In 2010, Paul Harfleet brought The Pansy Project to Istanbul for a week of artistic intervention, dialogue, and international exchange. Hosted at HM Consulate-General, Pera House, the programme took place while Istanbul held the title of European Capital of Culture 2010, and formed part of a wider collaboration between Homotopia and partners in Turkey and the UK.

Working alongside Lambda Istanbul, Amnesty International, and the British Consulate-General Istanbul, Harfleet’s visit combined public action with workshops, presentations, and discussions involving diplomats, local artists, and LGBT activists. One of the defining moments of the visit saw a single symbolic planting at the British Consulate with Jessica Hand, then Consul-General to Istanbul, who took part in the planting, she said:  “At a first glance, all are pansies but each pansy is different from the other. This is how it is in the society we live in; though we all look alike, we are different from each other. I fully support this project. Protecting the rights of minority groups, wherever they may be, is a shared responsibility for all. Prejudice and discrimination are destructive to societies and individuals – tolerance may be more challenging, but it is ultimately more rewarding.”

For Gary Everett, then Artistic Director of Homotopia, the significance of the work in Istanbul was unmistakable: “In a country like Turkey, where prominent politicians find it acceptable to call homosexuality an offence and immoral on TV and radio, and where many LGBT people still don’t feel able to come out or be accepted, this project is an important and a timely reminder of why such work is vital.”