Founded in the same year as its parent organization Anadolu Kültür, the Diyarbakır Arts Center (DSM) was established in 2002 with the aim of contributing to the revival of the cultural and artistic scene in Diyarbakır. It set out to create a meeting place where artists in the city could develop and present their own projects and where art enthusiasts could access high-quality cultural and artistic events.
DSM began its activities on the ground floor of Diyar Galeria, Diyarbakır’s first shopping mall located in Dağkapı. Through exhibitions, seminars, performances, and film screenings, it created a space for sharing cultural heritage from both other cities in Turkey and different countries with Diyarbakır. DSM also became a meeting place where audiences and producing artists living in Diyarbakır could share their experiences with people from different cities, hear each other, and engage in lively discussions. By 2007, before celebrating its fifth anniversary, DSM was recognized as one of the addresses that contributed the most to Turkey’s cultural life. It became an important part of the city’s cultural and artistic life by serving as a workshop where interdisciplinary cultural and artistic projects were realized.
During this process, between 2004 and 2008, the European Cinema within DSM, which included numerous special screenings and collaborations, became a significant venue by capturing the pulse of cinema culture and contemporary vision in Diyarbakır. From 2009, the DSM library was transferred to the Mehmed Uzun City Library under the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality. Since 2003, the Diyarbakır Cinema Club and the Kurdish and Turkish Reading Clubs, meeting independently but hosted by DSM at various intervals, continued to foster an important culture of sharing through continuity. Besides the clubs, collectives, and artists that grew and became independent by heading towards different institutionalizations in various fields, parallel to the production at DSM but expanding and multiplying a cultural and artistic dynamic belonging to the city.
Advancing with regular monthly programs for about ten years, DSM continued its path from 2011 with more deepened, focused projects and programs, some of which aimed at continuity. DSM particularly focused on film, photography, and literature programs supporting collective artistic production for younger generations and bringing together producers from different disciplines. It launched various programs involving civil society organizations on cultural rights and opening new channels for artists. In its relations with artists, institutions, and initiatives with whom it partnered within the changing political and cultural climate of Diyarbakır, it maintained a stance focused on solidarity. With local partners working in civil society and culture and art, and through institutional and individual joint projects developed both in Turkey and internationally, DSM continues its efforts by remaining faithful to its founding purpose, acting as a bridge in the relationship between Diyarbakır’s local potential and both other cities in Turkey and international platforms.
Anadolu Kültür
Since its establishment in 2002, Anadolu Kültür has been working to establish local, regional, and international collaborations through culture and art; to increase the production, viewing, and sharing of culture and art; to develop artistic tools for the inclusion of disadvantaged groups in social life; to emphasize cultural rights and diversity; to create awareness for the recognition, protection, and transmission of cultural heritage elements to the future; to incorporate repressed past into social memory, and to open channels of dialogue with Armenia. Although these activities differ over time according to the changing needs of society, they rely on the function of culture and art to keep imagination, curiosity, and hope alive, contributing to the construction of a pluralistic, democratic, and free country.
Depo İstanbul
Depo, following DSM in Diyarbakır, which has been active since 2002, and the Kars Art Center, which operated from 2005 to 2009, is Anadolu Kültür’s third initiative. Since 2009, Depo has met the need for an independent, critical, flexible, and accessible space in Istanbul’s cultural and artistic life. In addition to exhibitions addressing historical and contemporary social issues, it organizes screenings, panels, workshops, and talks, and publishes an e-journal named Red Thread. Through its events, Depo aims to provide a platform for people active in culture and arts, academics, researchers, and a broad audience to exchange ideas and experiences and to collaborate.
