MTAD will participate in the “Nature / Form / Process” workshop, organized in collaboration with Institut français de Turquie, Arkas Art Center, and Izmir University of Architecture Faculty of Fine Arts and Design under the coordination of Stefano Pugliese and Raul Pinto. The workshop will be held as a pre-event for the exhibition Nature, Gardens, Fantasies / Nature, Jardins, Fantasies that will take place in September 2021 at Arkas Art Center of Alsancak, Izmir. 

Workshop Description:

“The workshop will focus on the observation of natural phenomena as a constant and perpetual source of inspiration, as an obstacle but also as an opportunity for artists and designers to mediate interspecies collaboration. Also as a way to better comprehend and study natural processes in order to contribute to a deeper understanding of our interacting surrounding environment, as an opportunity to rethink existing narratives and lexicon that define natural sciences in particular and our relation with nature in general. In that regard, we believe that any materialization that outcomes from the interaction between the natural and the cultural as is a painting, a bonsai, a vase, a garden or any other form of artistic materialization is a pre-text to question the interdependent relation that between Nature, Form, and Processes.

Outcomes and process of this activity will be showcased in paralel with the main exhibition in September. The wprkshop look to explore biological system manipulation and spontaneous form generation, as medias with new possibilities for design and for the arts in general.

Thoughout the workshops, participants will hvae the possibility to manipulate biological living systems: silkworms, mushroom mycelium and the garden itself. The participants will explore and understand possibilities and process that will allow them to manipulate living agents in order to explore new formal possibilities and manipulation of a biological modus operandi into tangible artifacts.”