2023, Collective “HealIng”, Metrohan

Artists: Hoda Tawakol, Alicia Framis, Mehtap Baydu, Saelia Aparicio, Silva Bingaz, Roslyn Orlando, Neriman Polat, Nancy Atakan, Inci Eviner, Nergiz Yesil, Busra Cegil, Lara Ogel, Zeyno Pekunlu, Deniz Hartik, Leyla Emadi, Leyla Gediz, and MADEYOULOOK; along with a video by Tracey Emin from the Julia Stoschek Collection and toys from the Istanbul Toy Museum Collection

Today, tension caused by social, economic, and political violence has spread—perceptible in almost the air we breathe. In the Era of Man, humanity is more fragile than ever before. As it struggles with epidemics, wars, and crises, it pays a high price for standing against nature, rather than standing "with nature." The neoliberal order is the same as it has always been, as expected; it tries to repressively transform the concepts of an individual's body, identity, and sense of belonging, along with power policies and abuse of power, beyond an anti-authoritarian system that values freedom and has minimal state functions.

In the "individual" system, where people are increasingly isolating themselves from each other due to increased competition and diminished solidarity, individuals who lack empathy focus on themselves, rather than critically investigating social relations, missing out on social connections that lead to antisocial behaviors. In the order designed by the government to desensitize society, everything is described as individual, warm, peaceful, comfortable, and safe, which is deemed more important than freedom.

Our passion for peace of mind, through which we aim to be the better version of ourselves, distracts us from the painful debates in society, robbing us of the courage needed to make progress and improve. Comfort and convenience important for "one" delay the reform important for "us" due to the effect of desensitization.

According to research, women feel gender inequality most severely when they enter the public sphere. According to the findings of the reports prepared periodically by the KONDA research company titled “Social Mood”; the depression index has been higher for women than for men. The expression "I was depressed," which is increasingly popular in social psychology, is mostly used by women.

The Turkish University-Graduate Women's Association, one of the oldest women's solidarity platforms in Turkey—which was founded as a collective women's movement—and the Mina’nın Çocukları (Mina's Children) project, operating within its body, prepared for months to open some doors in order to discuss current issues caused by gender inequality and heal without shying away from the transformative power of pain.

With the awareness that the means to achieve healing go through a change of social norms, a collaboration of strength was made with 19 female artists in order to raise awareness about the effects of capitalist discourses on the female body, flirting violence, feelings of exclusion, women's position in social memory, digital obesity, indirect communication, and women's current problems such as physical and psychological confidence.

The display venue has a multi-segmented structure with improvement works underway. At the entrance, you're welcomed by the sound of doors slamming made by women who stand against oppression and injustice and thus go out, followed by the determination of another woman who declares war against traditions and runs away with her wedding dress, with spaghetti western music in the background.

Weakness, touch, and nudity in a power-based system are narrated by photos uniting two different geographies, emphasizing the purity of love and passion. In the opposite corner, two pairs of silver transvestite shoes, remaining in vacuity, have been moved far away from urban spaces.

The common thread between a woman looking out from the future back to the past and a woman placing bone references, fossil samples, and family tree data of an imaginary species in her rare cabinet is "curiosity."

In a world where a video collage showing how to touch a woman without terrifying her seizes popular channels, can state-of-the-art airbags protect a woman from being abused?

Can dashes with voluptuous names derived from various parts of the female body and sculptures in forms that refer to fertility and abundance with rounded lines go against social norms?

Meditative music and our bodies lying on structures with extremely uncomfortable ergonomics invite us to reject our dependence on temporary healing methods in our lives and our body's indifference. In a world where loneliness and isolation are increasing, the conditions created for the preservation of balloons in jars, with reference to the principle of "making pickles," an ancient culinary tradition, offer a critical perspective on the palliative society's fear of pain and obsession with healing.

A participatory public program that includes the works of invaluable artists who produce works on an international scale, as well as interviews, workshops, and experience meetings held through the support of international museums, philanthropy organizations, non-governmental organizations, entrepreneurs, and leading analysis and research companies, has been prepared.

Considering art history worldwide, we witness the instrumentalization of art spaces in times of crisis and see that they are transformed to serve the public, such as the transformation of museums into vaccination centers during the pandemic and museums serving as hospitals where the wounded were treated during the world wars.

Accordingly, we're transforming Metro Han, which is one of the memorable places of Istanbul and located at a crossroads for the masses, into a place where collective production, finding new solutions by discussing, diversity, and broad-mindedness will fill every one of its rooms with encounters arising from the meeting of different cultural identities—in other words, where social trust will be rebuilt.

Healing... is moving away from pain; pain is described as a state that must be optimized. The catastrophe that our country is faced with due to the earthquakes in the Southern Anatolian region has caused us to remain in the background for a long time regarding this project. However, we are aware that the concept of healing, which we have been working on for months without realizing what awaited us, knowing that solidarity and collective action have become inevitable for healing, is much more important today.

Because the Collective “Healing” project proposes a new approach to “healing” that is not palliative and can only happen when we do not forget, do not cover up the suffering, and do not turn our backs on painful discussions.

Rather than running away from pain by reversing the healing process, we recognize that pain is at the core of human nature and invite everyone to heal.

Text by Ayca Okay