Art Facts

SALT Beyoğlu

Art Facts is an artist project measuring the institutional performance of SALT. The research project is conducted by artist Burak Delier within the framework of “One day, everything will be free…”

Appropriating research techniques developed according to a contemporary managerial logic, the project begins with an institutional survey realized through on-site interviews. Attempting to situate SALT within its economic, social, and political coordinates, the questions asked to the participants at SALT Beyoğlu are simple, yet difficult to answer: Why is SALT free even though it is a private institution? Why have the bank, which is a representative of pure economic rationale, and art, which has dared not to claim responsibility in so many recent art historical incidents become tools for “social responsibility” projects? What is the effect of SALT on our lives and thoughts? Is SALT able to achieve its goals and if so, to what extent?

The intention is to take this specific place and open it up, in another way, to its audiences for debate. Pollsters will be gathering input and distributing surveys to participants in the exhibition galleries of SALT Beyoğlu between April 27 and May 7.

Burak Delier is an artist living in İstanbul. In Collector’s Wish (2012), he realized an art work conceived by the collector Saruhan Doğan. At the 2010 Taipei Biennial, Delier presented the workings of the Biennial institution and the critical potential of art by surveying the Biennial staff–from the decision-makers to the interns. Delier finished his MA in the Art and Design Department at Yıldız Teknik University and continues to pursue a PhD in art practice at the same institution.