"Once Upon A Place"

"Stories make the world, stories ruin the world. Create the story of a World that you want to live in..."

A Cultural Bridge Made of Stories between the two edges of Europe, IRELAND and TURKEY

Two languages. One story. In Turkish and English. Tandem Storytelling.

Imagine storytelling performances without simultaneous translation. Get suprised by how much you will understand even you don't speak the language. Because all stories share a common language! The storytellers from the very west and the very east of Europe -IRELAND and TURKEY-, they will meet for a journey to explore, share and perform stories with two tellers working as one to give a story wings.

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WHICH STORIES?

The stories told by the local people of ISTANBUL and DUBLIN just about the places they live in.

Once Upon a Place is a project which combines art of storytelling performance with social awareness and responsibility, for it is an attempt to re-collect and perform forgotten or untold stories of the common local people about their surroundings.

WHY " ONCE UPON A PLACE"?

History has the places. A building, a café or even a tree which people meet under its shadow. Out of huge amount of exchange of daily city life; people live, exchange and experience in places. Places store memories, collection of memories become stories. This is how we inherit our social consciousness and how we feel connected to our surroundings.

Do we? How many people you know have been still living in the town they born into? We constantly change places for education, work and so on... We forget or never learn them. The pace of modern life fade our collective memories and confine us to ourselves.

For most of us connectin to our surroudings or to the places we visit are reduced to an image; nothing more than "I was here" selfie. We get more self isolated as we lose our connection to our environment.

ONCE UPON A PLACE is a project to reinvent the art of storytelling in urban level as a tool to connect ourselves to the environment we live in and communicate with others, the others that we share the environment we live in.

Once upon a time there was a place called... and the story has it!

WHY STORYTELLING?

''Stories work in silence, invisibly with the all internal materials of the mind and self. Stories become part of you while changing you.'' (Ben Okri)

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If you want to feel more connected, conscious and ready to change the world, stories are the best! That's why ONCE UPON A PLACE is a Project presenting storytelling as an unique and collaborative and exchange experience in urban level.

IRISH and ANATOLIAN, both cultures inherit a rich heritage of oral storytelling traditions. People of those lands know storytelling from the heart. For all those centuries long they have spoken through tradition to express all their feelings such as love, fear and courage to fight for the next day.

Exchange between two cultures will lead to a re-invention of those strong traditions in urban level for urban people. Project has already been started!

Are you ready to listen the stories of Dublin and Istanbul behind their public spaces?

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Let's sit under the shadow of that tree! Senem Donatan is telling a Sumer myth- Journey of Fairytales in Yeldegirmeni, Istanbul.

HOW "ONCE UPON A PLACE" WORKS?

Step 1: DIGGING OUT THE STORIES

For the beginning step, the project is concentrated on two districts of Istanbul and Dublin.

To unfold the stories kept in local people's minds about their surroundings is the most laborious but exciting work to do. From interviews to storymapping; each step will be coordinated in cooperation with local communities to encourage them to develop a consciousness about the environment they live in and Express their own voice in public sphere.

This step has already been kickstarted under the management of Tandem Turkey -EU Cultural Managers Exchange Programme coordinated by two cultural managers in the two selected districts of Istanbul and Dublin.

Stories wil never end especially in a city!But for the moment our goal is store a good collection of stories to work on for the next workshops.

Step 2: STORYTELLING WORKSHOPS TO SHARE, LEARN AND EDUCATE

The aim of the Project is to perform a good collection of stories about the places;

-For the local communities (in Istanbul and Dublin)

-In or around those places

-In cooperation withTurkish and Irish storytellers

-In two languages (Turkish and English)

Through three workshops held in two countries, participants will work intensively on collected stories to tell them as Turkish-English tandem performances.

For workshops 16 participants in total (8 non-professional storytellers per country) will be selected to work under he coordinaton of 2 professional storytellers from Ireland and Turkey

For having an inspirational storytelling performance, the workshops aim;

-To improve storytellng and performative skills of the participants

-To introduce and practice multi-language tandem storytelling methods

-To go deeper by combining those storie with the cultural elements of Irish and Anatolian oral traditions.

-To inspire more to creat a connectin with old traditions and modern city life.

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(Have you ever been seen tandem storytelling performance? Tandem storytellers from the group of Fernster zur Welt, Nazlı Çevik Azazi and Suse Weisse were telling their stories in German and Turkish together in Istanbul)

Step 3: PERFORMING STORIES IN TANDEM

Stories trigger a change when they are told and spread from tongue to tongue, from ear to ear.

Now it's time to share stories we have learned from the local communities for the local communities at the places that have the stories.

There will be tandem storytelling performances;

-at two different cities from the very east and very west of Europe.

-in front of both Turkish and Irish communities

-carrying out rich cultural heritage of oral traditios into stage

-and share them telling simultaneously in two different languages

All the performances will take place at selected public spaces to create a vivid image of those places in minds of the people living around.

Feeling more human and connected through storytelling, that's what really matters!

Enjoy!

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Step 4: SHARE ALL EXPERIENCE AND STORIES THROUGH BLOG

The search for stories, exploring stories behind the places we live will never end.

To inspire all of us from december on;

Every step, all collection of stories and the maps of the places told will be available through the blog. For the future it will be an open source media which volunteers can contribute for more stories with other cities also!

Once Upon a Place is coordinated by Anlat Bana Kültür ve Sanat Derneği from İstanbul and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Arts Office from Dublin. The project is one of the collaborations in Tandem Turkey - EU Cultural Managers Exchange Programme. It is an initiative of the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam), MitOst (Berlin), Anadolu Kültür (İstanbul), and supported by Stiftung Mercator (Essen).

http://tandemexchange.eu/about-tandem/tandem-turkey/people-projects/

ONCE UPON A PLACE - sharing collective hi(stories)