Mekan Arti is a non-profit organisation founded in İstanbul in 2008, conducting international studies in the field of contemporary performing arts. 

Mekan Arti, aims for putting the new projects into practice that are qualified, creative, and comments on today and prefers producing works in its own field, that endeavours, thinks through, pushes the limits and searchs for the new. By combining elements of popular culture and elements apart from popular culture, Mekan Arti, placing importance on the search of the political and of what needs to be said, aims to make the subjects it handles more visible and clear, to encourage its production and to provide its international circulation, to ensure the continuity of the existing audience and to create a new audience with new works.

Placing importance on supporting all kinds of creative and new projects, Mekan Arti pays attention to performance arts’ development, experimentation, polyphony, language and comments on today, and encourages new ideas.

Mekan Arti produces works through new words, discourses and stagings, tracks existing works, and searchs for today’s language for XXI. century through the following of productions.

Mekan Arti has no fixed artist staff, it establishes staffs though projects and incorporates these staffs throughout the project.

Placing importance on experimentalism in terms of staging techniques, Mekan Arti prefers to reposition the audience in every play, to create new fields, to produce works that are unique to these fields, to experiment on perception of seeing the play, to work on variations about form of the plays.

 Mekan Arti has been operating both in Istanbul and Berlin since 2018.

Team

Ufuk Tan Altunkaya - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Born in Germany in 1984, studying Economics and Turkish Language and Literature Ufuk Tan Altunkaya got his master’s degree from Theater Criticism and Dramaturgy Department at Istanbul University. He is currently studying PhD on Political Theater at Freie Universität Berlin.

Beginning his theater career in Izmir, Ufuk Tan Altunkaya worked as an actor and director at organisations such as; garajistanbul, Theater Gesnerallee, Tiyatro Kordelya and Mekan Arti and gave lessons in several institutions.

In 2010, he took part in the founding of Mekan Arti with his team friends. Ufuk Tan Altunkaya, who has been focusing on different staging techniques since 2008, focuses on the relation between actor and audience. Being especially known for his works that are peculiar to one audience and field, Ufuk Tan Altunkaya employs a variety of places as a site and prefers site specific Works. The two plays prepared by Ufuk Tan Altunkaya, who focuses especially on political issues, ‘’Bizde Yok’’ about Cumartesi Anneleri, and ‘’Kalem’’ about crimes of thought, was shown at IKSV Theater Festival in previous years.

Didem Kaplan - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Born in October 1989, Didem Kaplan completed her undergraduate education in Management of Performing Arts Department at Istanbul Bilgi University. She is currently continuing her studies on relation between culture and art with master’s thesis topic ‘’Local Culture Studies: Bursa Nilüfer Municipality Case’’ in Arts and Cultural Management Department at Istanbul University.

Starting to work at a cultural institution named garajistanbul when her undergraduate education began, Kaplan took part with her team friends in the founding of Mekan Arti after a while, which is one of the most important alternative theater companies. She had been a part of the founding and executive team for nearly seven years. At the same time, she worked as theater director in Point Production and took part in many activities as an activity director, notably in the Samsun 2016 Deaf World Championship. Being also a writer, Didem Kaplan has written many plays, stories and articles. She was granted the ‘’Playwright of the Year’’ award by XV. Direklerarası Audience Awards for her play named ‘’Şiddet Üçlemesi 3 – Kalem’’. Still continuing her works in the areas of culture management, academy and writing, Kaplan has a good level of English proficiency.

Ahmet Özer - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

He was born in İzmir in 1985. He started to make theater outside of school in 1998 with the Theater Theater group. He took part in the establishment of Theater Kordelya with a few friends in 2000. He organized the Karşıyaka 1st and 2nd Amateur Theater Days with the Theater Kordelya ensemble. With the dissolution of "Theater Kordelya" in 2005, he took part in the establishment of the "Dönüşüm Atölyesi Oyuncuları" ensemble. He continued his theater life in "Mekân Artı" in Istanbul between 2013-2015. In addition to his acting work in "Mekân Artı", he added out of stage works. In addition to acting, he improved his skills such as teaching, musician and directing. He attended workshops and received trainings in these areas. He made music designs and applications for many theater pieces. He has worked with theaters in Turkey and abroad. He returned to Izmir in 2015. He worked as an actor in "Dönüşüm Atölyesi Oyuncuları", Izmir Art Activities Center and Konak Municipality Theater Konak. In the 2018 - 2019 season, he received creative drama leadership training from the Izmir branch of the Contemporary Drama Association. He moved to Berlin in November 2020. He continues his artistic activities in Berlin. Since 1998, he took part in many pieces in many ensemble, established theater clubs in schools where he was educated, staged plays, and worked as a theater instructor.

Ceylan Dizdar - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Erdem Zayimoglu - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.