Contemporary İstanbul, 2024

CONTROVERSY TEETER-TOTTER, ISTANBUL

An immediate jump up high and an unannounced fall onto the ground... The rollercoaster of modern life is a dance of highs and lows, of rushes and confrontations. Cities stretch before our eyes as their seesawing silhouettes and gnarly streets absorb and spit us. Braving into the new day, the impending victory and the harrowing failure feel a breath away—both a friend and a foe, success and risk look too familiar. The promise in a far-off land lures some for a new chapter where the unknown is chillingly opaque yet irresistibly winsome. Those who stay question their struggle while the departed suffer from their own. Here or there, purpose always is a path to carve.

Esra Gülmen’s Controversy Teeter / Totter, Istanbul (2024) is the latest iteration of a series which the artist has exhibited in various cities—it is also a love song to the city. A toast to its beautiful anarchy, the seesaws thrive on a kinetic collaboration. They trick us with a binary invitation: claim your side and brace for the rise. The lure, however, is in the interdependency, in the balance, the collectivity, and waiting for your turn. Each seesaw is a microcosm of Istanbul where every second settles with its disarming riddle. Memories and the present as much as having and losing seep into every moment of being here; every decision conjures a smile or a tear.

Contradictions make us, both lift and confuse—the binaries, however, overlap more than they conflict. A blend is more common than not for those who look beyond the surface. Even those who fear to admit are recipes of what they show and hold within. Relinquishing the presumption is the main ingredient, and so are a meaningful curiosity and hearing.
Like seagulls gliding freely in air and a boat rocking with waves, each plank soars and sinks, never settling yet always fluctuating. In this up and down, the sea’s breeze can  warm or give chills; a steep street can exhaust but also reward; car honks might be hiding a song if you are patient.

Play is the new logic, the courage for trial and error may be the first step. The comfort in the known is cushiony, but thorny has its promises, too. High and low, loud and quiet, calm and erratic, we know we strive for all yet fear to admit. Feelings are mercurial— malleable and pliable, our desires and fears depend on their opposites for the journey. Play demands courage in grown-up life, but we, tireless searchers of a meaning and of a place, have always been playing.

Text: Osmancan Yerebakan

Controversy Teeter / Totters
Peace / Traffic, Seninle/Sensiz, Dün/Bugün, I Don’t Want Anything/I Want Everything, Europe/Anatolia, 2024
Powder coated stainless steel, Fırın boyalı paslanmaz çelik
55 x 250 x 30 cm
3 + 2 AP