Evren Yıldırım

Permaculture Designer, Educator and Producer

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Evren is one of the partners of İyiEkim. She studied soil microbiology, applied horticulture,  biointensive gardening and seed saving, participated in Greening the Desert Internship in Jordan and Growing Nutrient Dense Food Internship at Koanga Institute, New Zealand. She has a Permaculture Design Teacher’s Training Certificate and is an instructor at Permaculture Design Institute of Turkey and Ecodemia, UK. Her other passion is feature films and she has been working as a production manager and producer in Fikirtepe Film Company since 2017.

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Burcu Arıkan

Permaculture Designer, Urban Farmer, Edible Mushroom Grower, Educator

 

Burcu is an urban farming entrepreneur and founder of İyiEkim. In 2017, she started with indoor gardening kits to grow gourmet mushrooms and edible wild plants at homes. Currently, İyiEkim creates solutions for access to fair and nutritious food in the city through education, building green spaces and facilitator kits to encourage food production. She worked as an urban farmer at city farms of İstanbul for 3 years. She has a Permaculture Design Certificate and participated in Greening the Desert Internship in Jordan. Burcu holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Istanbul University and Bachelor of Arts degree in advertising from the University of Texas, Austin.

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Elmas Deniz

Visual Artist 

 

Born in 1981 in Bergama, Turkey, Deniz lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey. Deniz’s concept-driven works investigate the intersections and points of entanglement between economics and nature. She focuses on the human-nature relationship, the idea of nature throughout history, and ecological concerns. The central concepts in her practice are the capitalism-led deterioration of nature, and our perception of it, as well as the related consumerist culture. She questions how the economic system continuously reshapes our perception through subtle but consistent manipulations. She sheds light on the illusional distribution of value; she is interested in loss, extinctions, and geo-history. She consults a wide range of media, including installation, sculpture, video, drawing, and writings.

http://www.elmasdeniz.com/

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Gonca Gümüşayak

Choreographer & Contemporary dance & Yoga instructor

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Gonca is a contemporary dance artist from Turkey. She graduated from Middle East Technical University (METU), Sociology (BS) (2005), and Artez Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, (BA) (2008) Dance Maker/ Choreography department, Holland. She finalized her (MPA) masters thesis “Liquid Politics” performance about relationship of social movements and performance at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University 2016. Since 2002 she has been making contemporary dance pieces: “Home-logue”, “Hayali Sureti”, “Liquid Politics”, “Silent Scream” has been shown in Holland, Belgium, Spain, Greece. In 2010-2011 she worked with Meg Stuart & Damaged Goods Dance Company in Belgium. Since 2015 she has been making dance-films. Her dance-film “Rebirth”, shot in Poland Grotowski Institute, won the best performer prize in Sinema Dans Ankara in 2016 and the Brussels dance film festival. She graduated with a Master of Arts in Theatre, in Physical Theatre specialization from Accademia Teatro Dimitri, Verscio, in Switzerland in 2019. She works as an Instructor of Movement courses for Theatre students in Universities. She sees life as a holistic oneness, lives life as art and healing opportunity. Combines social concerns, issues into artistic fields and looks for solutions through art of movement. Organizes special training workshops for women, adults, youth and children. She is the founder of Gumusayak Dance and Yoga and founding member of “Space for Nature” organisation.

www.gumusayak.com | www.spacefornature.org | www.goncagumusayak.com


 

Dilek Mengüç

Lamour, Sophrologist, Pédagogue

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Dilek is a sophrologist living in France for 7 years. She graduated from the department of Political Science and International Relations at Bogaziçi University (BA) (2014). She got her master degree in Social Anthropology and Ethnology at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales ( 2017). It has been 7 years now that she works on herself with a phenomenological therapeutic approach “ Approche Accès » which was created in Canada. She became acquainted with sophrology during her pregnancy.  Experiencing this method made her decide to become a sophrologist. After two years of education at Ecole Supérieure de Sophrologie Appliquée, she became a sophrologist (2021). With the birth of her daughter, Dilek got several pedagogical education: Formation to become Waldorf Teacher at Institut de Rudolf Steiner (2020), Faber& Mazlish (Communication between adults and children) Formation to organize Faber & Mazlish sessions for parents. It has been 2 years now, she organizes several ateliers by using the pedagogical tools. She continues to paint and write the tales for youth as an amateur with passion.

