Payment Options:
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Please make checks payable to NYFA and mail it to:
Blind Dates Project
550 Grand Street, # J5D
New York, NY 10002
Phone: (212) 842-4868 Ph
E-Mail: BlindDatesProject@gmail.com
Web Address: http://BlindDatesProject.org
The Blind Dates curatorial project is fiscally-sponsored by
NYFA making contributions tax deductible to the extent permissible by law.
About Blind Dates Project
Several years in the making, the Blind Dates project is a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary contemporary art exhibition that opens at Pratt Manhattan Gallery in November 2010. As an independent curatorial project, Blind Dates explores the traces of the peoples, places and cultures that once constituted the diverse geography of the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922).
Acting as ‘matchmakers’ the project’s co-curators, Defne Ayas and Neery Melkonian, begin the process by pairing artists and sometimes non-artists for a series of private, informal discussions. The invited artists then work together and propose research-based collaborative projects that stem from these first time encounters with the “other.” The exhibition is comprised of approximately fifteen collaborations which include Armenian and Turkish, as well as Arab, Bosnian, Cypriot, Greek, Israeli, Kurdish and Euro-American artists who mediate for us experiences across time, space and (art) histories. To learn more about the evolving Blind Dates community, please visit the project website: http://BlindDatesProject.org where you can find more in-depth information on the participating artists, architects, musicians, scholars and professionals, including the topics they explore, sample artworks and upcoming events.
Participating Artists Include: Sona Abgaryan & Kara Matsakyan; Silva Ajemian & Aslihan Demirtas; Karen Andreassian & Citizen Walkers; Michael Blum & Damir Niksic; Jean Marie Casbarian & Nazan Maksudyan; Banu Cennetoglu & Christodoulos Panayiotou; Hrayr Eulmessekian & Anahid Kassabian; Linda Ganjian & Elif Uras; Aram Jibilian & Gorky’s Ghost; Nina Katchadourian & Ahmet Ogut; Stefanos Tsivopoulos, and Xurban Collective
Blind Dates Friends & Global Advisory Council (in-formation):
Ayse Gul Altinay:
Anthropology Professor, Sabanci University
Charles Amirkhanian:
Executive Director, Other Minds
Arevik Arevshatyan:
Artist, Feminist
Taline N. Aynilian:
Senior Specialist, Orientalist Art Bonhams
Nick Battis:
Artist, Director of Exhibitions, Pratt Institute
Louise de Bernieres:
Novelist
Arda Berberian:
Business Manager, Christie’s
Dorit Cypis:
Artist, Founder Foreign Exchanges Mediation
Charles Gaines:
Artist, Cal Arts Faculty
Houri Geudelekian:
Management, Marketing
Datevik Hovanesian:
Jazz Singer
Tunç Iyriboz:
Associate Professor, Cornell University / MSKCC
David Kazanjian:
English & Comparative Literature Professor, UPenn
Osman Kavala:
Founding Director, Anadolu Kultur
MaryAnn Kibarian:
Development
Leigh Markopoulos:
Chair, Curatorial Practice, California College of the Arts
Kaan Nazli:
Director, Medley Global Advisers
Yoko Ono:
Artist
Melek Pulatkonak:
President & COO Hakia
Joyce Reilly:
Psychologist, Mediator
Ella Shohat:
Art and Policy, Middle Eastern Studies Professor, NYU
Neil Smith:
Geography Professor, CUNY Graduate Center
Mehmet Uce:
Independent Scholar & Businessman
Hrag Vartanian:
Writer & Communications Director
Aleksandra Wagner:
Psychoanalyst & Sociology Professor, The New School
