Café | Where is our time? | Zamanımız nerede?
In my study of interior architecture, my main focus is on space and human interaction. My experience is that one of the most important factors which determine space and the interaction happening in it is ‚the thing‘ that the space contains. We fill our spaces with the objects we need for our day to day living. These objects significantly determine what a certain space is, i.e. becomes, by defining its functionality both through their placement as well as presence.
During my three month art residency in Istanbul, I chose for my field of work the theme „everyday objects“. I have been exploring the ‚things‘ which surround the people in this city but are constantly being overlooked.
While being outside, on the street I have been observing and taking part in the local café culture all the time. People meet and talk while drinking çay or kahve. These two drinks accompany the day, always available, at every corner. People are constantly holding tea glasses or coffee cups, whilst seemingly paying them no attention. So I decided to set up a spotlight on these objects by placing them into different contexts.
By creating installations using these items and exhibiting them in an art gallery, it is possible to focus the public‘s attention onto these inconspicuous objects. In becoming decontextualized from their familiar habitat a completely new situation can be created.
When we pass our time in cafés we inhabit a kind of static position with reference to our surrounding. Of course, exhibition situations involve staticity as well. Works of art usually remain static whilst the observer walks by or around them.
In gathering all these thoughts together, I created three works that focus on the objects I am referring to and their surrounding, with the intention of trying to break the staticity of their situations by creating a moment of surprise for the public. All the elements which compose the installation are completely transparent for the viewer, nothing is hidden, it is not about magic. The onlooker discovers the situation before anything changes visually.
The intention of this installation is to create a dynamic relationship between the onlooker and these (normally inconspicuous) objects, thereby stimulating thought, interpretation and meaning … which can flow in any direction.