Beral madra biography

1942 yılında İstanbul'da doğdu.
Art Critic and Curator, Director of BM Contemporary Art Center.
Beral Madra was born in 1942, on the fourth floor of Nişantaşı's landmark Ralli Apartments, which is currently the Consulate of Syria.

•

Can Artistic Practices Negotiate the Demands of Cultural Institutions, Public Space, and Civil Society?

Cultural institutions in Turkey are divided into those run by the state, local governments and private sectors; each have different culture policies and no significant collaborative policies. Contemporary art productions and practices are based in Istanbul and are dependent on private sector investments, rather than official funds. Compared to the EU culture system, the current relations between the producers (artists, art experts) and consumers (public, collectors) are still sporadic and unsustainable.

Political environments in most of the countries in the MENA are still authoritative and semi-democratic, in which art practices serve as activism or protest against human rights violations and restrictions of freedom of expression, among other things, albeit with limited influence in changing the convictions and attitudes of the public. Visual arts are almost the only channel through which creative people can convey their free and critical thinking to their soci

•

Interview // Beral Madra: ‘Art Making and Curating through the Passage of Post-Truth’

Article by Kimberly Budd in Berlin // Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017

Turkish art critic, writer, and curator Beral Madra presented a recent lecture at nGbK as a part of the gallery’s regular dissertation program, furthering their statement of solidarity with Turkish artists after the exhibition, ’77/13 – Political Art and Resistance in Turkey’ and the event ‘After the Coup’ last year. The talk, titled ‘Art Making and Curating through the Passage of Post-truth’, examined Turkey’s political climate and the slow deterioration of freedom in Istanbul’s contemporary art scene. Madra speaks with grave concern for the future of art making and exhibition in Istanbul, due to the alarming increase in the privatization of galleries, the constant closure and lack of funding for artist-run initiatives and the rampant censorship of exhibition content.

This continuing assault on creative space and freedom of speech within art practice is due to Turkey’s slow

•

ART CONNOISSEUR BERAL MADRA

Pondering Istanbul’s past, we always find something to complain about. What it has become today. Why it so often fails to pleaseits modern residents. And who can blame us? This is a city that has witnessed one of the most large-scale and acute changes in as little as one human lifetime. Beral Madra is a firsthand witness to the social, economic, political and spatial upheavals that Istanbul has undergone in just 80 years. I’m curious to learn more about the nature of her relationship with modern Istanbul.

“People in higher income groups may not realise this, but many of the city’s residents are living in severe poverty. It is a heterogeneous city as much as it is a dystopian one. It is this dystopia that shakes Istanbul to the core. You can see the big picture when you look at the city from the Marmara Sea. Along the shoreline is a city that has withstood time, but above it are skyscrapers that represent a great collision of history and neo-capitalism… Think of it, a city of three million swelling to 20 million in less than five decades