Sticks, Stones and Bones, Installation view, The Futureless Memory, Hamburg Kunsthaus, 2020
In 1937, the German Avantgarde artist Kurt Schwitters (1887, Hannover – 1948, Kendal) emigrated to Norway, escaping to Britain when the Nazis entered Norway 1940. His famous, mythic Merzbau, which occupied eight rooms in his house in Hannover, was bombed in 1943. He spent his final years in the UK, first in an internment camp, and later in Lake District, where he made his last Merz piece in an abandoned barn. In 1960s, the Merzbarn was discovered by Richard Hamilton and moved to a safe location at Newcastle University.
Sticks, Stones and Bones is based on the last seven years that Kurt Schwitters spent in British exile. The installation combines videos and sculptural interventions with archival materials from the Schwitters archive in Hannover, and the Tate Britain, amongst others. The documents draw attention to the time he spent in the internment camp on the Isle of Man between 1940 and 1941 with many fellow artists, poets, and intellectuals who had fled Nazi Germany. Within this community they organized a cultural program of lectures, exhibitions, and performances for the Internees.
The installation is complemented by photographs of pages from a notebook that Schwitters kept just before he died. Convinced that none of his poetry had survived the Nazis, he tried to rewrite all his poems from memory. Many pages are numbered but not completed due to his deteriorating health. The mostly empty pages interrelate with elements from the colors of the landscape of the Lake District through found materials, as well as the videos that respond to Schwitters’s use of materials such as bones, stones and plaster. For a time, he also used porridge provided in the internment camp as a material for his sculptures, though there is no evidence of these works available. However, his fellow inmates in the camp mentioned the smell of the rotten porridge coming from his room. Other sculptures he made in the Lake District later on are made from bones that he first gave to dogs to gnaw on. https://kunsthaushamburg.de/the-futureless-memory/
Sticks, Stones and Bones, Installation view, The Futureless Memory, Hamburg Kunsthaus, 2020
Sticks, Stones and Bones
3 videos, prints on paper, tablecloth, archival documents
The sentence ‘SANAT DİYE BİR ŞEY VAR’ said with a stutter is translated into the written form. At times of crises the inner voice is not stable. It is doubtful and affirming at the same time. Words turn into repetitions and raw sounds. Stuttering, yet determined to reach the full stop that marks the end of the sentence. Translation of the stuttered sentence into English is: ‘THERE’S THIS THING CALLED ART.
Dilek Winchester’s solo exhibition Attending the Void consists of a site-specific installation by the same name that spans across the ground floor of Depo. Following meetings and correspondence with 89 people between May and September 2019, 81 pedestals borrowed from 44 different locations were brought together in the exhibition space. These pedestals coming from 44 different art institutions and organisations including museums, exhibition and research centers, galleries, artists’ initiatives, not-for-profit art spaces, art initiatives without permanent spaces, as well as boards and bodies organizing student exhibits are featured in the exhibition as a representation of the ‘public space’ the arts create. The list of institutions and individuals acting as intermediaries is an artist-centered, subjective list, defined by the artist in the following words: “It is comprised of institutions, initiatives, organisations I have been involved in, nourished by or worked with as an artist, did research on, those that exhibited artworks of mine or my friends, which I have followed as an art viewer, whose influences I observed on my own artistic production, which I wrote or expressed opinions on – which, in short, populate my world, as structures that constitute the public I am part of.”
Apricots from Damascus An apexart Franchise Exhibition
SALT GALATA December 23, 2016 – February 21, 2016
Since the escalation of the war in Syria, millions of people have left their homes, with a majority fleeing to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Public spaces in cities like Istanbul, transformed by this climate of movement and exile, encompass different possibilities for encounters and interactions. The zine and exhibition project, Apricots from Damascus, constructed by Dilek Winchester and Atıf Akın, pays homage to Andre Breton’s statement “One publishes to find comrades!” and aims to create a multilingual environment for production and exchange. The participants of the project use the fanzine format to draw on personal experiences, or on the relics of waves of immigration that took place in the recent history of the Republic of Turkey, with a specific focus on Istanbul.
