On Solitude and Water

Artists: Hüsamettin Bahçe, Serdar Bayram, Fatma Çelik, Lezgin Kâni, Aylin Kızıl, Serpil Polat

Texts: Deniz Yükseker, Akgün İlhan

Translation: Feride Eralp

Design: Serdar Darendeliler

Number of pages: 80

Print and binding: Ofset Yapımevi, Istanbul

Published: January 2020

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The catalogue accompanying the exhibition 'On Solitude and Water', presented at Depo from 10 January to 9 February 2020, includes the four visual stories featured in the exhibition, as well as texts by Deniz Yükseker and Akgün İlhan. 'On Solitude and Water' brings together four stories about people, life, and water—an element that forms part of the essence of human existence and, at times, accompanies us through it. The stories in the exhibition, produced by members of the NarPhotos collective based in Diyarbakır and its surrounding region, address two different themes: two focus on migration, on those who leave and those who remain, on lives that are built and left behind, and on experiences of becoming—or being made—alone; the other two take water as their starting point, exploring an element that shapes both human and natural life.

Migration is a concept almost as old as human history itself. It encompasses displacement, settling in a new place, belonging, longing, separation, solitude, and adaptation. Water, meanwhile, is fundamental to human existence and has shaped human life through its effects on the landscapes we inhabit. Today, it is also a resource increasingly consumed through human ambition and subjected to attempts at control, often at the expense of the ecosystems and other forms of life that depend on it. The watersheds explored in these works belong to the Turkish stretches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in a region where civilisation took significant leaps forward and where agriculture first emerged.

First exhibited in the final days of 2018 as part of the year-end events presenting projects produced during the first year of Kültür için Alan, the new version of 'On Solitude and Water' brought together expanded presentations of works from the original exhibition, two talks addressing Türkiye’s migration and water policies that provided a context for the works, a reading area, and a photography workshop led by NarPhotos collective members Serra Akcan and Kerem Uzel. The production of the works presented as part of 'On Solitude and Water', as well as the exhibition and catalogue production and the accompanying public programme, was supported by Kültür için Alan.

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​[Click here to view the full exhibition catalogue on Issuu.]