Photo by: Jean-Baptiste Decavèle

Adhocracy Exhibition – Haliç Center Project
Sixty years after French-Hungarian architect Yona Friedman first brought into architectural debate the key concepts of “Mobile Architecture” and “Spatial City”, alongside a series of advanced proposals in the fields of architecture, art, and social studies, his concepts have become realistic proposals for megacities in the wake of globalization.
In this context, Friedman’s first installation for the city of Istanbul, the Haliç Center, inscribes itself in Friedman’s general understanding of mega cities as knots of communication inside continents, beyond 19th century concepts of national identities and boundaries.
The Haliç Center follows an installation developed in Shanghai in 2010, and focuses on the important element of water as a way of communication and connection between the heterogeneous socio-cultural structured districts of Istanbul.
Friedman’s approach is directed towards a question of relations, of space and of continuity within the pre-existing urban fabric. “I believe that the city (or building) is not a ‘finished product’,” he states, “but rather an endless process, with continuous transformations in every moment.” Thus he stresses the importance of the process in architecture and art, which are ultimately nothing more than the direct expression of a capacity to create relations between individuals, embracing the inevitability of constant change. The idea of process becomes explicit in the Haliç Center. This bridge-housing embraces all the relationships of the city, including a mobile population very often composed of migrants — the new citizenship status of those living against the backdrop of globalization that is completely opposite of neoliberal political fantasies nowadays.
Since Friedman’s work is inextricably linked to communication, the Haliç Center has been conceived as a platform where a few artists and architects — Tomás Saraceno, Boğaçhan Dündaralp , Ömer Kanipak, Cevdet Erek and Gabriele Basilico — are invited to dialogue with Friedman’s intervention. These added interventions will be displayed incrementally, in progressive accumulation.
The Haliç Center is on display at the main hall of the Greek School as a special project within Adhocracy and as homage to Yona Friedman, from whose work the exhibition draws inspiration.

The Haliç Center is curated by Maurizio Bortolotti.
Calendar of interventions: 19 October — Tomas Saraceno; 26 October — Boğaçhan Dündaralp ; 3 November — Ömer Kanipak; 10 November — Cevdet Erek; 17 November — Gabriele Basilico.