Exhibitions and Lectures:

As young participants get actively engaged in environmental issues, they develop a more critical eye towards behavior patterns of society. At the same time, expressed and materialized through art, their ideas reach a greater audience. Just like bees pollinate for nature, students creatively pollinate ideas through art. For sustainability each pollen counts.

At a time where ecological balance is under threat, For the Love of Bee! wishes for more youth projects to tackle the delicate human-nature relationship through art, and to be an example to such projects.

click for the album

Workshops
Following a research period starting in 2014 For the Love of Bee! workshops reached more than 2,000 children and young adults across Turkey in 2017-2019.

For the Love of Bee! workshops unfold in two phases. In phase one, participants learn about the life of bees and their impact on human life, followed by how individuals can care for both human and bee habitats. Young adults get a chance to meet with and learn from experts from a range of disciplines, including artists, beekeepers, botanists and designers. They can also observe bees in real life during bee yard visits.

In phase two, participants are coached on an art technique to transform their newly acquired knowledge into a material artifact.  Each event workshop is curated individually, considering the skills of participants and utilizing traditional local crafts and materials. Local craftsmen are invited to join in the production process. For the Love of Bee! Art Workshops take place in public spaces that maximize participation, and become incubation platforms for further conversations on the topic.

click for the album

 

For the Love of Bee! is a call for a sustainable future.
What we do can be a module that can be adopted by any trio: a combination of school, apiary and an artist.
If you want to join the colony, please contact us.

︎    ︎

nil.ilkbasaran@gmail.com
+905392651665

Since 2014, Maria, Nil and Güngör we have been working together to share our love of nature with the name For the Love of Bee! . In this journey, we came together with different age groups and disciplines to raise awareness about Bees; Our project has grown organically like the cells of a honeycomb. We cooperated with different artists, institutions, associations. We are excited to develop this awareness effort in the artistic field and to be able to include many people.

Nil İlkbaşaran is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily in participatory art projects , site specific installations with the intention of instigating a dialogue on everyday issues and revitalizing people’s relationship to a place. She is interested in practices that bring together art and citizenship, as well as practices that create parallel communities unlikely to be established by other means. Nil lives and works in the Netherlands since 1997. Her artistic practice came to be following several years of managerial posts in the retail sector. She received her BA in Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (2013) and MA in Art Praxis at the Dutch Art Institute (2016) in the Netherlands. www.nililkbasaran.com

Güngör Erdem, employs ecological art that combines a lifestyle close to nature and creativity. He has been active in art production and exhibition since 2006 in Sinop, Turkey. Within the scope of Sinopale, the International Sinop Biennial, Erdem has organized several art events and conducted workshops including glass blowing.

Maria Sezer, a Dutch artist living in Turkey, completed her MA in 1980 and her doctorate in 2004 at Mimar SInan Fine Arts University in Istanbul. She has been lecturing in Robert College and in Işık University. Her works, observing nature taking the bee to the core, took place both national and international exhibitions. A beekeeper herself, she has broadcasted a program series titled "Propolis" in Acik Radio in 2015. Sezer was a co-organiser and a tutor of workshops in the Kids and Youth Art Biennial in 2016.
www.mariasezer.com