Merve Kılıçer

Merve Kılıçer (b.1987, Istanbul) is a multi disciplinary artist and an entrepreneur in art focused activities. She draws inspiration from historic and traditional modes of culture-art production and translates them into contemporary experiences. Her practice urges from personal experiences and tries to find a non-didactic yet politically engaged position in relation to her background and history. Installation, sculpture, performance, traditional print, video and sound are all mediums that create a ground for growth in her practice. She often creates in collaboration with other artists as duos or collectives. She worked with KABA HAT artist collective from 2011 to 2019 and currently active with Eathouse cooking collective. She lives in Rotterdam, The Netherlands as part of W1555 creative community. 

She holds a MFA degree from Piet Zwart Institute in 2019 (Rotterdam), after studying at the Sabancı University Visual Arts Department (Istanbul). Her work has been shown at Framer Framed in Amsterdam, Arter Istanbul, Freiburg Museum für Neue Kunst, and at the 14th Istanbul Biennial. 

WHEN THE GODS HAVE BEEN DONE

The work titled When the Gods Have Been Done elucidates the climate crisis which aggravates the living conditions in different parts of the world, especially in the southern geographies, through the historical and anthropological evolution of human nature.
 
This field research was conducted in West Phrygia (Western Central Anatolia) and the Aegean region. During this excursion, the artist encounters currently active mining sites for coal, gold and limestone as well as remains of shrines built for Cybele, the archaic goddess of Anatolia from 900 BCE. Cybele was believed to maintain the balance between wildlife and human settlements. Her shrines were positioned at the peaks and slopes of mountains to express the unreachable power of the divine. While scientific and technological developments or modernism partially liberated people from the mercy of deities, they also trapped them and other non-humans under the domination of exploitative capital.

The technologies, machinery and chemicals used in mining operations for energy and investment purposes in Türkiye and around the world are causing irreversible destruction of nature, also known as 'ecocide'. These new methods spread the imprint of humans over vast areas and lead to the destruction of forestry, agricultural land, groundwater and riverbeds. The change in the treatment of habitats is paralleled by changes in social values, culture and beliefs. Technological advances are radically altering not only our lifestyles and craftsmanship, but also our perception of our surroundings and the way our minds operate. Science, which can be defined as the indispensable companion of humankind, is taking us to the top of the mountains on the one hand and building the stepped paths of our own hellholes on the other.

Hence, who will save humans from its own wrath? Who once thought was at the mercy of divine beings and who with modernism, has positioned himself on the level of God. Motivated by this question, the research also seeks to show the resistance and testimony of local people struggling to survive under the impact of the mining sites. In the southern Mediterranean, since 2018, a group of villagers have been fighting against a coal mining site located on the edge of the Akbelen forest. Another front in the Kaz (ida) Mountains on the North Aegean coast is fighting against the gold, copper and silver mining. Local people are trying to fight back through legal means, but companies backed by the state continue to mine in the region despite legal rulings.
 
16mm analog film footage shot at the visited ruins and mining sites for this project comes together as a spatial installation as the footage is projected on porcelain tiles produced using dried loofah plants. The porcelain soil from Anatolia and the tiles produced at SAHA Studio are bound to act as a surface for the film to be projected -- bringing the destruction of the soil itself and its visuals into the space.