“ The ideal city undoubtedly is İstanbul. I love each square cantimetre from Silivri to Tuzla. The light, energy of this city is not found anywhere else.”
We talked with Sinan Logie about his artworks inspired by architectural projects, his academic career, three dimensional work of art and İstanbul…
Mr. Logie, how is your relation with time?
Time is an elastic and pliable concept for me. When I am busy, I can do work more. If I relax and slowdown, almost I can’t find time to produce anything. So, mind can bend time and space.
What did help you to protect your mental health during the Covid-19 lockdown?
It is a great luck that my workshop takes just 7 minutes far from my house. It has been actually a very productive year for me. Therefore, I had never a mental breakdown. Also, my workshop is quite large thanks to it I can host limited number of guests; so this escape area has helped me to maintain my social life even if only a little.
What did you do during lockdown?
Since I’m also an academician, I had interested with online classes and requirements of lectures. I didn’t have much free time actually…
As you know it , we have entered a world that everythinh has digitalized with lockdown. Consequently, places have moved to digital platforms; as we have lost of our concept of time and also, we have looked at the concept of the place from our homes. How would you interpret this situation from architectural aspect?
I find online events valuable since people who live in suburbs could access to cultural activities thanks to online events. However, I don’t think that this period will have a huge impact on architecture. Even if pandemic cris will last ten years, cities and buildings will not change much. We have produced these structures for centuries by method of trial and error; I think, this system will continue like this.
In addition to your architecture career, your art practice which is shaped in the context of architecture, have shaped from the days you spent in Ankara in your youth to Belgium and Istanbul. Where do you think that ideal city or is there any ideal city?
The ideal city undoubtedly is İstanbul. I love each square cantimetre from Silivri to Tuzla. The light, energy of this city is not found anywhere else.
You transfer the different plans and sections of buildings onto the canvas with different techniques. How these abstract spaces shape in your mind?
I try to connect all my works which produced in the title of “fluid structures” with mental states of my life. I describe all production process as a new “phase”. In recent years, this production can be interpreted as an expression of the urban situations which I have experienced in İstanbul. These images correspond to very different scales, it could involve places that ranging from an architectural detail to back streets of the shantytown. This process can be seen as an inward and outward gaze that concentrate on space-body-mind triangle. During this journey,I allow deteraorations of material that could happen in the production process. Herein, traces of our actions, that is, our responsibilities are questioned.
You have works that not only limited by architectural drawings, but also adding architectural materials. Could 3D paintings be next step?
Yes, recently I have already added different building materials into the paint and plucked of the colors from the surface of the canvas. This act has directed me towards 3D sculptures or installations. Somehow painting reconciled me to my architectural practice that I was offended.
Is there any structure that evokes different emotions each time you look at it?
It is definitely Sedad Hakkı Eldem’s SSK building in Zeyrek! It is an unprecedented event in the world that a modernist building was designed such a integrity with the surrounding urban fabrics.
Is there a different city that you want to continue your life besides İstanbul?
I don’t want to go anywhere. But if I have to go, it could be somewhere in Mediterranean basin, such as Athens or Roma… However, there is no need to go!
