Larissa Araz

What do you hear?

When we got the invitation to work with the Women’s Library and Information Center Foundation in Istanbul, we decided early on to engage with their image collection. We took the decision long before we knew what it contained. We have both an interest and a desire for the histories that can be found in images, whether they are told, untold, marginalised or dominant. An image contains so many different layers and relates to many different structures in a society; be they social, cultural, economic, political, etc. When images are collected into an archive, additional layers are added. However, to be able to hear all these frequencies, one must listen carefully, attentively and slowly. Depending on who, where and when you are, you will hear different things.

When we visited the building where the library is located, we were directed to a laptop on the second floor. We connected to their digital image database which informed us that there were more than 6000 digtial image scans. We felt overwhelmed and excited at the same time. What would we face? How would we proceed? How could we make a selection? How would we manage within the short time frame?

We are two women who live in the same historical period, but are based in different geographical locations, in different stages of life and carrying different life stories. In addition, we had never met each other before entering the archive. How would that affect what we saw and heard? How could we meet through the images? How could we learn from each other and share knowledge?

We went through all of the 6000 images. The collection has no defined system, it contains many different images and stories that can be traced to the individuals who built up the collection. It is curiosity, desire and lived experience that frames the collection. We decided to use the same method in our collaboration.

So, based on our common desires, stories, questions, knowledge and interests, we have carefully selected 33 images. We have mainly chosen images from the 1920s and 1930s that were taken in various professional photo studios in Turkey during a revolutionary time. Some of the pictures are amateur pictures from the 1950s and 60s. Our selection should be seen as questions that can be asked about the time, the individuals, the photographs and the context. However, at this moment in time there are not necessarily any answers, just a faint sound that we are trying to listen to and learn from.

What do you hear?

February 2022

Larissa Araz and Petra Bauer

Brochure

Today, even though everything is sinking into “That’s just the way it is” despair, there are still many practices people follow in order to change their lives. Some of these include an agreement with God, and others consist of promises given to one’s self. As the line between the sacred and the profane is blurred, materialistic, self-seeking and egoistic demands become apparent. People or humanity lose its potential gradually and try to hold on to wishes that are impossible to happen/depending on chance. Selfishness, the fact that even dreaming is trapped in formulaic visions, the reciprocal tension between the individual and the society nullify the opportunities of, as Ulus Baker said drawing upon Spinoza, “organizing good encounters.” At this point, one is to wish for something even though one’s hands are tied. All kinds of pressure and suppression surrounding the individual have already shaken every conceivable way to connect to outer world, such as hope, wish, want and demand. Hopelessness abolishes the will to carry on.

Chance for a Miracle, has a premise that hope, wish, want, demand or desire are different names for asking a miracle, large or small, to happen. This hope entails the questions of “What do humans wish for? What do they hope for?” At the nodal points of examining these questions and their potential answers, the conceptual framework is embodied in seven stories revolving around a practice of votive. Stories are complex ones for their causes and effects, written on the irregularities of chance, destiny, hope, intention and fear in human life. Seven stories from different classes, milieus and eras of the society are centered on a votive practice sinking into oblivion although continued to some extent in various churches from İstanbul to San Francisco, Athens to New Mexico. In fact, they narrate the histories of seven votive offerings (Gr. tama, pl. tamata) hung on a votive cabinet.

created by Larissa Araz & Ekin Can Göksoy

 Booklet Turkish

Booklet English

“East & West” is a series of photos witnessing a duration of 10 years, comparing the same processes in the eastern and western parts of Turkey. In an attempt to document the nationalist discourse and its effects on human body, nature and geography, photos from the west shows the already completed “petrification” of a body of population, as idealized in the march composed for the 10th anniversary of the Republic: “An unprivileged, classless, united mass we are.” On the other hand, photos from east reveals that the long process of petrification of bodies is still going on, though most probably impossible to end. In this series, clear-cut, void of human and homogenized images from the western part of Turkey, and exaggerative and overstated ones from the eastern part create a contrast; and juxtaposition of those contrasting images gives the impression as if they were images documenting the earlier and the later days of the same process.