torna is a project space for contemporary art, a book maker-publisher and a small online bookshop for artists' publications – among other things – since 2011.
–– We've always been interested in spaces: whether they be a room, a house or a page. The projects that happen at torna rely on the limitations of these spaces. We are not interested in the white-cube-gallery-space methods and we hugely value DIY support systems and forms of collaborations created between artists. We are especially interested in artists who use writing and printed matter as part of their practice.
torna(is not in
Istanbul)
Artists
working
with text
and publishing
This is what it was like before: 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, 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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