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Sena Rüya Günergin

Harvard Kennedy School of Government Teaching Fellow

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Rüya graduated from Harvard College department of Social Studies with high honors (2018). Her dissertation was on teachers’ professional identities in Turkey and teacher training programs. Upon graduation, she worked in Boston at an education technology company called TAL as a Senior Learning Designer. Meanwhile, she has completed 3 training modules in Group Relations INternational conferences (2019-2020). She performed in improvisational theatre and contemporary dance pieces in Boston. A year later she returned to Harvard and began her master’s degree at Harvard Graduate School of Education (2021). She completed courses on radical pedagogy, movement and body awareness in education, storytelling and group psychology. This year she teaches online at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government on storytelling and leadership. She continues to travel the world during this time as well as to dance.

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Nil İlkbaşaran

Visual Artist

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Nil İlkbaşaran works as a researcher, artist and producer in the field of participatory art. She carries out social projects to contribute to forming civic awareness and engagement in cultural and natural values. For the Love of Bee! Ecological Awareness and Art Workshops Arı Aşkına!, presenting narratives on Nature Bee Human reciprocity, is a collective work she undertakes with her partners in different provinces of Turkey since 2017. Collaborations include Mimar Sinan Fine Arts Academy, Marmara Univ. Fine Arts Department, Darussafaka Schools, Sinopale International Art Biennial, EAP European Academy of Participation, Apimondia, Learning From the Bees Conference, ARTSMAP Connections. Nil has lived and worked in the Netherlands 1997-2017. She received her MA in Art Praxis at the Dutch Art Institute (2016) and BA in Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (2013) and in the Netherlands. Prior to her art practice, she completed Kingston University, London PG in Marketing ve Istanbul Bosphorus University Tourism and Hotel Management program and held various management positions in international businesses.

She continues her research on ecological agriculture, natural beekeeping, vermiculture and cyclical lifestyles in the setting she founded with her partner in Muğla, Bağlıağaç Village.

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www.nililkbasaran.com | www.ariaskina.org

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Güngör Erdem

Project Manager

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Güngör Erdem employs ecological art in a way that combines a lifestyle close to nature and creativity. He has been active in the organisation and the production of art events and exhibitions since 2006 within the scope of Sinopale, the International Sinop Biennial. He is the co-creator and co-producer of For the Love of Bee! project, starting 2016.

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www.ariaskina.org

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Erkan Ozgen

Artist Art Educator

 

Born in 1971 in Mardin, the artist who continues to live and create in Diyarbakir, works on video-based montage and participates in local and international exhibitions. In 2003 he curated the exhibition called “Eye Contact” in Diyarbakir Art Center. In 2005, Ozgen joined the International Artist Studio Program in Rooseum Contemporary Art Center in Malmo, Sweden. During the same year, he was awarded “Prix Meuly” in Kunstmuseum Thun in Switzerland. In 2008 he attended the Can Haven exchange program in the Center of Creation and Contemporary Thought in Mataro, Barcelona. In 2016 Ozgen attended the residency program PM / HIAP Safe Haven Helsinki in Suomenlinna. He was awarded the “Polarized! Vision is War/Peace” with his film “Wonderland.” From 2016 to 2017 he was the curator of the collection, “In-Between Worlds” in the name of Luciano Benetton for İmago Mundi Kurdish Contemporary Artists.

https://loadingartspace.org/

 

Özenç Kabasakal

Educator

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In 2012 she graduated from university as a classroom teacher and started volunteering at Another School is Possible Association (BBOM). Immediately after she participated in the founding process of Happy Goat, the first BBOM school that realized that inclusive and peaceful learning model. For four years she worked with different responsibilities such as classroom circles, collective decision making and conflict resolution methods in Happy Goat and other BBOM schools. During this period, she took classes on nonviolent communication, children’s rights, deep democracy, restorative circles, mediation and sociocracy. During 2017-2018 she completed the Nonviolent Communication Foundational Training Program. In 2017 she worked for two years in a village school in Diyarbakir as a classroom teacher and deepened her practices. 

For the past two years she has been working with teachers on inclusive and peaceful learning spaces through the project “For children, first teachers” in Koycegiz and preparing publications. She envisions a peaceful life with herself, children and the earth in peace greatly enjoys working towards this vision.

 

https://cocuklabaris.blogspot.com/p/biz-kimiz.html 

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Ezgi Bakçay

Art Theorist

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Ezgi Bakçay, born in Istanbul in 1980, completed her Bachelor’s education at Galatasaray University Communication School, Cinema and Television Department. She did her Master’s Degree in Marmara University Fine Arts School, Sculpture Department. She was a researcher at Le Centre européen de sociologie et de science politique de la Sorbonne,  l'Université Paris-Panthéon-Sorbonne, CNRS, EHESS (2011-2012). She completed her Doctoral thesis at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in the Sociology department in 2019 on aesthetic political movement. Since 2006 she has been working as a lecturer in Marmara University FIne Arts School, offering classes on “Art Theories” “Methods of Analysis of Art Piece” "Visual Culture.” She has been organizing seminars, workshops and exhibitions in various culture and art institutions. She continues her creations on the topics of public space, image, memory, culture, aesthetics and politics. 

