Subjects that don’t count. Places that are not important. 5 Artistic Approaches

This collection of essays titled: “Public Istanbul. Spaces and Spheres of the Urban” seeks to offer insights into the “multi-dimensionality of urban public space in Istanbul” (p. 9). It is the outcome of a conference that took place in Bauhaus Weimar University in January 2007 which saw a coming together of Turkish and German scientists from diverse disciplines ranging from history and ethnography to architecture and urban planning. Editors Franck Eckardt and Kathrin Wildner attempt to “initiate an interdisciplinary discussion with theoretical approaches and case studies on Istanbul.” (p. 8). The project is based on two assumptions: the scarcity of research on the urban transformations taking place in Istanbul, and the new significance of what is named “public spaces” in the megacity at the Bosphorus. Franck Eckardt and Kathrin Wildner maintain that in the last two decades, globalization and the exponential demographic and geographical growth of Istanbul “has resulted in the establishment of new patterns in cross border public encounters.”