Connectistanbul was founded by Dutch artist and organizer Teike Asselbergs (Amersfoort, 1973) who lives in Istanbul and the Netherlands. She first came to Turkey in 1989 and has been living in Istanbul part-time since 2006 after marrying her Turkish husband Ozge Ascioglu. She loves Turkey and likes to help foreign visitors experience and interact with people and places in Istanbul.

Before founding Connectistanbul she ran the Amsterdam-based art organization Orgacom.nl for ten years with fellow artist Elias Tieleman: “Realizing complex art projects in organizations and public space, I learned how to manage unique projects. My colleague and I were always focused on how audiences made sense of the art works, because the meaning of any work of art comes from people’s interpretation of it.”