British Council Turkey and Beats by Girlz Turkey have launched the second edition of ‘My City, My Voice’ project for women artists in Turkey extending it to İzmir, Gaziantep and Diyarbakır, as part of the ‘Women Power in Culture’ programme.
The British Council has 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.
‘My City, My Sound’ project; which had its first edition launched in WOW Sounds, a (the music programming of the Women of the World Festival (WOW) Istanbul Festival) is coming back to the city with its second edition. The project’s first edition which allowed women to interpret the city with their music had resulted in LP records and a documentary, both of which had great influence in the UK and Turkey. The new edition of the project aims to emphasize the cultural diversity among female artists in Turkey.
The 15 women musicians all selected via an open call, first attended online workshops and mentoring sessions to learn the basic principles of sound design. Then, they went on a sound walk in their own neighborhoods in İzmir, Gaziantep and Diyarbakır and made audio recordings of the area via their mobile phones. After that, they will manipulated and designed the sounds in a musical framework. Participants worked with each other throughout the project and evaluated the sound mood and the structure of the selected venues together. As executives and curators of the project, Beril Sarıaltun with UK based Lizzy Ellis of Saffron Music have selected from the digital compositions of the workshop participants to be showcased online and offline at the WOW Sounds and to be streamed in digital platforms as a project compilation album.
With the support of the British Council, Saffron, and Zuhal Music, the participants of the project performed their songs accompanied by an all-female musician's band at the 'My City My Voice' solidarity concerts held on 3 April at İzmir Originn and 5 April at Istanbul Babylon. Natalia Mamcarczyk (aka Walya) from the UK opened both concerts with a DJ performance. After the February 6 earthquakes, the box office income of these solidarity concerts, were donated to the Hatay Defne Women's Cooperative operating in the earthquake impacted region.
The aims of ‘My City, My Voice’ 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
Watch My City My Voice first documentary
Watch My City My Voice second edition documentary
