Multiple Connections, Galeri Kent, Istanbul, Turkey/ Pogmahon, Vienna, Austria

Kitabı-zokak /The Book of Zokak

The making of the Kitabı-ı Zokak (Ottoman for the book about the
zokak) followed the making of a work called Zokak Maria Sezer made in
2008. Zokak is the name given for the tent-wall that the Ottoman
armies erected around their tent-city while on campaign, doing so in
order to hide their activities from anyone who would be interested to
see what they were undertaking. For this reason the book is made in
the leperello  shape; like that it can be stood up and exhibited in a
spiral-form or in any other form for that matter.The material of the
original Ottoman zokak was decorated in the appliqué technique and
embroidered in a colorful way, with motives in the Ottoman (Islamic)
traditional art form that consisted mainly of stylized plants. For the
artist the zokak symbolizes everything that is connected to the
creating of distance between people. Presently, in Turkey, there is an
intensive discussion on the women's right to cover their head but on
the other hand, for people of many nationalities it is almost
impossible to travel or to enter into a European country, walls that
run through cities still exist in our world. Hence there is a
connection with the zokak which represents everything or everyone that
possibly should not be seen or kept at a distance and therefore should
be separated.This book has pictures that mostly talk about the
separating of (young) women from society. There are pictures of
physical barriers, of which we are very aware like water, walls, bars,
wild animals (snakes and lions), headscarves, keys and buttons that do
not give us access to that what we desire or would like to see like
hair, breasts and vulvas, of which there are also pictures in this
book. On the other hand there are also pictures that represent the
sub-conscious, that through the use of admiration of spiritual or
creative power of the main character, create a more psychological
distance. The power of these persons is indeed mostly more mystical
than physical. The female characters are chosen from and inspired by
myths, fairy-tales and stories, secular as well as religious ones,
many of them have taken place in Anatolia and are thousands of years
old. One thinks of Daphne, Saint Thecla, Shahmaran, Rapunzel and
Hathor.  In many of these stories, women can alter their appearance
(becoming half-human/half-plant or animal), tame wild animals, keep
fire in their hands, seduce men and bring and end life.The Kitabı-ı
Zokak is a visual memory to the often more, sometimes less but never
ending schism between men and women.