Istanbul thrives on multi- and hyper-occupation; these are productive in the life of the city. Certain areas, however, repress these conditions. This repression is the catalyst for the production of Istanbul’s ‘double’; the production of underlying turbulence, which then produces conditions for the perpetuation of a new multi- and hyper-occupation.
When occupying the Art House, one is necessarily occupying the transitions/transformations operating across the thresholds of conflict; occupying a multiplicity of autonomous conditions simultaneously. In this way the Art House will publicize and make explicit the conditions of conflict within the city of Istanbul; it will present the users with a non-linear system of interaction to generate new occupations of space/Istanbul. Occupation is constantly rethought in terms of conflicts. The ‘other’ of Istanbul will be constantly revealed through this system that simultaneously alters the perception of the existing city. Users occupy a multiplicity of space dependent on interaction; individual understanding and interpretation determine the renegotiation of the conditions of conflict. The Art House will itself be a presentation of the multiplicity of conditions as well as a space to develop new discourses and representations [art] of those conditions.
The relation of the building to the understanding of Istanbul as having alternate or hidden realities works at different scales and speeds. When occupied, the art house presents a constant regeneration of the conditions of conflict through interaction with the specific mechanisms of each conflict. In this way new conditions are created that are simultaneously presented as the building itself as well as displayed as discrete pieces, or traces, of these conditions. As the autonomous conditions migrate through the city, the space in which the ‘double’ is revealed also migrates; the ‘double’ crawls through Istanbul, leaving traces of its conditions and discourse in its wake.
Occupation is of the dynamic, thickened thresholds in each of the specific structures of conflict. As the conditions of these thresholds are divorced from the situations they describe, they are allowed to recombine autonomously in new ways. The interaction of the users [dependent on individual understanding and interpretation] helps determine the renegotiation of these conditions and therefore the resultant multi-occupation.
