expanded architectural practice based on research, art, and ecology, established in New York and is now based in Istanbul. Her practice is situated at the intersection of various disciplines engaged in making and questioning, formally manifested as buildings, gardens, installations, research, and design studios. She holds an undergraduate degree from Middle East Technical University and a graduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before establishing her practice, she worked for Pritzker Laureate I.M. Pei as the lead designer for the Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, Qatar, and the Miho Chapel in Japan. She is a Graham Foundation Grant recipient for her book Graft, to be published by Salt, which explores the relationship between modernity and nature through hydraulic infrastructures. In 2022, Demirtaş served as a technical reviewer for the 15th Aga Khan Award for Architecture. She is an active member of the Initiative for the Protection of the Historical Yedikule Urban Gardens and a founding member of Anatopia Coop.
Başak Ürkmez completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in the Department of Animation at Anadolu University, where he served as a lecturer from 2002 to 2004. He earned his doctorate from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2011. He has led several educational projects on animation in Turkey, England, Peru, and Cuba. In 2011 and 2012, he received the Exhibition Design Award from the Association of Graphic Designers in Turkey (GMK). He has been a committee member of “Grafist: Istanbul Graphic Design Days” since 2004. He was also among the founding members of a research center within Mimar Sinan University, where he was involved in archiving over 3,000 posters and animation materials. Ürkmez contributed to Animation in the Middle East: Practice and Aesthetics from Baghdad to Casablanca, published by I.B. Tauris in 2017. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Graphic Design at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, where he has been the Head of the Department of Animation since 2021.
Deniz Ova has been the Executive Director of Salt since 2022. Between 2013 and 2022, she was the Director of the Istanbul Design Biennial at the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV). She previously served as the project leader (2007-2010) and director (2010-2013) of the International Projects department at İKSV, where she developed and organized festivals and events in various European cities. She has also coordinated the Pavilion of Turkey at the International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, the artist residency studio “Turquie” at Cité Internationale des Arts, and the participation of Türkiye in the London Design Biennial in 2016. From 2014 to 2022, she was an advisor to the Pavilion of Turkey at the International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Ova has been a guest lecturer on event management at Istanbul Kültür University and Yeditepe University. She teaches art and design culture in the Department of Graphic Design at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.
Forecast runs a mentoring program geared towards projects whose social ambition and innovative potential stretch beyond their immediate scope. The organization has initiated collaborative projects with multiple institutional partners, such as Driving the Human (2020-2023) and Housing the Human (2018-2019), supporting sustainable knowledge exchange across disciplines to promote open discussions.
With the accommodation support of Goethe-Institut Istanbul
