Solo exhibition
Exhibition on view: 02.02.22 – 09.02.22
Visiting hours: 14:00 – 19:00 and by appointment
Pre-closing event: 05.02.2022, Saturday 17:00
TOP project space, Schillerpromenade 4, 12049 Berlin

*** Part of transmediale / Vorspiel 2022 ***

Most of the world human population lives in cities nowadays; they are mostly online but sometimes offline. Cities are considered commodities; they are contemporary tools for consumption. The city is consumed and experienced as entertainment by those who can afford it; space becomes the privileged instrument for capital to unfold, to happen through the social realm. With the help of emerging technologies, concepts of smart cities, cities have become more digital. But in the digitalized city, also citizens are commodified, becoming, in turn, the “privileged instrument” of capital by using “smart” tools’ and allowing data extraction.

Urban Surveillance Bureau is initiated by Yelta Köm and mimics bureaucratic gestures to offer dissident urban imaginaries and progressive articulations beyond conventional critics. Urban Surveillance Bureau is tasked with establishing fictional realities through surveillance systems and providing information on how it is possible to hide within the system and empower dissident movements.

Throughout the transmediale Vorspiel, the Bureau will show a sequence from its work in process, with drawings, speculations, videos and objects at TOP e.V. | Transdisciplinary Project Space. This installation will provide the groundwork for assemblages and discussions for the bureau’s practice. Urban Surveillance Bureau was partially developed during the Forecast Platform Mentorship Programme in 2020.

Project Assistant: Serap Kaçmaz

More information you can click here.

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Yelta Köm is an artist, architect and researcher who incorporated architecture, artistic and spatial practices to discuss social and political issues. He graduated from Städelschule Architecture Class. His work is mainly influenced by the perception of the environment, neoliberal transformations, the contradiction between nature and technology, and collective movements. Köm’s methodology and mediums demonstrate the diversity of each project, and collaboration is a vital part of it.

Please bring either a valid digital vaccination certificate or recovery certificate and an official ID plus a negative test. Both rapid tests and PCR tests are accepted. (according to the 2G+ regulations  – Covid-19 vaccination or recovery proof will be checked at the entrance).  Persons who cannot be vaccinated (and those under 18) can visit the exhibition with proof and a negative test. Please wear a medical mask inside the exhibition space.