"I wish I could not be Traced in the Archives"

A wall is a physical thing standing somewhere, it is very visual. Yet it also becomes a mental barrier. Walking and sewing are forms of resistance to a possible border, creating a sense of poetic freedom. Walking has various aims such as immigration, justice and being a re-tracer. In my work, I represent a mental refugee, confronting a border as a crack, and researching the archeology of traces with scriptures of the history of the city.
I wish I could not be traced in the Archives is an ongoing project, the first piece of work is presented in the International 13th Istanbul Biennial, “Mom, am I Barbarian?” curated by Fulya Erdemci. I intent to realize the third piece of this work in Paris. It is a site-relational piece that is embedded on the notion of the memory and border of the city and it suggests an approach to the city as an open library. Each piece determines its own methodology. It is a performative proposition and it involves abstraction of various elements and actions on the idea of existing relations between expatriation-city-memory. This research has a performative approach of walking as remembering, collecting elements as ruins. I should make research in Paris, to understand the dynamics on the idea of border to understand sociological and political contexts within the layers of city itself. After this research, I will decide on the pathways that I will use for performance which will signify the opposing sides of the nature as the two separate parts that is divided once in the memory of the site. Also, I will study to find the right book that uses the memory of nature in Paris. This right book will be read aloud to the nature while I am walking. It will be recorded, edited, subtitled to get ready to present as a site-specific video installation. Therefore, this project proposal is the third step of city related series called “I wish I could not be traced in the Archives”.