Barış Çakmakçı, a member of Good People of Vitruta, answered the seven questions we asked him and shared with us his five favorite products from Vitruta.
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I was born in 1979, the only child of a graphic artist father and a primary school teacher mother. When I combined the vision of looking at life from an artistic perspective, which I received from one person, with the extroverted sociability notions I received from the other, and then added the German discipline, a complex me emerged. When I combined the Sociology training I received at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University with my master's degree in Art and Design at Yıldız Technical University, I became an editor/journalist/writer/curator who tries to understand yesterday, today and tomorrow well. While one part of me tries to understand the aesthetics of the past without falling into the pit of melancholy, the other part of me is always chasing the newest, most innovative, most digital.
What is a pleasant day in Istanbul for you? What do you do?
When it comes to Istanbul, in Bedri Rahmi's words, "the pebbles get warmer inside me when I think about it." You can already understand this from his posts on my Instagram account: (@barisch) Not a day goes by when I think that this city will no longer surprise me, but something I haven't seen in 40 years appears before me. Sometimes this is a Byzantine cistern in Gedikpaşa, sometimes an abandoned Jewish cemetery on the Bosphorus, sometimes the signature of a Levantine architect at the entrance of a building, and sometimes a missionary hospital in a back neighborhood of Beyoğlu. I was born, grew up, lived and am growing old in Istanbul. That's why I think my most enjoyable day in Istanbul could be every day when I idly walk around different neighborhoods on a quiet Sunday morning by myself. (For some reason, I love Yedikule, Kandilli, Yeşilköy and Suadiye.)
So if we go out a bit, what's an ideal holiday for you? What are your favorite places that you have seen so far? Is there any advice you can give us about them?
I am European. I love cities like Antwerp, Marseille or Ljubljana, which are small but get richer as you go into detail. Milan, Paris or Berlin are now more and more enjoyable for business purposes only. The two places I want to go most are the Faroe Islands and Tokyo. My indispensable places for a sea holiday are Lesbos and Gökçeada. I love digging into Gökçeada's cultural structure with different layers and reading its stories.
So, what are your must-have items when packing your suitcase for this holiday? What do you take with you?
Whether it is an island or a small European city, I always take a book with me to read. Other than conditioner, painkillers and an extra t-shirt, I don't pack much. In the past, it would have been countless, but for the last few years, I have been traveling almost with a backpack; It's enough.
Do you have any book/music/film recommendations that have influenced you recently?
Last weekend, I bought a manga book called Five Centimeters Per Second translated into Turkish from the Istanbul Comics and Arts Festival. It is a book that starts from the end at the request of its author and its flow goes in reverse. It felt so good that it set my mind on fire. I felt like my brain was working differently. I listen to music all the time, but what I listen to one day never lasts the next day. Nowadays, like everyone else, I have an Azhelian side. The movie is very clear: Joker!
There are platforms in all of our lives these days; Netflix, Youtube, audiobooks, podcast applications... Which of these are in your life and to what extent? Maybe you would like to share your favorite channels, podcast series or favorite TV series-documentaries with us?
Of course. My favorite style! My favorite channel is Netflix. I watched the Olafur Eliasson, Ruth Carter and Jonathan Hoefler episodes of the documentary Abstract Thought with great pleasure. As for the podcast, I have two favorites: Vedat Ozan's Koku and Benan Kapucu's Botanitopia on Açık Radyo.