Meeting, monumental sculpture, 2021 – Method, video, loop, 2021
Do the circumstances push us into action? Is it our will to act that creates the circumstances?
The work entitled “Meeting” answers this question to some extent. With the power of solidarity, a new method of renewal is found.
While visiting non-Muslim cemeteries and hospitals, the artist realizes that these areas create meeting-chat environments, they do not have the usual graveyard gloom. This emotional state she experiences encourages her to think about this issue. Cemeteries have turned into a healing garden which heals the survivors.
The place where Taksim Square is currently located was formerly the “Grand Champs des Morts”, that is, the “Great Cemetery”. While the cemetery served as a burial ground for victims of the 16th century plague, it was open to public use in the 17th century. On the slopes of Ayaspaşa, there were Armenian Gregorian, Armenian Catholic, Latin Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox cemeteries and also a Muslim cemetery. Over time, these areas have become a very popular promenade and picnic area.
When the Ottoman government ordered the removal of Catholic and Protestant burials in the Great Cemetery, the government also ordered the construction of “Taşkışla” (Stone Barracks) and Military Hospital in the area. Later, the “Artillery Barracks” was demolished and this area was brought to life as “Taksim Gezi Park”. By drawing attention to how wounds, which have remained open for years, bind people together and that gatherings –as a balm for this wound- also occur in places with strong memories (such as cemeteries), Eldek’s installation called “Meeting” shows that erasure and extinction are impossible. At the same time, the history of the area where the “Approach Tunnel” is located, which is the exhibition venue of the artworks “Method” and “Meeting”, bonds with the artworks and therefore the relationship between the artworks and the exhibition space becomes significant.
Here the method is the ladder; fear and anxiety sometimes prevent us from seeing the method before us. The inner movement experienced before the action, the inability to move, being stuck in the gap between reality and dreams, the state of searching for a method brought about by not finding a way out. This state of being stuck is valid for all societies at the moment.