Apricots from Damascus builds upon an earlier zine project Apricot City A4, which was initiated in Istanbul by artist Winchester in 2010, and distributed by the local city PVC pushcart tenders. An unregulated, but tolerated business, these carts are part of Istanbul’s urban, informal economy, and are often operated by migrants from Eastern Anatolia, particularly Malatya, a region famous for its apricots.
In 2015 Winchester teamed up with one of the original contributors Akın to collaborate on a new zine and an exhibition that features works and references by all the commissioned editors. The title of their collaborative project, Apricots from Damascus, is translated from the Turkish “Şam’da Kayısı” that forms part of an idiomatic expression meaning “It doesn’t get any better than this.” The zines, which will also be distributed in public spaces in Istanbul, are printed in Arabic, English and Turkish. Apricots from Damascus positions a form of publication as an artistic practice, in an effort to create a more accessible template for a cultural commons.
The exhibition takes place in the research and social spaces of SALT Galata. It gathers the artists, writers and intellectuals who have been approached to each edit an issue of the zine, along with accompanying artworks or references. The hope is that by integrating the exhibition into the active areas of the building, exiled or settled artists in Istanbul can find spaces to commune together.
Featuring work by: Atıf Akın, Nadia Al Issa, Marwa Arsanios, Khaled Barakeh, Sezgin Boynik, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Angela Harutyunyan, Minna Henriksson, Armine Hovhannisyan, Marianna Hovhannisyan, Güven İncirlioğlu (The Pope), Banu Karaca, Pınar Öğrenci, Zeynep Öz, Aras Özgün, Dilek Winchester and Fehras Publishing Practices. https://saltonline.org/en/1287/samda-kayisi
Winchester’s work On Reading and Writing delves deeper into issues of national identity and ideology in relation to language. She excavates rare or marginalized texts of Karamanlidika and Armeno-Turkish literature, that have suffered exclusion by both the Turkish literary canon and other nationally applied cultures. By showcasing a rich scene of linguistic complexities, she attempts to shed light on the historical coexistence of different cultures, on cultural polyphony, and the possibility to imagine a new dialogue between cultural past and present.
November Paynter
[Excerpted from The Century of Centuries exhibition text, Salt Beyoğlu, 2015] https://saltonline.org/media/files/acenturyofcenturies_aboutworks.pdf
On Reading and Writing, Installation view from The Century of Centuries, Salt Beyoğlu, 2015On Reading and Writing (3 Texts), Installation view, EMST, 2012On Reading and Writing (3 Texts), Installation view, EMST, 2012On Reading and Writing, Installation view, EMST, 2012
Dilek Winchester’s work On Reading and Writing takes its point of departure from the first three Turkish novels published during the late Ottoman Empire. Even though the books were in Ottoman Turkish, they were printed in Greek, Arabic, and Armenian alphabets, respectively. Taking this practice as her point of reference, Winchester transcribes three short paragraphs that narrate the experiences of a little child as she encounters with this grammatological difference for the first time.
These short paragraphs are in Turkish but they are transliterated in, again, Greek, Arabic, and Armenian alphabets and inscribed on three small, portable blackboards with white chalk. This installation immediately invokes the iconic photograph that depicts Kemal Atatürk as he was introducing the new Latin alphabet on a portable blackboard to a newly established Republic of Turkey (c. 1928). From the perspective of the official discourse, this iconic image has served to mark the Republican break from the Ottoman past.
Yahya M. Madra
[Excerpted from “Being in Neighbourhood,” Contemporary Practices Vol. 4 (2009) pp.190-195.]
The installation was part of the exhibition Being in Neighbourhood. The first version of the installation On Reading and Writing (2007) is in the Collection of Ars Aevi in Sarajevo.
