Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center
Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center was a contemporary art institution in operation between 2001–2010 in Istanbul, Turkey.Footnote 1 Platform organized exhibitions, conferences, and events; hosted an international residency program, and maintained a library and archive of contemporary art.
During its formative years between 2002–2005, Platform acted as a local meeting point for artists and curators. Through the implementation of an artist archive, where international curators could research and meet artists in one location within the city; and then with the introduction of an international artist residency program in 2003, the center was considered one of the most stable contemporary art structures in Istanbul.Footnote 2
The institution housed an archive of artist files of more than 150 artists from Turkey, both living and working in the country as well as abroad. Artist files were created and updated by the artist. They included artist portfolios, DVDs of their videos, reviews, texts, and various ephemera.
The library collection brought together periodicals, exhibition catalogs, monographs, books on art history, theory and philosophy. This collection was brought together with the individual efforts of Vasıf Kortun who was the founding director of Platform and SALT.
Kortun's observations on libraries and archives in Turkey after his student years in the USA played a critical role in this ambition:
When I returned to Turkey to write my thesis in 1988, I saw inadequate libraries, fragmented archives, and those who hoarded documents that should have been in the public domain. Not to mention the grumpy librarians who treated users as unwelcome guests. Shouldn't libraries be where people can support their curiosities and enjoy a civic experience?Footnote 3
In 1993, Kortun went back to the USA and started to work at the Center for Curatorial Studies until his return to Turkey in 1998 to found a contemporary art institution:
I began collecting books to dream of a library that I would establish in Turkey one day. The kindness of colleagues, museums, and art galleries was terrific. On the return to Turkey, book boxes filled half of the container. In 1998, I founded an initiative called Istanbul Contemporary Art Project. The books and the artist archives that we started to develop addressed a severe lack. When we opened the Platform in 2001, I donated my library to the institution. Books kept coming, and I packed my suitcase with books from travels to home and expanded the collection with donations.Footnote 4
Platform Garanti CAC, Collecting Point, Frieze Art Fair, London, 2006
SALT Research, Platform Archive
In 2006, Platform was invited as one of two not-for-profit spaces to participate in Frieze Projects. Platform used this opportunity, and the fair, as a point of convergence for the international art world, to enrich the library's holdings and used the funds to purchase new publications for the institution. Platform took a space in the publications area of Frieze Art Fair, where individuals or organizations were invited to donate additional materials or peruse the gift books. At the end of the project, about 1,200 books were shipped to Istanbul, where they are currently available for public use at SALT Research.
In 2007, the institution organized an exhibition titled Open Library. Open Library was a revisitation of Platform's exhibition space in the form of a library. It critiqued the lack of street-level libraries in Istanbul that do not function as public spaces and encourage users to enter. It also hosted mini curated libraries and discussions to transform the project into a dynamic public space. Open Library was converted to host events in the evenings by the use of a screen that closed access to the shelving.
A cataloging project had begun simultaneously with the Open Library. The publications which were searchable internally through the lists prepared by the staff were being cataloged, labeled, and classified according to the Dewey decimal system. Later, they became searchable online with the other library collections merged under SALT Research.
In 2008, the repurposing of two 19th century buildings began with the goal of combining the capacities and knowledge of three institutionsFootnote 5 specialized in different disciplines under the new institution (SALT). Platform began to share a temporary office with Garanti Gallery and started developing the collection also in the areas of urbanism, architecture and design.
In 2009, Platform organized The Columns Held us Up exhibition at Artist Space in New York. One of the participant artists, Celine Condorelli built a structural intervention based on Antonello de Messina's painting St. Jerome in his Study. The installation doubled as a book collection point, where institutions and artists could donate books. At the end of the exhibition, the publications were transported to the institution's library in Istanbul and are available at SALT Research.
Artist files at Platform Garanti CAC's temporary office, 2008
SALT Research and the collections
SALTFootnote 6 was founded in 2011 with SALT Research established at SALT Galata.Footnote 7
It comprises a specialized library and an archive of physical and digital sources and documents on art, architecture and design, social life, and economic history. As part of a long-term commitment to digitizing resources at SALT Research, the institution makes documents and sources universally available via saltresearch.org.
Platform's publications and archives form the basis of the art collections of the institution. Today, art publications at SALT Research present comprehensive resources on the art history of Turkey as well as MENA, Asia, Southeast Asia, and Southeast Europe regions.
Artist files created at Platform were available to the researchers until 2014. Physical artist files lost their function as contemporary artists became more efficient in self-archiving with the support of digital technologies and platforms. SALT began to focus on documenting the post-1950s due to the lack of fundamental research on modern and contemporary art history in Turkey. Safeguarded chiefly by private individuals, physical memory is dispersed in different hands with little public knowledge of their existence. Researchers usually work with limited materials they can reach. This situation motivated SALT to assemble resources focusing on a group of critically important artists. Archives kept by these artists were catalogued and made accessible online at SALT Research. These artist archives bring together extensive materials on artistic practice, comprehensive artist archives, landmark exhibitions, and art institutions from the period. These archives which form a collective knowledge, reflect the creative environment of the period in Turkey and help to reevaluate history from a local, regional, and international, as well as historical perspective.
