Category: Uncategorized

BAS is open to visitors by appointment on Fridays and Saturdays between 1-6 pm. You can schedule your visit by contacting us at [email protected].

DEMELER
1998-1999/2020*

This book, compiled for the 90th birthday of pioneer poet Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, is a collection of 30 variations on her poems, mostly written between 1998 and 1999 using a Remington Rand typewriter.

Deme is an archaic word that was once introduced as a substitute for the word poetry, but it did not catch on, according to word-collection (derleme) dictionaries. It stands for one of the verse types of folk poetry and Sufi poetry, poems sung with the bağlama during cem. Additionally, word-collection dictionaries include other meanings such as word, phrase, subject, ballad, elegy, lament, stuttering (in the Bolvadin dialect), mute and pulse (in the Ermenek dialect). An interjection denoting incredulity or surprise… It also takes such forms as demece and dimece. Philosophers once used the word “deme” for the word “concept” to promote the purification of Turkish language during the Reform period.

Pre-press work:
Banu Cennetoğlu
Aslı Özdoyuran
Marina Papazyan

Translation: Başak Altın
Graphic Design: Sinan Kılıç, ALEF Editorial Design
Publisher: BAS-İstanbul Sanat Araştırmaları Derneği
Printed with the support of Ayşe Umur.
Printing & Binding: Ofset Filmcilik ve Matbaacılık Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ

*Written on a Remington Rand typewriter.
© Ege Berensel, Winter 2023
ISBN 978-605-72188-0-3

Photos: Atalay Yeni

Book Launch: Mochu, “Nervous Fossils: Syndromes of the Synthetic Nether”

Reading & conversation: Mochu & Emre Hüner
Thursday, December 22, 6pm
BAS

BAS will host the Istanbul launch of “Nervous Fossils: Syndromes of the Synthetic Nether,” written by Mochu and co-published by Reliable Copy and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in 2022. The event will start with Mochu reading a section from the book, and continue with a conversation with Emre Hüner.

The event will be held in English and registration is not required to participate. The talk will be recorded in audio.

All of nature wild and free 
This is where I long to be 
/// 
Tüm doğa vahşi ve özgür 
Olmayı özlediğim yer burası

Ünal Bostancı 
10.12.2021-12.02.2022

Exhibition Opening 
Friday, December 10 
13.00–19.00

BAS 
Necati Bey Caddesi No:32/2 
Karaköy İstanbul

Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 13.00–19.00 or by appointment

HA’LAR
1990-2000 / 2020

60 process poems, written in the period from 1990 to 2000, all but a few of which were typed on Oliver Courier and Remington Rand typewriters, which constantly reference the tradition of concrete poetry and are made up of variations of processed poems by pioneering poets like Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Claus Bremer, Yüksel Pazarkaya and Ernst Jandl.

Ha… In Turkish, this word is an interjection that has multiple meanings and may express astonishment, warning, endeavour, affirmation or inquiry… Then, there is also the ‘ha’ in the word ‘hayır’… Hayır, in fact, stems from the Arabic word xayr (hay’r), meaning goodness, or better, hayır was used in 17^th century Ottoman along with the negatory word yok [absent] as a euphemism, a rhetorical device, in the form, ‘yok hayır‘ or ‘yo hayır‘… to mean, ‘my answer is negative, may the best come of this’… In time, ‘yo‘, or ‘yok‘ were dropped and ‘hayır‘ remained… ha’yır also means ‘ha poetry’… ‘yır‘ meaning poetry or eloquent expression in old Turkish… Besides, there is Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca’s book of poems ‘Hoo’lar’ -the plural of Hoo-, reminiscent of ha’lar, the plural of ha… Ha is ah written backwards, too…

You can obtain a copy of ha’lar from BAS (located in Karaköy, Istanbul), by contacting us at [email protected], from Robinson Crusoe 389 or by filling out the form on Manifold’s website.

Summer 2021
Graphic design: Amir Jamshidi Studio Pul 
Publisher: BAS – İstanbul Sanat Araştırmaları Derneği      
Printing: Ofset Filmcilik ve Matbaacılık Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ
Pages: 232
Size: 16×23 cm
Edition: 500
ISBN: 978-9944-5030-8-2

Photos: Eli Bensusan

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We are currently working on the BAS Artists’ Book Collection. 🖨️

Initiated by Banu Cennetoğlu in 2006, BAS is an artist(s)-run non profit space in Istanbul, dedicated to the collection, exhibition, production and distribution of artists’ publications and printed matter. The BAS collection consists of +1,000 artist’s books, periodicals, and other printed matter by artists and artist collectives. Following Yasemin Nur and Seçil Yersel’s collaborative presence between 2016-2019, BAS is currently run by Aslı Özdoyuran and Marina Papazyan.

BAS is now open to visitors by appointment on Fridays and Saturdays between 1-6 pm. You can schedule your visit by contacting us at [email protected].