On Reading and Writing (3 First Novels in Turkish)On Reading and Writing (3 First Novels in Turkish)On Reading and Writing (3 First Novels in Turkish)On Reading and Writing (3 First Novels in Turkish)On Reading and Writing (3 First Novels in Turkish)
Video works Alphabets (Karamanlidika) and Alphabets (Armeno-Turkish) complement the artist’s installation On Reading and Writing (2007)
Alphabets (Karamanlidika) (2012)
29 minutes
Turkish; English subtitles
The artist interviews Stefo Benlisoy and Şehnaz Şişmanoğlu about the Turkish speaking Anatolian Orthodox communities of the 19th century Ottoman Empire, the books in Turkish written with the Greek alphabet, the writer and the journalist Evangelinos Misailidis (1820-1890), the making of the literary canon, and educational practices in the multicultural climate of the Empire.
Alphabets (Armeno-Turkish) (2012)
45 minutes
Turkish; English subtitles
The artist interviews Boghos Levon Zekiyan, Mehmet Fatih Uslu, Murat Cankara, Püzant Akbaş and Rober Koptaş about the history and the symbolic value of the Armenian alphabet, the books written in Turkish with the Armenian alphabet, the multilingual subject of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, and the building of a literary canon.
Emin Barın (1913 – 1987) is one of the very few artists who produced calligraphic work using Latin alphabet. Homage to Emin Barın is an installation in three parts and is based on the reinterpretation of Barın’s different works.
The first part, which is divided into two sections titled as There is no need to read or understand these writings anymore * They have turned into pictures*, consists of copies of Barın’s 6 calligraphy works and 6 different segments taken from each of these works painted on canvas. The information used in these work is taken from the catalogue of Barın’s exhibition at Fine Arts Academy in Istanbul in 1978.
The second part of the installation Sanatsız Sanatkar consists of the photos of an open-air sculpture that is still located in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and its replica. The cubic sculpture is designed by Sadi Çalık and the text on its surface is designed by Emin Barın.
The last section Maşallah RGB includes the photo of Emin Barin’s Maşallah sculpture, that is commissioned by Koc Family for the opening of the Bosphorus Bridge in 1973 and a light box. By juxtaposing the photo and the light box, artist refers to the current lighting of the Bosphorus Bridge.
The Unnamable: Metaphors for Vulva and Vagina is based on slang terms used for vagina and vulva. These terms were collected from a variety of online and offline slang dictionaries. The images are collected from the Wikimedia Commons. The visual part of this work is duly licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution‐Noncommercial‐Share Alike 3.0 licence. According to this licence, you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. However it should be noted the same licence doesn’t apply to the sound section accompanying the visuals. This part of the work cannot be copied or used without permission.
Special thanks to Cemre Baytok and Murat Ercan for their support with the voice over.
Transcription of the voice over (One male, one female voice)
Your diamond
Your Clam
Our Amazon
My Apple Pie
My Apricot
My Bacon Sandwich
My Beehive
Your Black hole
Our Bread roll
Your cape horn
Your wet beaver
My artichoke
My clam
My cherry
Their cookie
…
List of found images:
