2007/10/03
Istanbul Bombing, Biennial and Books Books Books
While Burma's situation definitely worth us to see how we should lend our hand, heard from the news that some bombs went off again in Istanbul. Hou Hanru's sense of urgency/emergency is never far away from this city. That's maybe why he said, and I do believe, of all the biennials, Istanbul is the one he most like to curate, at least if I may add, for his present stage of career. Yet enough of that already, allow me to write more on the city.
My impression on Istanbul from my first trip there is quite positive, despite we as tourists ran into some dishonest taxi-drivers, and one friend recieved a forged paper money. I am however particular impressed to see how the new and the old/traditional ways of life could co-exist together, and there are so much tiny, well-worn, family-run shops which has almost completely extincted in HK that touches me.
And there was a roundtable that we attended, in which the local speaker report on the modern / contemporary political development of Turkey, which despite a bit too detailed, at least allow me to grasp the local picture beyond what I could see as merely a tourist. But at the same time, despite I used to think such act (speech/discourse) could help gain more international solidarity, recently, I tend to think as it is still us alone in the end to fight our local battles, so why bother waste this energy?
Via the talk that I listened, I do noticed that Turkish intellectuals are quite "theoretically informed" (as to quote LP's phrase in the Historicty roundtable). Translation into Turkish seems to be functioning alongside well. And from the few bookstores, some amongst are the English bookstores, that I visited along the mainstreet, I already have some very good finds. The one focusing on Arts book was quite good as well.
here in the first photo is a second hand bookshop down in the basement, just in the alley where the bombing happened some years ago, for there was this British embassy? down the street, but heard also that it is the HSBC there that got bombed. (Note there is even a Karl Loewith bk on shelf!)
Besides these modern bookshops (and modern bk cover design, note that one is using a Gerhard Richter's painting), there is also a 2nd hand book bazaar at the old city quarter.
I finally brought two books from these bkshops, one is from the above pandora, that of Scott Lash's Another Modernity, my most wanted book which I could not find anywhere wherever I travelled. The other one is a new discovery, Reflective Authenticity - rethinking the project of modernity (1998) by Alessandro Ferrara, at another academic bkshop near to their Goethe Institut. It was written even before Lash, but already included concepts such as the groundless ground, and raised a few topics of Lash's book, such as Kant's reflective judgment, Simmel's lesson, yet instead of involving the aesthetics, it has a chapter on art interpretation.
My impression on Istanbul from my first trip there is quite positive, despite we as tourists ran into some dishonest taxi-drivers, and one friend recieved a forged paper money. I am however particular impressed to see how the new and the old/traditional ways of life could co-exist together, and there are so much tiny, well-worn, family-run shops which has almost completely extincted in HK that touches me.
And there was a roundtable that we attended, in which the local speaker report on the modern / contemporary political development of Turkey, which despite a bit too detailed, at least allow me to grasp the local picture beyond what I could see as merely a tourist. But at the same time, despite I used to think such act (speech/discourse) could help gain more international solidarity, recently, I tend to think as it is still us alone in the end to fight our local battles, so why bother waste this energy?
Via the talk that I listened, I do noticed that Turkish intellectuals are quite "theoretically informed" (as to quote LP's phrase in the Historicty roundtable). Translation into Turkish seems to be functioning alongside well. And from the few bookstores, some amongst are the English bookstores, that I visited along the mainstreet, I already have some very good finds. The one focusing on Arts book was quite good as well.
here in the first photo is a second hand bookshop down in the basement, just in the alley where the bombing happened some years ago, for there was this British embassy? down the street, but heard also that it is the HSBC there that got bombed. (Note there is even a Karl Loewith bk on shelf!)
Besides these modern bookshops (and modern bk cover design, note that one is using a Gerhard Richter's painting), there is also a 2nd hand book bazaar at the old city quarter.
I finally brought two books from these bkshops, one is from the above pandora, that of Scott Lash's Another Modernity, my most wanted book which I could not find anywhere wherever I travelled. The other one is a new discovery, Reflective Authenticity - rethinking the project of modernity (1998) by Alessandro Ferrara, at another academic bkshop near to their Goethe Institut. It was written even before Lash, but already included concepts such as the groundless ground, and raised a few topics of Lash's book, such as Kant's reflective judgment, Simmel's lesson, yet instead of involving the aesthetics, it has a chapter on art interpretation.
