are you home?, 2022-2023
The artistic component of this thesis is presented in the form of an exhibition at the Mylly Building of the Helsinki University of the Arts and in four homes in different parts of Helsinki. The exhibition consists of spatial interventions, videos, red threads and events that are shown and not shown in the exhibition space. The central artistic component of this thesis, the multifaceted, process-based work “Are you Home?”, worked with, through and in conversation with people as a continuation of the process that preceded the exhibition. The process began with a coincidental encounter with a group of women who had recently immigrated to Finland from Turkey. The search for a response was shaped by a number of circumstances: that my thought had been wandering around the idea of home for some time, that I had just arrived somewhere, that I missed the warmth, and that I felt that they too needed a regular togetherness. So, the idea of Gün Yapmak became an excuse for us to get together in homes, with the intention of exploring ourselves. The traditional Gün Yapmak is a women’s circle that takes place mostly in homes, where everyone takes turns to welcome each other. In September 2022, the gatherings started in this form. The research continued with an approach in which the investigative eye did not separate itself from the investigated. Throughout the process, there was always the question of whether these people would have come together if I had not initiated it, and the concern about the possibility of the group splitting up.
I had been thinking about the concept of “home” even before I came to Helsinki.
In my new apartment, I was curious about what my neighbours’ homes looked like and put notes in their mailboxes, requesting a visit. Coincidentally, I met a social media group called “immigrant women Finland”. Around a long table, everyone shared their stories – when I told mine, and how none of my neighbours had replied to me, people at the table immediately invited me into their homes. Since then, my desire for warmth has brought about a responsive process.
As a small group, we started to gün yapmak, a practice loosely based on an old tradition in Turkey where “housewives” come together in each other’s homes to socialize and create an alternative self-sustained exchange of money or gold. I was experiencing the warmth of their houses, spinning a conversation about the conditions, needs, lacks, longings…
These expanding friendships sparked an idea of having 40-minute home conversations. This span of time refers to the idiom “a cup of coffee has a 40-year memory”. Many of these muhabbets accumulated to form a web of connections. With my mom, I wanted to talk more and more.
All the while, I was knitting to keep my hands busy. Knitting different tones of red yarn in many forms. The knit expanded the connections, relations, desires, and actions. Homes intertwined with each other and formed a flow as if it were knitted.
The meetings led to “40-minute house chats” where the question “what do you think home is?” was asked, and regular conversations alone with my mother.
The exhibition is a search for the aesthetics of this social practice, and an attempt to do it together. It moves from public to private space, from crowded events to autobiographical conversations and between sensations, from tasting to seeing.
The written component is a compilation of notes, dialogues, writings and logbooks written throughout the process. It bears witness to the process. The writings weave a narrative by moving back and forth in the chronological time of the process and in this sense invite the reader to turn the pages in their own time.
doğa çal