The First Artist-in-Residence Program in Çanakkale City Center StudioMAHAL AiR is Launched
CABININ (Çanakkale Biennial Initiative), a civil initiative that emerged locally and has been active for nearly twenty years, has begun welcoming artists to its newly established artist-in-residence program, StudioMAHAL.
Complementing MAHAL Art, which CABININ has been running since 2013, StudioMAHAL AiR officially opened on May 31. The program is housed in two adjacent stone buildings—registered former acorn warehouses located along the Sarıçay river in the city center—that reflect the 19th-century maritime trade history of Çanakkale. This heritage site embodies the city’s multicultural past, born from the intersection of the Dardanelles’ geostrategic significance and the fertile lands of the Troad.
Over the years, MAHAL has created a multi-layered space, infrastructure, and network of collaboration dedicated to the production and sharing of art within the North Aegean cultural ecosystem. With the launch of the StudioMAHAL Artist-in-Residence Program, this structure has gained a new dimension.
Designed to function as both a living space and a production venue for artists and cultural practitioners, the program will host participants from various artistic disciplines who bring professional expertise, pedagogical experience, and theoretical knowledge. Resident artists in Çanakkale will have the opportunity to focus on their own research and production while also sharing their knowledge and experience with local young artists and cultural professionals.
StudioMAHAL AiR will curate activities that aim to enhance the city’s cultural ecosystem and foster the potential of its youth. It will also facilitate collaborations with local NGOs, experts and researchers from the fields of culture, art, archaeology, history, and ecology, as well as archives, libraries, cultural institutions, and local art studios.
The program was realized with the support of CABININ’s Solidarity Network, its own resources and partners, and was dedicated to the memory of Eren Guendelsberger. Structural contributions from Bor Sanat and infrastructure support from CultureCIVIC in 2022 also played a significant role in this process.
