The 13th Istanbul Biennial: "Mom, Am I A Barbarian?"                                                                                                          Antrepo No. 3  

"A Drawing Series of Christoph Schaefer"

Christoph Schaefer

Born in 1964 in Essen, Germany; meanwhile living in Hamburg - is a conseptual artist, draughtsman, uninvited city planner who explores collective desires for reshaping urban life by combining theory, activism and artistic production. He works from within social movements. He is a member of 'Park Fiction'.

But... What is 'Park Fiction'?

Park Fiction is an independently organized initiative, which began in 1994. It emerged as a planning project for a public park in response to the redevelopment of the harbour area in St. Pauli, Hamburg.

Schaefer developed playfool tools to create platforms of exchange and coproduction in the community, which helped residents imagine a park as if it existed. In the end, they succeeded - the city recognized the space as a park which was opened in 2005: 'Park Fiction St. Pauli'.

After the Gezi Protests in Turkey, the park was renamed into 'Gezi Park St. Pauli'. This renaming was the starting point of Schaefer's drawing series that he is showing us in the 13th Istanbul Biennial.

Christoph Schaefer's Drawing Series

The starting point of Schaefer's drawing series was a photo taken by filmmaker Margit Czenki, showing a group of people celebrating the renaming of the 'Gezi Park Fiction St. Pauli'.

Schaefer draws this photo as the beginning of his series.

Schaefer shows different situations in Turkey during these protests, but the most interesting part is that he never saw these situations live: he made all of his drawings according to researches, interviews etc.

As well as Turkey's situations, Schaefer also drew some similar situations between Turkey and Germany in that days, such as: a walk from the stadium to the park, the piano play, demonstrations in the stadium, making 'Gezi Park' T-Shirts etc.

In his drawings, Schaefer emphasizes the colours green, blue and brown - so the natural once. By doing this, he probably aimed to emphasize the importance of natural elements.

 

One more thing that Schaefer did in his drawings was representing people in forms like trees. He probably did this as well to emphasize the importance of nature, by trying to say: "Nature is equal to humans.".