‘VEGETATIVE STATE’ OF KAOSTANTINIST
FROM ISTANBUL TO ITALY WITH PLANTS
We are moving...
Our constant movement can bring challenges, but on the other hand movement also creates cultural and economical richness...
Plants do not move… or do they?
Since centuries we have carried them from continent to continent.
They adapt to their new habitat...
Since centuries we adore them, categorize them, give names and symbolic meanings to them...They nurture us, heal us and give us pleasure...
Mobile and immobile at the same time....
Do we really take action and move when necessary?
Man’s idle attitude towards the problem he has created on our planet brings forth a sort of ‘vegetative state’.
What is the so-called ‘vegetative state’? A state of coma? A state of immobility? Or do we perhaps need to learn from plants and convert this state into a truly ‘vegetative’ state? A state of timelessness, a state of harmony, a slow pace in which life can blossom.
Perhaps a ‘vegetative state’ is the way to solve ecological problems as we have seen during the lockdown period.
Some of the works in the exhibition are from Istanbul which has a population of 20 million.
Moving to Cagliari which has a population of 150.000, has resulted in an intense relationship with plants and has brought forward another series of works…
Each plant in the paintings has a different meaning, memory and history. For example, the poppy flower comes from the Italian children’s song that my grandmother taught me during my childhood. Ginkgo biloba reminds me of Hiroshima. In the country where I come from, “passiflora” is called ‘the wheel of fate’, while Spanish and Portuguese missionaries gave this flower Christian readings when they first discovered it in the 16th century Americas. A single plant can have completely different connotations in different cultures and for different people.
The previous ‘Kaostantin’ collection goes together with the new ‘Vegetative State’ works. Together they continue to tell stories about the journey from Istanbul to Italy by questioning our hierarchical relation with each other and with our surroundings.
Is it possible to transition ‘from our old to a new’? Like the butterflies
From ignorance to a state of awareness… Can revolutionary intellectual metamorphosis make it possible to live in harmony with all the differences?
Şiir Ozbilge , 2020
“160 BUTTERFLIES”
Ginkgo biloba is a unique plant of the Ginkgophyta Division originating in China. The origins date back to 250 million years ago, in the Permian, and for this reason it is considered a "living fossil". Six specimens survived the atomic bomb that fell on Hiroshima, one in the center of the explosion.
In the middle of the death-rebirth cycle, or transformation of matter, each object or living being can take on different shapes and colors and suggest new information and new ideas.It does not matter how long it takes, whether it comes from a tree with such an ancient existence, or from a being as ephemeral as a butterfly…
The patience that I learned by observing the Plant Kingdom has been a source of energy and inspiration, leading me to a dimension where time is greatly dilated.
GINKO BILOBA
This leaf from a tree in the East,
Has been given to my garden.
It reveals a certain secret,
Which pleases me and thoughtful people.
Is it one living being,
Which has separated in itself?
Or are these two, who chose
To be recognized as one?
Answering this kind of question,
Haven't I found the proper meaning,
Don't you feel in my songs,
That I'm one and double?
J. W. von GOETHE (1749-1832)