Library collection at Platform Garanti CAC's temporary office, 2008
Open Library exhibition, Platform Garanti CAC (Istanbul, Turkey), 2007 Photo: Iwan Baan SALT Research, Platform Archive
Celine Condorelli's installation in The Columns Held Us Up exhibition organized by Platform Garanti CAC in Artists Space (New York), 2009 SALT Research, Platform Archive
SALT Research, 2017
Photo: Mustafa Hazneci
Design and extension of the space
In his article published in the Library Journal, David Weinberger describes a library as a platform with these sentences:
First, a platform should provide access to everything it can, including some treasures traditionally have yet to make available. Second, the library as a platform will enable social knowledge networks to emerge and flourish. With these two changes, libraries can change from portals to platforms.Footnote 8
SALT Research, 2015
Photo: Mustafa Hazneci
Dolap, a performance by Taldans, SALT Research, 2015
Photo: Mustafa Hazneci
SALT Research which is located in the hub of SALT Galata does not carry isolated and silent library specifications. Designed by ŞANALarcFootnote 9 in 2011, it was envisioned as an open platform that encourages users to enter, meet, produce, and engage with SALT's programs. The atrium became the key component of the design approach, where the shelves and seats were placed around. It functions as a public tool in a dialogue with the whole building and visitors. The space also connects to SALT's programs by hosting part of the exhibitions and transforming into an event and performance space in time.
SALT Research Ferit F. Şahenk Hall, 2017
Photo: Mustafa Hazneci
Out of the archive, SALT Galata, 2017
Photo: Mustafa Hazneci
SALT team and the designers worked very closely in 2010–2011 to create a living space according to “Library 2.0” standards to respond to user's demands and expectations. One of the first discussions was naming the space. Terms such as information center, library, archive, and study center were among the terms discussed. Resources at SALT Research include hybrid forms such as books, periodicals, and digital collections. It also provides integrity among the library and archive collections. Therefore, it was named parallel to the institution's research-centric mission beyond traditional forms and library perceptions.
IFLA/Unesco Public Library Manifesto published in 1994 emphasized the following notion for management and operation of the Public Libraries:
Services have to be physically accessible to all members of the community. This requires well situated library buildings, good reading and study facilities, as well as relevant technologies and sufficient opening hours convenient to the users. It equally implies outreach services for those unable to visit the library.Footnote 10
Even though SALT is privately supported, the institution aimed to create a research space open to the public with information tools and facilities it owns. SALT Research is a specialized study space focusing on specific fields similar to international library and archive models under museums and research centers. However, the use of the space between 2012–2017 revealed other users’ needs such as places to work for the university entrance exams or other personal needs. The number of users had increased beyond capacity, and new shelving was required for the increasing number of publications. This situation prompted SALT to expand SALT Research space in 2017. Located in the same building, SALT Research Ferit F. Şahenk Hall became available to the registered MA and Ph.D. students, academics and independent researchers using SALT Research collections. At the same time, the main space on the ground floor remains open for all.
Engagement with the users
SALT offers opportunities for deeper engagement with its users and proposes different methodologies for this ambition. With Out of the archive and Researchers at SALT projects, individuals are invited to interpret selected documents and sources from the archive collections and share their works generated by utilizing publications, archives and facilities at SALT Research. These projects are presented in different ways such as blog texts, exhibitions, or public talks. SALT Research staff share their knowledge to assist amateur archivists in their effort to digitize, preserve, and catalog documents in the Amateur Archives workshops. SALT Research Funds support six independent research projects each year since 2013. These grants support research that focus on visual practices, the built environment, social life, and economic history.
The institution empowers the circulation of its archival resources, e-publications, and documentation of on-site programs via digital platforms. SALT's website saltonline.org connects different platforms such as Flickr Commons, Google Arts & Culture and saltresearch.org. In parallel, SALT's social media accounts highlight archival materials and publications from SALT Research collections with particular relevance to the institution's current programs.
Conclusion
The independent survey conducted with SALT users in December 2018 revealed that more than half of the respondents said using resources at SALT Research encourages them to do research. They also indicated that being a SALT user has a positive impact on their professional and academic life.
In March 2020, Turkey confirmed cases of COVID-19 within its borders. SALT's buildings stayed closed between March-June 2020. The institution continued to function online during this period. SALT adopted the innovative use of social media and digital platforms since its foundation. The institution continued to promote the circulation of its archival resources and e-publications with the support of these tools even in the pandemic. Ask an Expert project which began during this period was an open call to SALT's users to send their questions about a specific document, image, or collection from the digitized archives.
Today, SALT Research occupies 760 square meters with a total seating for 130 at SALT Galata. The institution makes more than 110,000 publications available to an average of 47,000 users a year. The archival collections comprise more than 1,900,000 unique digitized resources and are available universally online.
SALT believes in “democratic luxury.” This concept is borrowed from the late artist Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin (1957–2007), whose archive is maintained by SALT Research. All services are free of charge, and users are cared for with impeccable service and space. SALT avoids preserving knowledge through institutional control and aims to make it public at SALT Research. The institution is committed to fostering an environment for learning, discussion and production, where users can research, spend time around books, explore, and work with their colleagues.
