Hafriyat Karaköy

Hafriyat

Hafriyat is a common platform and field of thought formed by a group of artists who have been organizing exhibitions for 10 years. It is also an effort to slip free from the tight membrane of the rigid, sterile, conservative commercial and academic art environment of the art dealer, artist, collector and viewer. Hafriyat turns its gaze to and empathizes with the discarded, the rejected, the abandoned of everyday life which has become irrelevant because it is seen everyday or because it has genuinely been othered. Hafriyat describes this gaze as a look at the street and subculture. Hafriyat has also developed the concept of the ecology of the image, based on definitions such as 'the urban gaze' and 'becoming an urban dweller'. Hafriyat is not a scientist; however it has always, from the beginning, assumed the sensitivity of a sociologist.

The Hafriyat environment has not generated a hierarchical power structure among its members; opinions have always been openly expressed and discussed. With its limited means, Hafriyat has created a censor-free environment where thoughts left on the margins have found a platform of expression, where works accumulating in heaps in studio corners have been brought out to be exhibited and where the content of expression has been the priority theme.

The first opening anniversary of  Hafriyat Karaköy was 1st of May 2007.

Since Hafriyat has a venue, it works as an off-space that hosts the alternative visibilities  for new artists and groups especially in sinister topics. It also runs as an  independent artist initiative, provides a communication and a place for minority vocals which locates out of art center in the city.

Hafriyat has realized 15 group exhibitions including one exhibition abroad, has published texts to accompany these exhibitions, has taken part in talks and panels on the exhibitions and the experience of being an independent artist initiative in general, for a year published illustrations in Birgün newspaper and has also published 2 books.

Hafriyat Artists

Antonio Cosentino//Mustafa Pancar//Murat Akagündüz//Tan Cemal Genç//İnci Furni//Neriman Polat//Fulya çetin//Banu Birecikligil//Extramücadele