CITY LINK FESTIVAL is an international culture and urban development festival organized by Givrum and that every year challenges the way we build, live and think about cities today. City Link was initiated by GivRum, a nonprofit organization from Copenhagen working to involve civil society, the public sector and businesses in neighborhood development. By literally opening the doors to empty buildings and public space, GivRum allows cultural projects and creative businesses to thrive. Through the City Link initiative, GivRum hopes to share best practices with cities around the world.

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We did cross-study trips in order to meet and explore the Copenhagen and İstanbul art scenes - and to discuss future collaborations and City Link projects.

In Copenhagen, we visited X and Beyond, Vermilion Sands and Astrid Noaks Atelier, where we got an insight into the Copenhagen art scene, artist-run spaces and their rooms. As well as the self-made city space “Linien", and PB43 that has recently moved from Amager to Nordhavn.

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In Istanbul, among other City Link’ers, during a couple of days in Istanbul we explored the relationships between art, design, people and space. we did an introduction to our artistic practices at PASAJ and we toured around the diverse area of Sisli that was supposed to host the festival in September. Unfortunately due to political situation in Istanbul, The City Link Team and City Link Istanbul Collaborators; Nextistanbul, Katadrom, Urban Adventures, Seismic project, Project 00, SANALarc, atölyeistanbul, Kot Sıfır, The Better Block, SUPERPOOL, Studio-X Istanbul, Sokak Bizim, Kızlar Sahada, Karaköy İdman Yurdu, Herkes İçin Mimarlık, Hamide, çocukistanbul, PASAJ, Bureau Detours, Hasan Özgür Top, Jenny Graf, Erdoğan Onur Ceritoğlu, Kristian Byskov and Margarita del Carmen had a common decision not to realize the event in İstanbul, in 2016.