British Council Turkey and Beats by Girlz Turkey have launched ‘My City, My Voice’ project for women artists in Turkey, as part of the ‘Women Power in Culture’ programme.
The British Council have initiated a three-year programme in 2017 ‘Women and Leadership in Arts and Culture’ with the purpose to support and work with the women professionals in creative sectors, women artists and actors working on the field of gender equality. The British Council also believes that gender equality and women’s empowerment are crucial to creating inclusive, open and prosperous societies and have a multiplier effect in all areas that accelerate sustainable development.
In this context, Women of the World Festival (WOW) was held digitally for the first time in Turkey on 5-6-7 March 2020. WOW Istanbul Festival is unique in bringing together the arts and culture sector with civil society to celebrate women and create new collaborations to address women’s issues, based on the power of the arts to create new ways of seeing the world and new and inclusive forums for reflection and dialogue. It is a platform to share the stories and voices of women through music, performance, video, discussion and debate. Reaching an audience of more than three million, WOW Festival Istanbul will take place for the second time in March 2022.
This year, WOW Istanbul Festival launches the ‘My City, My Sound’ project in cooperation with Beats By Girlz Turkey, led by Beril Sarıaltun for women artists in Turkey as part of the WOW Sounds, the music programming of the festival.
The project will recruit women all selected via an open call. Through online workshops and mentoring sessions, participants will learn the basic principles of sound design. Then, they will go on a sound walk in the selected regions and make audio recordings of the area via their mobile phones. After that, they will manipulate and design the sounds in a musical framework. Participants will work with each other throughout the project and evaluate the sound mood and the structure of the selected venues together. As executives and curators of the project, Beril Sarıaltun with UK based independent musician and sound designer Mandy Wigby will be selecting from the digital compositions of the workshop participants to be showcased online and offline at the WOW Istanbul Festival and to be streamed in digital platforms as a project compilation album.
The aims of ‘My City, My Sound’ project are:
- to create opportunities for women musicians working as instrumentalist, vocalists, producer or sound designer to voice their ideas on gender equality as well as showcase their arts and talents through diverse, inclusive, and innovative programming on the digital.
- share, celebrate and broaden appreciation of the artistic excellence of women artists from Turkey.
