Hrant Dink Foundation, through the projects implemented under Turkey-Armenia Programme, makes efforts to build closer ties between the peoples of the two neighbouring countries. Turkey-Armenia Fellowship Scheme, initiated for this purpose within the framework of the programme Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process financed by the European Union, aims to foster cross-border affiliation and cooperation of professionals from the two neighbouring countries, while strengthening the ties between these two cultures. 

'Ինչ կա չկա - Ne var ne yok' (Not nation but motion) thinks and moves about borders, defined, undefined, unity, interaction, transformation and getting together. It asks and researches the questions if a body also a border and how can bodies come together. It sees the similiar dances and figures named 'Turkish Traditional Dance' in Turkey and named 'Armenian Traditional Dance' in Armenia and asks again. Do dances belong to nations or to the land and to the people who danced together. 
In order to reach the announcement of Duygu Bostancı's event on March 31, 2017 at NPAK - Norarar Portzarakan Arvesti Kendron, please click here. 

Culture, as a concept, is the combination of multiple elements, thus, bears a variety of definitions. However, all these definitions have one point in common, that culture is established through living together over long periods of time. When we look at the present-day practices of the people, who had once been living alongside one another in Anatolia, we see that culture is not the possession of one specific society, but rather a common heritage. Particularly, in the case of Armenia and Turkey, music and dance are two elements to reflect these commonalities most strongly. Currently in Yerevan with Turkey-Armenia Fellowship Scheme, Duygu Bostancı is conducting a research on folk dances in Armenia and Turkey, based on which she will develop a contemporary dance performance. She is planning to incorporate video and photography components into her project.

Duygu Bostancı graduated from the Department of Industrial Design at Middle East Technical University. She practices video-making, photography and contemporary dance. Her short dance film Simulacrum was screened at SinemaDansAnkara Film Fest in 2014. For already three years, she has been trying to focus on discovering her body and develop movements accordingly. Currently, Duygu is doing her fellowship at the ICA Yerevan as part of the Turkey-Armenia Fellowship Scheme established by the Hrant Dink Foundation.

Anna Kamay, the Artists in Residency Programme Coordinator at the host organisation ICA Yerevan, is an art curator, herself. She emphasises that, as an outcome of their cooperation with Duygu, people have got the chance to learn more about the insights of contemporary art in Turkey, at the moment. Kamay argues that Duygu’s story, presence and works attract the attention of many art-lovers in Yerevan. From Anna’s perspective, such examples of cooperation in the field of contemporary art, is also a sign of how the human interaction and communication is independent of political tensions between two neighbouring countries.

Duygu Bostancı and Anna Kamay talked about their experiences with the Turkey-Armenia Fellowship Scheme and their suggestions for future fellows and host organisations.

Please click here to reach Duygu Bostancı's personal blog, where she writes about her travel to Armenia and her experiences in Armenia as fellow from Turkey.

Turkey-Armenia Fellowship Scheme 
takes place within the framework of the programme
Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process
funded by the European Union.