Hive
March - April 2023
ŞIRNAK, TEKİRDAĞ
Traveling Exhibition: ŞIRNAK, MARDİN, ANKARA, ISTANBUL, TEKİRDAĞ
Two women artists from Turkey who live in vastly different dialogues and circumstances. They continue to create and teach in their respective cities. They question the shifting dynamics within art and act according to their geographical circumstances. The environment changes them, and they in turn change their environment. They lead sheltered lives in Şırnak and Tekirdağ. They share similar anxieties about the ecology of the planet. They are both very similar and different from each other. For them, the fact that they enjoy these differences is not so different from their existence in this anthropocentric and overly politicized world, and they can’t separate this existence from their eco-anxiety.
As a project, Hive originates from the artists themselves. Therefore, in essence, everything is intertwined: The differences and the similarities between Şırnak and Tekirdağ, geographical concerns and ecological issues. Beyza, Aslıhan and the bees from different cultures made up this project. They all created freely and completed their natural cycle as they are meant to do. They took this project to different cities so that they feel less alone.
With all these ideas in mind, the Hive project examined democracy and social order through the metaphor of a bee hive. Instead of talking, they wanted to show by doing and creating. Sculptures by Beyza and Aslıhan moved on and go through another creative process in another bee hive in the next location. The project had many participants and producers thanks to these bee colonies.
The consequent traveling exhibition was designed in a way to reach people where they are. They ensured the work visited the viewers, not the other way around.