kamu kullanımına açık görseller / public domain //// crack [çatlak] This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA. Summary: Image: Unknown. Taken by the Mars Opportunity rover on May 16 or 17, 2007. I call it “berries in a crack. ” //// muffin [muffin] This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the National Institutes of Health. Source: National Cancer Institute, Renee Comet (photographer) //// fat rabbit [şişman tavşan] : Description: Netherland Dwarf rabbit. Author: shogun1192. Date: 15July2008 //// parsley [maydanoz] Summary: Parsley in a greenhouse. Date: 8 November 2005. //// box [kutu] summary: picture of a box. Date and time of data generation: 19: 57, 15 April 2007 //// fig [incir] : File: Feige-Schnitt. jpg from de: wiki @16: 29, 2. Okt 2004 by User: Rainer Zenz. //// turtle [kaplumbağ] File: Florida Redbelly Turtle KSC00pp0306. jpg. Florida Redbelly Turtleen: Florida Redbelly Turtle – Pseudemys nelsoni. Source: http: //mediaarchive. ksc. nasa. gov/detail. cfm?mediaid=6078. //// bread box [ekmek kutusu] File: Breadbox. jpg. Date and time of data generation: 01: 24, 8 August 2005. //// cherry pop tart [kirazlı pop turta] File: Pop-Tarts Frosted Strawberry. jpg. Description Pop-Tarts Frosted Strawberry. Author Scott Ehardt. //// black hole [kara delik] File: Black Hole in the universe. jpg. This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA. //// roast beef [rozbif] File: Roast beef. jpg Roast beef from the US Department of Energy Office of Administration “Carvery” cafeteria. Date and time of data generation: 10: 47, 31 July 2002. //// mound [tepecik] File: Criel Mound. jpg. Description: The Criel Mound in South Charleston, West Virginia, USA. Date: February 12, 2006. Author: David G. Simpson. Date and time of data generation: 11: 46, 21 August 2005. //// taco [taco] File: NCI Visuals Food Taco. jpg. Description: Hard-shell taco with meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Source National Cancer Institute. Date: 1994Author: Renee Comet (photographer) . This image is a work of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. //// tarantula [tarantula] File: Tarantula 020. jpg. Description: Tarantula – (Brachypelma smithi) . Author: Ltshears – Trisha M Shears. Date: Feb 21, 2007. //// squid [mürekkep balığı] File: Humboldt squid in sink. JPG. Author: Imageman. Description Dosidicus gigas. English: a Humboldt squid. (alt. names jumbo flying squid or diablo rojo) . Note the dark red hue. The squid is about 25 kilograms/50 pounds in weight. Français : Poulpy nettoie l’évier. Date and time of data generation: 22: 04, 12 February 2005. //// peach [şeftali] File: Autumn Red peaches. jpg. Description: English: Autumn Red peach. Français : Pêches. Photo by Jack Dykinga. Source: USDA ARS Image Number K6084-1. Date: August 1997. //// fig[incir] File: Feige-Schnitt. jpg. from de: wiki @16: 29, 2. Okt 2004 by User: Rainer Zenz. (Querschnitt durch den reifen Fruchtstand der Echten Feige. Eigenes Foto. Public Domain) (Przekrój przez świeży owoc figowca pospolitego) . //// cape horn [boynuz burnu] File: Cabo de Hornos. JPG. Description English: Cape Horn seen from the Chilean Station and Memorial location on 05/12/2006 at 08: 00 AM. Source: Transferred from en. wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User: Frokor using CommonsHelper. Date: 2006-12-16 (original upload date) . Author: Original uploader was Buron444 at en. wikipedia. //// hoop [pota] File: Basketball through the hoop. JPG. //// Creative Commons Share alike 3 lisansı koruması altındaki görseller //// clothespin [mandal] File: Red clothespin. JPG. Description: English: Red clothespin. Deutsch: Rote Wäscheklammer. Polski: Czerwona klamerka. Source: Praca własna (own work by uploader) . Date: 9 November 2008. Author Kosiarz-PL. //// mango [mango] File: Mangga gedong gincu 071021-0845 