Exhibition Text
Group show during 8th Thessaloniki Biennale, Being as Communion
The artist Corinne Silva with whom I have had the pleasure to collaborate numerous times has presented a new version of her work Flames Among Stones at the 8th Thessaloniki Biennale, Being as Communion. The first time the work was ever shown was during the show I curated at Le Cube in Rabat, Morocco, for Leave No Stone Unturned [Remuer la terre]. Then, we presented a second and wider version during the group show Planted in the Body at MeetFactory, Prague, Czech Republic. It is with pleasure that I have written a text on this video, textile and photograph installation for the catalogue of the Biennale.
Excerpts: ‘Established in Cappadocia by the sisters Güler and Türkan, the garden at the centre of the two-channel video and textile installation, Flames Among Stones, is a haven, a fertile ground for going into resonance with the earth and its knowledge. Together with their daughters and granddaughters, the siblings quietly care for their enclave’s ecosystem and numerous more-than-human inhabitants. Together, they collectively shape a space for community and agriculture, following the rhythm of the seasons. They shape the garden and let themselves be shaped by it. Through organic gestures, they work with soil―not against it―, potentiating its growth, as if they were equally part of a living cell whose membrane would be the plot’s protective wall. […]
The garden could not exist without the wall marking the separation of an autonomous feminine space, that escapes an authoritarian and patriarchal society. Within these boundaries, resisting the urban sprawl, the green land acts as an interface offering alternative strategies to forms of oppression. Güler and Türkan remind us of the significance of collective work and resilience during a period when the connection to land has been lost by most city dwellers. Gardening becomes the route to another form of wisdom, to reground ourselves and respond to exclusionary politics and ecological degradation. Fragile, the garden also reflects frictions. How to ward off an expanding city’s real estate pressure? What will happen after the sisters, now in their ’80s, are no longer here? Who will take care of the land given their family is scattered across different cities?’
Exhibition Text
Group show during 8th Thessaloniki Biennale, Being as Communion
The artist Corinne Silva with whom I have had the pleasure to collaborate numerous times has presented a new version of her work Flames Among Stones at the 8th Thessaloniki Biennale, Being as Communion. The first time the work was ever shown was during the show I curated at Le Cube in Rabat, Morocco, for Leave No Stone Unturned [Remuer la terre]. Then, we presented a second and wider version during the group show Planted in the Body at MeetFactory, Prague, Czech Republic. It is with pleasure that I have written a text on this video, textile and photograph installation for the catalogue of the Biennale.
Excerpts: ‘Established in Cappadocia by the sisters Güler and Türkan, the garden at the centre of the two-channel video and textile installation, Flames Among Stones, is a haven, a fertile ground for going into resonance with the earth and its knowledge. Together with their daughters and granddaughters, the siblings quietly care for their enclave’s ecosystem and numerous more-than-human inhabitants. Together, they collectively shape a space for community and agriculture, following the rhythm of the seasons. They shape the garden and let themselves be shaped by it. Through organic gestures, they work with soil―not against it―, potentiating its growth, as if they were equally part of a living cell whose membrane would be the plot’s protective wall. […]
The garden could not exist without the wall marking the separation of an autonomous feminine space, that escapes an authoritarian and patriarchal society. Within these boundaries, resisting the urban sprawl, the green land acts as an interface offering alternative strategies to forms of oppression. Güler and Türkan remind us of the significance of collective work and resilience during a period when the connection to land has been lost by most city dwellers. Gardening becomes the route to another form of wisdom, to reground ourselves and respond to exclusionary politics and ecological degradation. Fragile, the garden also reflects frictions. How to ward off an expanding city’s real estate pressure? What will happen after the sisters, now in their ’80s, are no longer here? Who will take care of the land given their family is scattered across different cities?’
Info
Published by 8th Thessaloniki Biennale & MOMus
Design by Studio Lialios Vazoura
2023, Greek/English
16,5 x 23,2 cm, 251 pages, softcover
ISBN 978-618-5426-29-3
Info
Published by 8th Thessaloniki Biennale & MOMus
Design by Studio Lialios Vazoura
2023, Greek/English
16,5 x 23,2 cm, 251 pages, softcover
ISBN 978-618-5426-29-3
