WOW Istanbul at WOW Manchester 24- 26 May 2024
The first WOW Manchester was organized at the Aviva Studios in Manchester Produced by Factory International and The WOW Foundation, brought together inspiring activists, speakers, and artists from the UK and the globe. Kreşendo, İKSV Alt Kat and Duygu Demirdağ also joined the festival representing WOW Istanbul.
The rug, as the output of the WOWsers Istanbul 2022 initiated by İKSV Alt Kat with artist and designer Pınar Akkurt's workshop 'Garbage, Rugs and Pixels’ has been displayed at the Youth Zone at WOW Manchester.
Journalist and Documentary maker Duygu Demirdağ's (WOW Istanbul 2024- WOW Bites Speaker, WOW Big Ideas Moderator) documentary "The Story of the Survivors," revealing the stories of women of Hatay who survived the devastation of the 6 February 2023 earthquake which destroyed 11 cities. In Türkiye, made its debut in the UK as it was screened at the WOW Istanbul booth in the support of the UK based Mozaik Foundation. Duygu Demirdağ has presented a 5 minutes talk at WOW Bites to share how one’s life can change with only one minute and thirty seconds (duration of the earthquake). She has shared her own journey of stepping out of the conservative media to initiate her own You Tube Channel and taking the initiative to travel to the city of Hatay and listen to the women’s stories.
Bringing their collaboration in Istanbul to Manchester, Kreşendo worked with Brighter Sound from Manchester to produce two new songs connecting musicians from Istanbul, Diyarbakır and Manchester. Rojda Sönmez and Ezgi Karadayı joined IORA and Mandy Wigby to create a new city-scape: a cross-cultural fusion that interpreted sounds from Istanbul and Manchester. Created in situ in less than 6 hours, the new tracks have been unveiled live at WOW Manchester on Saturday 25 May. On 26 May, WOW Istanbul booth hosted by Kreşendo at WOW Marketplace invited audiences to experience My City My Voice, with an opportunity to meet the artists and hear the newly released album that features musicians from the WOW Istanbul My City, My Voice orchestra.