Venue
santralistanbul Eski Silahtarağa Elektrik Santralı Kazım Karabekir Cad. No: 2/13 34060 Eyüp İstanbul
444 0 428
İstanbul Bilgi University is launching a series of annual events dedicated to the intersecting themes of gender equality and sustainability under various academic disciplines. This year’s event will consider the framework of film studies.
The inspiration for this inaugural symposium comes from the tireless gleaner of images Agnès Varda, whose legacy of female subjectivity spans more than six decades, from her first film La Pointe Courte (1955) to her final documentary Varda par Agnès (2019). An opening event launching the series will be followed by a one-day symposium to mark the anniversary of Varda’s passing, taking place at İstanbul Bilgi University March 28, 2020.
In addition to her career-long interest in gender equality, sustainability has been a resonant theme in Varda’s work. This is particularly true of her recent documentaries and her foray into other visual arts at the turn of the century, a transition that coincides with her shift to digital media. The Gleaners and I (2000) considers the practice of gleaning as survival, as art, and as an approach to memory; further developing many of the themes in the film, Varda’s installation Patatutopia at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 moved her perspective from the big screen to the gallery space. From this period until her death, Varda’s work deals prominently with recycling, revisiting, and reframing objects as well as human experience. She has described her essay film The Beaches of Agnès (2008), for example, as “an Unidentified Flying Object,” or a collage assembled from pieces of her life as expressed through various media: photographs, found footage, artwork, and other objects. This same spirit of invention through collection and recollection infuses much of her life’s work, and reveals not only what Varda understood about gender and the world around her, but also why it is crucial to study these concepts through art.
Taking Varda as its focal point, this symposium aims to open many potential avenues of discussion on gender equality and sustainability, producing a timely intervention of wide interest to many scholarly fields and disciplines. The symposium will conclude with a roundtable contextualizing, highlighting, and framing these issues under the heading: Global Varda.
Rutgers University, Associate Professor of English and Film
Dr. Flitterman-Lewis is a pioneering scholar and teacher of feminist cinema whose book To Desire Differently (1990, 1996) is among the earliest studies of Varda published in English, and whose scholarship has since continued to advance Varda studies worldwide. She is also a founding co-editor of both the feminist film journal Camera Obscura and the cultural studies journal Discourse.
Bryn Mawr College, Chair and Professor of History of Art
and the Eugenia Chase Guild Chair in the Humanities
Dr. King is the author of Virtual Memory (2019), a groundbreaking study of digitality in contemporary art and cinema that includes Varda’s installations and late documentaries. Her scholarship draws on history, philosophy, and critical theory, and she is a current member of the Camera Obscura editorial collective.
Minneapolis College of Art and Design'These Walls Don't Sell You Anything': Varda, Women, and the Walls of Los Angeles
Istanbul Bilgi University, Film and TelevisionSpatio-Temporal Relationality in L'Île et Elle
Istanbul Bilgi University, Film and TelevisionVarda and LeGuin in Dialogue
The University of York, Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive MediaGleaning Metaphors from Reality in the Documentary Films of Agnès Varda
TED University, Architecture and Urban StudiesVarda as an Image Gleaner Woman Filmmaker: Embracing Digital Video
Tel Aviv University, Film and TelevisionAgnès Varda's Last Word: Reframing Narratives of Self-Portraiture and Cinécriture
Bilkent University, Cultures, Civilizations, and Ideas"Working for Delphine": images, words, gender equality, and sustainability in Agnès Varda's Documenteur
Istanbul Bilgi University, Visual Communication DesignCléo's Journey Revisited
Texas State University, Art History, Art and DesignThe Architecture or the Landscape: Varda's Formalist Feminism
New York University, Cinema StudiesUnder Agnès Varda's Eyes: Plaisir d'amour en Iran
March 28, 2020 Saturday
Santralistanbul
E1-301
| 10.00 | “Gender equality and sustainability: Priorities of BiLGi” Kübra Doğan Yenisey, İstanbul Bilgi University Acting Rector |
|---|---|
| 10.15 | “The sustainable Legacy of Agnes Varda” Feride Çiçekoğlu, İstanbul Bilgi University Director of the Master Programs in Film and Television |
| 10.30 | Keynote speech “Floating Roots: Agnès Varda’s Uncle Yanco (1967)” Homay King, Bryn Mawr College Director of Graduate Studies, and Eugenia Chase Guild Chair in the Humanities, Department of History of Art |
| 11.15 | Coffee Break |
| 11.30 | Panel 1: Sustainable Form(s): Digitality and Cinécriture Moderator: Zuhal Ulusoy, İstanbul Bilgi Univesity Dean, Faculty of Architecture |
| 12.30 | Lunch Break |
| 13.30 | “Global Varda” Colleen Kennedy-Karpat, Bilkent University Graduate Programs Director, Department of Communication and Design |
| 13.45 | Keynote Speech “Passion, Commitment, Compassion: Les Justes au Pantheon by Agnes Varda” Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, Rutgers University Department of English and Cinema Studies |
| 14.30 | Panel 2: Varda's Environments Moderator: Ebru Thwaites-Diken, İstanbul Bilgi University Acting Head, Department of Film |
| 15.30 | Coffee Break |
| 15.45 | Panel 3: Varda’s Human Connections Moderator: Pınar Uyan, İstanbul Bilgi University Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities |
| 16.45 | Roundtable |
| 17.15 | End |
Confirmed Attendees |
Session Titles |
|
|---|---|---|
| Ersan Ocak | TED University, Architecture and Urban Studies | Varda as an Image Gleaner Woman Filmmaker: Embracing Digital Video | Panel 1 Sustainable Form(s): Digitality and Cinécriture Moderator: Zuhal Ulusoy |
| Yaara Ozery | Tel Aviv University, Film and Television | Agnès Varda's Last Word: Reframing Narratives of Self- Portraiture and Cinécriture | |
| Melike Özmen | Istanbul Bilgi University, Visual Communication Design | Cléo's Journey Revisited | |
| Joseph Horsey | The University of York, Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media | Gleaning Metaphors from Reality in the Documentary Films of Agnès Varda | Panel 2 Varda's Environments Moderator: Ebru Diken |
| Zeynep Demirhan | Istanbul Bilgi University, Film and Television | Spatio-Temporal Relationality in L'Île et Elle | |
| Negar Taymoorzadeh | New York University, Cinema Studies | Under Agnès Varda's Eyes: Plaisir d'amour en Iran | |
| Ruken Doğu Erdede | Istanbul Bilgi University, Film and Television | Varda and LeGuin in Dialogue: Narrator's Saddlebag | Panel 3 Varda's Human Connections Moderator: Pınar Uyan |
| Jennifer Stob | Texas State University, Art History, Art and Design | The Architecture or the Landscape: Varda's Formalist Feminism | |
| Kurt Ozment | Bilkent University, Cultures, Civilizations, and Ideas | "Working for Delphine": images, words, gender equality, and sustainability in Agnès Varda's Documenteur | |
Contact person: Mx. Burak Şungar
E-mail: burak.sungar@bilgi.edu.tr
Please submit an abstract (max 300 words), 3-5 bibliographical sources, 3-5 keywords, and a short CV by December 1, 2019. The selected abstracts for the symposium will be announced by December 15, 2019.
Abstracts selected for presentation will be published online prior to the symposium. Full papers selected for publication will be announced after the symposium. The symposium language is English. All presentations must be delivered in English, in person by the selected participants. No virtual presentations will be considered, and no simultaneous translation will be provided.
The symposium invites papers that situate the work and legacy of Agnès Varda around the themes of gender equality and sustainability. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: