Abstract

The essay describes a teahouse next to the German Embassy. Its owner has squatted a piece of public and since 28 years now.Parts of this text are written by Susanne Bosch, the other part is an edited text (printed in GREY typeface) including excerpts from the unpublished Ph.D. thesis “The Misuse Value of Space: Spatial Practices and the Production of Space in Istanbul” by Derya Özkan, completed in the Visual and Cultural Studies Program at the University of Rochester, New York, in 2008. The excerpts are from the chapter titled “Ethnographies of Spatial Authorship” (pp. 156-191), where Özkan discusses cases in which the relation between space and authorship takes so complex forms that cannot be explained by normative discourses on the production of space. Bosch reflects the rather artistic approach towards space and material as well as intervention and performance of the tea seller Adem.