An ancient tradition makes a little comeback
Güncelleme Tarihi:
ISTANBUL - A group of self-identified anarchists are bringing back an already forgotten tradition. They opened a bartering bazaar at a caf in Avcılar district. ’We want to take money out of the equation,’ says one of the hosts of the event. The barter bazaar may move out onto the streets soon.
Bartering is a long-gone tradition that is seeing a revival around the world as people begin questioning excessive consumption and begin experimenting with more sustainable ways of living.
This very notion is what has lead a group of self-identified anarchists to start a bartering bazaar in Avcılar, a district of Istanbul on the European side where Istanbul University has a campus, at a caf-bookstore called 'Birarada.' Nestled on the first floor of an old business center called Ozan Bağcılar, this quaint and friendly caf-bookstore is playing host for the anarchists’ bartering bazaar.
A word-of-mouth event
The initial running time for the bazaar was three days but due to popular demand it has been extended through the weekend. It is a word-of-mouth event with posters that are only easily understood if you are in the know.
One section of the caf-bookstore has been converted into a little bazaar section. You bring a little something and you take a little something. And little is the key word here. This is not a big to-do in the least. The people that come all know each other or are friends of the establishment; after all, even the posters are not everyone’s cup of tea with red x’s on a hundred dollar bill. But the owner of Birarada, Fırat Işık, is happy to host the event and the organizers, Burak Tuncel and Erkan Erdoğdu, are happy to have a place to barter.
"We do not have a customer/owner relationship here. This bazaar is not about commerce," said Işık.
"The criteria for everything has become money. We want to take money out of the equation. There is this idea of being in debt now. Why not live as oppose to accruing debt," said Tuncel.
The organizing pair does not see a cultural obstacle to bartering bazaars. "This can happen anywhere in the world. We need to question consumption," said Erdoğdu. The bartering bazaar here caters to a specific crowd but Erdoğdu and Tuncel have plans to take the idea out of the caf corner and out onto the street corner soon. The duo regularly brainstorms ideas for how to open up a bartering bazaar to a larger audience. "This bartering bazaar was very much amongst ourselves, for people we know, who come to this caf. It’s be great if we could open it up and maybe take it outside," said Erdoğdu.
A second city center
Though Avcılar may not seem like the first choice for such a politically minded event, it is slowly developing as a secondary city center of some note. It is teeming with youthful energy thanks to its 29 high schools, over 20 study centers and the nearby Istanbul University campus, which makes this an ideal location for not just this event but for all kinds of new initiatives, said Işık.
The group of anarchists in Avcılar is an active bunch who regularly make the Ozan Bagcılar business center the site of their events. This Saturday Tuncel and Erdoğdu will have a screening of the 2007 free documentary "Zeitgeist" at the Avcılar Halkevi at 6:30 p.m.