Works  |  2014
On The Wall
Audio by Fikriye Alpsoy who is the wife of Halil Alpsoy
Audio by İkbal Eren who is the sister of Hayrettin Eren
Audio by Gülbahar Alpsoy who is the daughter of Kasım Alpsoy

On the Wall is a photography and sound installation by Aylin Tekiner which traces expressions of the complexity of legitimate emotions– hope, longing, mourning, sadness, anger – of the relatives of the people who disappeared under custody. These relatives– mainly mothers, often remembered as the Saturday Mothers – go to Galatasaray Square in Istanbul every Saturday to hold up the portrait pictures of their beloved missing ones. -This act is also portrayed in the work Holding up the Photograph.- Meeting altogether at the square, gives the mothers strength to carry on with their lives, and they repeat it every single week, until they finally find the “price” (bedel) that has been paid – a word they prefer, instead of the one for body (beden). This collective act keeps their demand sustainable on political basis. The photographs of the missing are hung so high that the missing person, who – most probably – paid the ultimate price, is closer to the sky than the ground. This act does not only exalt the missing person, but also the political struggle that is carried on. The audience is left standing in front of these images and listens to the voices of the relatives, telling the stories of their missing loved ones.

 

Işın Önol
Independent Curator