http://www.karsi.com/ekip 

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Fatoş İrwen

Visual Artist

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Kurdish, feminist, contemporary artist. She is a graduate of Dicle University School of Education where she completed her master’s in Painting. In her artistic work, she inquires into topics such as gender, body politics, justice, ecology, religion, power dynamics and the psychological effects of these topics. Her performance based work mostly focuses on the effects of lived experiences on memory, subconscious, dreams, as well as the relationship between space and body. Besides performance, she creates artwork in the painting, video installation fields. She has attended several group exhibitions in İran, Germany, Austria, Hong Kong, France, and Sweden. In 2021 her personal exhibition titled Outside of Regular Time in Depo took place simultaneously with Contrarian Art. The artist has stayed in the Diyarbakir Prison as a political prisoner between the years 2017 – 2020. She continues her life and work in İstanbul and Diyarbakır.

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Zeynep Sayın

Art Theorist

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Born in 1961 in İstanbul, linguist, art theorist, lecturer. She studied linguistics, art history and philosophy in İstanbul, Salzburg and Vienna. She worked in several universities in İstanbul, in Mardin Artuklu University School of Architecture and in Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. Over the past years, she’s been teaching at Leipzig’de Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (honorary professor) and Linz Art University. She has published books named, Mithat Şen ve Bedenyazısı (Kaknüs, 1999), Noli me tangere (Kaknüs, 2000), İmgenin Pornografisi (Metis, 2003) ve Kötülük Cemaatleri (Tekhne, 2016).

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Gözde İlkin

Artist

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Gözde İlkin (1981, Kütahya) completed her bachelor’s degree in 2004 at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Painting Department, and in 2012 Marmara University Fine Arts School Painting Department her masters degree. She studies and works on the theme of social identity with home fabrics that are memory items that represent processes such as tablecloth, curtains, bed sheets etc. She uses these fabrics as a space to stage the motifs and images that she creates. The motifs and illustrations on the fabrics represent contemporary cultural knowledge, political and social relationships and gender issues. Ilkin, traces natural elements in order to discover the feeling of belonging in different forms. She follows the healing and transformative effects of plants, animals and humans in her forms that are inspired by nature.

 

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Gülsun Kanat

Volunteer and Worker at Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation

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She has been a part of the women’s movement since her years in university. After completing her studies at Dokuz Eylül University Manisa Finance Department, she lived in London between the years 1991-2001. She worked with disabled and able-bodied children in several play spaces upon completing her Playwork training. Later on as her daughter grew she took Social Service training and in 2001 returned to her family in Turkey. From the spring of 2002 to 2013 she has fully experienced the solidarity of women who have experienced violence in the collective which serves as the decision making mechanism of Purple Roof. In the Foundation she has lovingly taken on several responsibilities and worked on running “Volunteer Workshops” shelter workshops, books and brochures. She has also participated in many political struggles and campaigns such as the one developed regarding the insufficiencies of civil code change, the spread of the knowledge on law number 4320, as well as the developing of the law numbered 6284. Later on she once again went abroad and participated in the management of the IMECE Foundation that has been offering support to Turkish and Kurdish-speaking women for 35 years in London. She decided to return to Turkey in February 2018 and following a four-year separation process continues to serve as a paid volunteer in 2018 June at Purple Roof Solidarity center.

 

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Leyla Soydinç

Senior Psychologist, Volunteer at Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation

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She graduated from Yeditepe University, department of psychology. She worked as a psychologist at Ataşehir Municipality social service units and shelter. Later, she ran the program on Gender in Toplum Gönüllüleri Vakfı. She completed her masters degree in Kocaeli university in Mental Trauma and İstanbul University Women's Studies department. She continues her work at the Purple Roof foundation which she came to kow as a student after becoming a volunteer work with women on mental support and feminist policies. She teaches part-time at Yeditepe University.

 

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Selime Büyükgöze

Lecturer, Volunteer at Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation

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Selime Büyükgöze (1984, İstanbul) earned her master’s degree at İstanbul Bilgi University on Cultural Studies and her doctorate degree in communication Sciences program. In her doctorate thesis she studied the stylistic expressions of memory in Turkish Cinema. She works as a doctoral lecturer at İstanbul Ayvansaray University in the New Media and Communications Department. Since 2011 she has been a volunteer at Purple Roof Foundation. She worked on policies with the İstanbul Feminist Colelctive and various other feminist partnerships, worked on campaigns like Abortion is a Right, The Choice is Women’s, We Rebel Against Femicides. She participated in reports like Women Own Their Lives. Since its founding she has participated in the Cracked Ground (Çatlak Zemin) website.