tmo. jpg. Description: Mangga gedong gincu, a cultivar of mango, Mangifera indica, from Tomo, Sumedang, West Java, Indonesia. Date21 Oct 2007. AuthorW. A. Djatmiko (Wie146) . //// pork pie [domuz etli turta] File: Pork pie on plate. jpg. Description: Image of a pork pie. Source: Evan Izer. Date: 12/19/2007. Author: Palladian. //// holy grail [kutsal kase] File: SantoCaliz. jpg. Description: Santo Caliz (Holy Chalice, Holy Grail) , Valencia, Spain. Bildbeschreibung: Heiliger Gral Valencia Mit freundlicher Genehmigung von KATH. NET. Date: 10/07/2006. Author: Roland Noé. //// rose bud [gül tomurcuğu] File: Red rose bud. jpg. Összefoglaló. Description: Red rosebud from Hungary. Date. November 3. Author HuBoro. //// clam [istiridye] File: Chamelea gallina. jpg. Chamelea gallina Linnaeus, 1758. English: Striped venus clam near Riumar, Baix Ebre, Catalonia, Spain. Français : Une galinette. Photo prise sur la plage de Riumar, en Catalogne (Espagne) . Date 26/03/2008. Author Hans Hillewaert. ////creative commons shareAlike 2. 5 lisansı koruması altındaki görseller //// target [hedef tahtası] File: Harrows Bristle Board Bullseye. JPG. Date and time of data generation: 14: 06, 7 February 2005. //// oven [frırın] File: Microwave oven. jpg This file is created by Christian Rasmussen. Date and time of data generation: 19: 58, 24 September 2006. //// oyster [istiridye] File: Open Oyster Lyon market. JPG This image was created by Chris 73. ////apple pie (elmalı pasta) : File: Apple pie. jpg By Dan Parsons. Date and time of data generation: 10: 40, 14 November 2004. //// golden gates [altın kapı] File: Hannover – Herrenhausen – Großer Garten – Goldenes Tor – 20050502. JPG. Author Ingo Rickmann Description Hannover – Herrenhausen – Großer Garten Goldenes Tor. 2005-05-02. Date and time of data generation: 12: 41, 2 May 2005. //// beehive [arikovani] File: Bienenstöcke. jpg . This photo was taken by Wassily. credit this photo: Wassily Frese or Василий Фрезе. Date and time of data generation 14: 40, 1 May 2007. //// wet beaver [ıslak kunduz] File: Castor canadensis. jpg. Description: I came across this handsome animal (Castor canadensis) on a recent fishing excursion. Unfortunately, I could not get a better shot of the tail, which is very broad and flat. Date: May 24, 2006. Author: LASZLO ILYES (laszlo-photo) from Cleveland, Ohio, USA. //// seaweed [yosun] File: TomCorser Seaweed 2. jpg Photo by Tom Corser. www. tomcorser. com. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2. 0 England & Wales (UK) Licence. Date and time of data generation 15: 41, 4 July 2006. //// roastbeef [rozbif] File: Roastbeef. jpg Typisch zubereitetes Roastbeef. Foto: Timo Sack. Date and time of data generation 20: 03, 4 January 2007. //// garage [garaj] File: Garage door. JPG SummaryPhotograph taken in August 2006 of a UK metal up-and-over garage door. Date and time of data generation: 02: 37, 17 January 2003. //// gantelets [zırh eldiveni] File: Gantelets. jpg pairs of gauntlets, Germany, end of the 16th century. Author: Rama. Paternité – Partage des Conditions Initiales à l’Identique 2. 0 France. //// folded pancake [katlanmış krep] File: Pancake with tomato goats cheese and onion2. jpg by Tom Adriaenssen File change date and time: 20: 02, 3 March 2006. //// steak [biftek] File: Ribeye-MCB-MaggieO. jpg USDA Choice beef ribeye steak from Cetak’s Gourmet Meats, Lincoln, NE. Photo made by Maggie Osterberg on 2006-10-01 and released to Wikipedia under CC-BY-SA 2. 5 //// pencil sharpener [kalemtıraş] File: Puntenslijper-01 (xndr) . jpg Summary: Pencil sharpener. User: Svdmolen/Archive. Date and time of data generation: 18: 20, 6 January 2007. //// Tulum: File: Schäferpfeife in G-G. jpg. Description: Schäferpfeife in G, Bordune in Oktavabstand G. Source: own work, photo of my bagpipe. Date: 06. 