Located on 3 neighbouring store-front shops in Pangalti, Istanbul, Pist is an independent project run by Didem Özbek and Osman Bozkurt, since May 2006.
Both Özbek and Bozkurt lived just around the corner for several years before opening PiST, and the decision to establish the art space sprang out of their own personal relationship with the area. In part, they acted out of frustration. All around them, other residents were asserting their presence in the public space -- shouting for tea, regulating parking, and arguing in the street. Appropriating three neighboring store fronts (formerly an electrical hardware store, a restaurant, and a grocery store), the pair made room for their own art interests amongst the local shops and bars.
Still, they note, functioning at the street level as "PiST," rather than as "Didem and Osman," is a delicate process. It is not clear whether locals' reserved attitude is specifically a response to PiST's ambiguous status -- or if such a response indicates that PiST successfully fits into an existing way of life, where "live and let live" is the neighborhood's established code. After all, not all of the shops in the neighborhood feel the need to announce themselves as something specific. Some are simply there, like a local repairman, whose store full of wood serves in place of a sign specifying what exactly he does.
Source: Nafas Art Magazine