Streetartistanbul is having an Instagram Archive

We cannot really say that street art is appreciated in Turkey, but lately Grizine, an online platform, contributes and supports street art in Istanbul by documenting the works, creating an archive with the Instagram application and launching a street art festival.

Grizine is an online platform, which operates since November 2009. It aims at extending itself with the curious and culture & art oriented users’ contributions. They manifest themselves to be instant, not periodic. Street art is one of the authentic contents on the website, also with the interesting visuals found by Grizine collective or uploaded by the users.

The team has found various graffitis in an unusual space: As an Istanbul classic, Hagia Sophia is a must-see architectural beauty and a politically important monument both for Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Once a church, later a mosque, and now a museum, Hagia Sophia has always been the precious. UNESCO chose Hagia Sophia as a world heritage site in 1985.

As the great imperials want to leave their signature on architecture, people visiting Hagia Sofia wanted the same, to be immortal or to be realized with their writings and signatures: ‘A Scandinavian name, Halvdan was carved in 9^th century’, ‘Tek yol İslam’ (The only way Islam), ‘Cemal 21.2.1998 Eskişehir’ (A Turkish name and city).

Serdar Paktin, Grizine writer, underlines that street art is a socio-cultural communication system, which was once seen on the Berlin Wall, or now has appeared on another wall between Israel and Palestine. He says ‘wherever you see the conflicts, chaos, transitions there you see a common and dominating street art culture. It was Pompeii and Ephesus in Antiquity and lately it is Berlin, New York, Palestine, Dubai, Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona and Istanbul.’ People shared their irrepressible thoughts and emotions on where they live and experience daily life: the streets. No matter if the authorities call it art or vandalism, street art is a democratic way of sharing.

Now, with Grizine’s Instagram hashtag, #StreetArtistanbul is having a great archive online and you can explore and contribute while creating your own street art album.

 

CREDITS

http://www.grizine.com/streetartistanbul/photos/

http://www.grizine.com