torna

Inside a dark arcade. Sounds of men who are in the coffeehouse next door. Men spend all day everyday playing backgammon, smoking cheap cigarettes, drinking tea and watching football games and horse races. When excited, they shout, stand up, throw their cigarettes before them and stand still looking at the screen. The stray cats seem to have adopted the whole building as their home they never know how to look after. The caretaker walks slowly with bags in his hands, he either lies all the time or wants to or has too many things to say at once. 'We try to stay alive' he says when asked how he is. There is a constantly blinking sign of the electrician's, hung outside the entrance. The tea boy has a new tattoo he needs to put cream on every other hour. The winding stairs stop just by the entrance where a man is sat everyday at 4pm putting powder on his toes.

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torna is a project space for contemporary art and a bookshop. The projects that happen in torna rely on the limitations of working within/alongside another running production space. torna encourages the possibilities of exhibiting in a non white cube gallery space and was founded by Merve Kaptan in 2011.

Between 2011-2018 torna was based in Kadıköy, İstanbul. The space consisted of 3 neighbouring rooms inside an arcade.

Currently torna is concentrating on online and off-site projects and collaborations and does not work on location in Istanbul.
You can find most of the torna books on our online bookshop.

torna is also the Istanbul home to folio magazine.

Torna means lathe in Turkish.

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Email: merve@tornaistanbul.com

Mailing list: Send an email to merve@tornaistanbul.com with 'Mailing List' written on the subject bar.

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Artists / Collectives worked with/at torna

Emnyu (Emin Yüksel)
Shannon May Powell
Kiah Reading
Pamela Arce
Jess Gough
İrem Günaydın
Bérénice Béguerie
Robert Bidder
Laurianne Bixhain
Caitlin Franzmann
Good Press
Francesca Banchelli
Emiliano Zelada
Molly Palmer
Timothée Huguet
Charlie Coffey
Merve Kaptan
dial zero
Banner Repeater

Studio Assistants
Laura Truxa
Begüm Akın

Publishers

A
Afterall (UK)
Akaaka Art Publishing (JP)
Antler Press (UK)

B
Bandrolsüz (TR)
Bakkal Press (TR)
Bronze Age Editions (UK)
Book Works (UK)

C
Cafe Royal Books (UK)
Cannon (UK/DE)
Cataract Press (UK)
Counter Print (UK)
Critical Writing Collective (UK)
Cura (IT)

D
Dent De Leone (UK)
Doubleday & Cartwright (USA)
Dublicate Editions (UK)

E
E.r.o.s
Emin Yüksel (TR)

F
folio (UK/TR)
FiveHundred Places (DE)
Fukt (DE)

G
Gratuitous Type (USA)
Good Press (UK)

H
Hato Press (UK)

I
Infinite Greyscale (DE)
Innen (CH)

J
Jessica Susan Higgins (UK)

K
Karma (USA)
Kunsthal Charlottenborg (DK)

L
The Last Books (NL)
LemonMelon (UK)

M
Motto (DE/CH)
mono.kultur (DE)
Mousse Publishing (IT)
Museums Press (UK)

N
No Zine (UK)
New Documents (USA/CAN)
Nieves (CH)

O
Onagöre (TR)
Onomatopee (NL)
OWT Creative (UK)
Open Editions (UK)
Of The Afternoon (UK)

P
Popup Press (CH)
Public School Editions (ISR)
Printed Matter (USA)
Preston Is My Paris (UK)

R
Raster (PL)
Reccollective (TR)
Romka (DE)
Robert Bidder (UK)
RVB Books (FR)

S
Seda Yıldız (TR)
Sleeperhold Publications (BE)
Slo-Mo Books (UK)
San Rocco (IT)
Studio-X Istanbul (TR)
Subbacultcha (NL)
Subway Magazine (NL)
Semiotext(e) (USA)

T
Too Many Books (TR)
The Mays (UK)
The White Review (UK)
torna.books (TR)

V
Visual Editions (UK)

W
Wiels (BE)

Y
Yet magazine (IT/CH) YYY Zine