Solastalgia; Cadaster of Deterioration
December 2023 - October 2024
ADIYAMAN
Heidegger believes that existence is only possible within a field of existence and that a Place is necessary for a human to exist. He argues that nature is the basis for renewal of the individual, for peace, pleasure and cultural formations. The earth and the universe are the most inclusive home for the individual. In her work titled “3 Habitus,” Jale Erzen states that man creates a place for himself at the moment he is born and is in a struggle for “place” until he leaves it, and expresses that humans belong to a place before belonging to a social class or a group. She additionally emphasizes the decisiveness of social space, not social class, in the formation of the existence of an individual. Within such context, buildings on the earth, which are mostly our concrete traces, are an indicator of permanent settlement and belonging to a city. Cities are living spaces that have a memory, rather than being a series of buildings that socially, vitally and economically surround the individual.
Individuals’ safe living spaces may shift towards the most unsafe area as a result of wrong or uncontrolled actions and practices. According to Jale Erzen, environmental problems are a consequence of wrong relationships established with the earth. It can be asserted that the environment is a product of our aesthetic creativity. Therefore, deterioration of the earth is the manifestation of a disease that humanity is not yet aware of. The destruction and deterioration experienced after unconscious urbanization destroy not only he cultural existence of the individual but also the society. The loss of his/her place of belonging, the erasure of the spaces in his/her memory until the moment he/she lived in his/her childhood, and the transformation of the earth, where he/she once felt safe, into a spooky place within a few minutes can cause a state of solastalgia in an individual. Erasure of the traces of the space that really makes the individual exist and moving away from all dialogues within the social structure which the individual is a part of can make it difficult for the memories remaining in the individual’s mind to come alive and exist. The project will address the concept of Solastalgia by interpreting the latest state of the city (Adıyaman) and the reasons thereof from an insider perspective, while combining the video recording of the local people with indicators. As such, the way the project approaches the subject will be an artistic indicator in terms of freedom of expression. .
In addition, the representations created with the participation of local individuals will be a cultural tool of dialogue with social awareness and responsibility.
