GROUP SHOW: DANCING INTO ONE: BENGÜ KARADUMAN, BAŞAK BUGAY,SEVİL TUNABOYLU, DENİZ PASHA, DOĞU ÖZGÜN, OZAN ÖLMEZ, OĞUZ GÜDEK, TUFAN BALTALAR
GROUP SHOW: DANCING INTO ONE, BENGÜ KARADUMAN, BAŞAK BUGAY,SEVİL TUNABOYLU, DENİZ PASHA, DOĞU ÖZGÜN, OZAN ÖLMEZ, OĞUZ GÜDEK, TUFAN BALTALAR
"...with it we all comprise a shifting figure of which it is the steady center: the Tower is friendly."
Which Tower?
There is essentially only one Tower, and the crowd that is seen from the top of it. 
A mass of people. Some groups. Some couples, some singles.  
They stand side by side. Collectively.
All together.
A little like dancing. 
As if they become just one body.
 

 

How to define that body which constantly keeps turning? In which language it could best be defined? Or, from whom to start? 
 
Perhaps from the ones who come together under a common goal or a similar form of victimisation. Because they would have things to say. Those who are displaced; who are forced into migration carry a story of escape to the places they go. Sometimes, the story is formed around a minaret; sometimes in front of a fountain. But for most of the time, it develops within the “fertile lands” of some distant time. Yet it always ends with loss, death, ruin. It restarts after its end. It’s a perpetual cycle. A metamorphosis.
 
That which does not metamorphose remains in the glances. It remains in
photographs and waits for someone to encounter that photograph. A woman who sees in a bookshop a photograph of two women gazing into the distance might start daydreaming because of it. She makes sense of what she sees without needing any other form of remembering within a dream. Sometimes she even arrives at a conclusion and, for instance, she feels that a woman who tries to exist under certain lifestyles, which power imposes, can build her own home without even needing a wall.
 
Because home is private. It hides the emotions most. Maybe this is the reason why its main function does not change frequently. Spaces which are first made dysfunctional and then gain a new function, are usually public. Like parks, synagogues and schools. Places that take the Sun inside through their broken windows or places in front of whose majestic iron gates people stand...
 
"...Now we are heading towards the schoolhouse. We stop when we arrive in front of it:

Our church, The Saint Nicholas Church is made into a school. On the 15th of every August, I feel like I see my mother visiting there with the Virgin Mary icon in her arms..."



The things that are told to icons, and wishes made by the candlelight are about the relationship people built both with themselves and their surroundings. Within this relationship, the person who constantly sways between ego and superego, is left alone with different forms and shapes of their egos and forced to cope with all of them individually. They have to hold the thousand different forms of their ego together; and they have to remain whole; for the shell is one and only, and it is essential to avoid cracking it. 

Just like the life on an island, which looks as a whole from the land. The island is for the ones who embrace solitude. Actually, it is not only for those who like it, but also for those who can endure it. Because the island is a great wave which reminds us of breathing; and with every breath, it reminds us of the continuity of life despite everything.  It is a tree that shows its will to live with its body. And it is the crowd that is left behind. 

It is a known fact that there are rules for living within the crowds. There are rules, but regardless of whether those rules are obeyed or not, there is also a rhythm which is created by the tiny movements of the ones who are so dependent that they cannot move apart from each other.

The rustle of inevitable togetherness. The rattle of usual unity. A huge social process. Designated ideals. Some people's expectations, some others’ justice, and others’ passion. Acceptances, sacrifices, renounces. Crimes, forgiveness. Borders.

The World. 

"It is in the world that we come into the world and in the world that we go out in the world."

A little like dancing. 

As if they become just one body.

Back to Past exhibitions