BE Contemporary is proud to present artworks by Fulya Cetin, Gunseli Baki, Monica Papi, SENA, Sezgi Abali, Safak Sule Kemanci, and Yekateryna Grygorenko within the frame of  “May Your Soul Be At Home Where There Are No Houses”. Inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s poetry, curated by Sezgi Abalı, the exhibition is open between June 2-July 9, 2023.  

 

“May Your Soul Be At Home Where There Are No Houses” does not approach the concept of the house simply as an architectural and cultural structure but explores a house beyond a human-designed/built/defined one. Seven women artists participate in this quest with their works that run the boundaries of the normal treading into the borders of “homelessness”.  Is a house a place built by humans or the earth they are born into? The understanding responsible for environmental degradation considers nature a stranger to humans while appointing human-made buildings “home”. This discriminative approach upholds humans against nature, and its right to exist is decided in their proximity to humans and their needs. This entitlement turns against humans as well as trying to control which identities or bodies belong or not; who is a guest or the host in life -relying on the walls they erected.     

 

On the other hand, “May Your Soul Be At Home Where There Are No Houses” is guided by ‘Initiation Song for Finders’ Lodge’ by Ursula Le Guin from Always Coming Home. The exhibition seeks a mode of existence of being at home in every life, body, and breath while singing the song of the Finders who reach home with each step they take away from houses. How Sezgi Abalı and Özge Somersan describe the theme of the exhibition in their conceptual text follows: “ The exhibition where the house appears in varying shapes and meanings in each artist’s imagery stands at the intersection of imagination and reality, tangible and intangible, ordinary and extraordinary. It remarks our capacity to create shared dreams; by reviewing, transforming, and multiplying ourselves. Addressing the house in its most subjective meaning; it traces humans’ lifelong relationship with the house, their bodies they establish with their first breath.” 

 

“May Your Soul Be At Home Where There Are No Houses”, of which the theme was already decided in November 2022, found itself in an unsettling context after the devastating Kahramanmaras Earthquakes. Although the works and the artists were brought together with another intention, BE Contemporary, believing in the uniting and healing quality of art, opens a space for the exhibition’s both uncanny and therapeutic impact.