07. 07. Author: Benedikt Schreiner Rider Of Rohan 1981. //// [fincan] File: 2006-10-15 Tasse+Untertasse-Pflaume01. jpg. Description: porcelain cup. Date: 15 October 2006. Author: Wildfeuer. //// kumpir [kumpir] File: Kumpir2. jpg Description: A fine specimen of Turkish fast-food Kumpir, as served in METU, Ankara, Turkey. Date: January 28, 2007. Author: Atilim Gunes Baydin. //// bakla [bakla] File: Bakla z01. JPG Description: Bakla-Bohnen (tr) Date: 2007/037/11. Author: Zyance. //// bead [boncuk] File: Wooden beads. JPG. Description: Photo of wooden beads. Date: 20 May 2007. Author: Danielle Keller. //// cookie [kurabiye] File: Matcha cookies. jpg. Description: Matcha is a green powdered tea. Source: originally posted to Flickr as Matcha cookie. Date: 2 November 2004. Author: jam343. //// conch [denizkabuğu] File: Hawkwing Conch 2 Macro. JPG Description: English: Macro of an Hawkwing Conch (Strombus raninus) . Date: August 2, 2007. Author: “Jon Zander (Digon3) ” //// hazelnut [fındık] File: Hazelnuts 02. jpg Summary: Huzelnuts, fruit of Corylus avellana. Usage granted by Nova. //// daisy [papatya] File: Several daisies (Asteroideae) top. jpg Photo taken by me of some daisies, perhaps Leucanthemum vulgaris. User: Erin Silversmith / en: user: Silversmith, Date and time of data generation: 16: 40, 27 December 2005. //// cotton [pamuk] File: Gossypium. JPG Description: Polski: Torebki i nasiona bawełny (Gossypium L.) English: (Gossypium L.) Polski: własna praca. Date: 17: 20 2 May 2008 Author: real name: Karol Głąb. pl. wiki: Karol007 commons: Karol007. //// blackberry [bögürtlen] File: Psáry, Dolní Jirčany, zrající ostružiny IV. jpg Description: Česky: Zrající plody ostružiníku nedaleko Dolních Jirčan nápověda. English: Blackberry fruit near Dolní Jirčany, Psáry. Central Bohemian region, CZ. Own camera – vlastní fotoparát. Date: 21. 07. 2008. Author: User: Aktron. //// GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. 2 lisansı altındakiler ////cabbage [lahana] File: Wirsingkohl. jpg Summary: Wirsing, Wirz, curled cabbage, choux frisée – Brassica oleracea //// truffle [yermantarı] File: Truffle. jpg Date and time of data generation: 18: 59, 20 November 2004. MatthiasKabel. ///// bacon sandwich [domuz pastırmalı sandöviç] File: Baconbutty. Jpg. Summary: An impressive Bacon Butty. Author: Davidwnoble. ///// snowwhite [pamuk prenses] File: Harikalar Diyari Snowwhite 7Dwarfs 06042 nevit. jpg Description: Ankara Amusement Park. Source: Own Photograph. Date: 2007. Author: Nevit Dilmen. //// furby [furby] File: Furby. JPG Description: A furby, photographed by Do’Neil. Source: Originally from en. wikipedia. Date: 2004-11-19 (first version) ; 2006-07-03 (last version) . Author: Original uploader was Do’Neil at en. wikipedia Later versions were uploaded by Mirelespm, The demiurge, Seano1 at en. wikipedia. ///// apricot [kayısı] File: Apricots. jpg user: Fir0002 07: 38, 26 April 2005. //// amazon [amazon] File: Amazonian rainforest. JPG Description: Amazonian rainforest, upper Amazon basin, Loreto region, Peru. Own work. Date: October 2007. Author: Shao. //// leaf [yaprak] File: Folla Loureiro 015eue. jpg. Author: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga Commons) (Lmbuga Galipedia) Publicada por/Publish by: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez. Data/Date: 01 de outubro de 2005 (01-10-2005) . Outros datos/Other data: Folla, hoja, folha, leaf (Galicia – Spain) ////
Images can be searched for on www. commons/wikimedia. org with the relevant file names listed above.
