A Crack We Sprout Through

What was once the resilience, the creation of safe spaces, celebration of diversity, and affirmation of identities has been hijacked by oppressors, reducing these crucial concepts to mere buzzwords. Now, these terms are wielded against us to reinforce a binary worldview. The queer body has been commodified, strategically defined, and valued within the confines of a neoliberal system. Oppressive systems co-opt the disregarded definitions of marginalized communities to justify their destructive acts or to polarize society even further. We find ourselves trapped in vicious cycles under the mirroring practices of oppressors, compelling us to redefine how we produce art and nurture our struggle. “A Crack We Sprout Through” features several disruptive ​​sub-headings that encompass artists’ works focusing on concepts like identity politics, safe spaces, reappropriation, and camp. Ndayé Kouagou’s video work “Will you feel comfortable in my corner?” (2021), marks the beginning of the exhibition with a corner installation that invites visitors to engage in conversation. The video is centered around questions posed by the artist to initiate dialogue, leaving the viewer with a sense of uncertainty regarding the notion of finding a safe space. Kouagou poses the question “Where can I feel comfortable in this changing world?” with an ambiguous voice, remaining indefinable. Elif Saydam displays a see-through curtain installation, a curved security mirror adorned with a lattice screen showcasing their interest in reappropriating disregarded aesthetic categories. Exhibited for the first time in Istanbul, Saydam’s works provide insight into their humorous approach to ornamentation and camp as world-building strategies for both queer and diaspora communities. Saydam performatively takes on self-orientalism to tackle the authenticity of assigned cultural identities, where appropriation resurfaces queer possibilities within the ornaments by working both with and against traditions. Decoration turns into a transgressive and ambivalent tool, disrupting the ideologies ingrained in our perception of value, and thwarting internalized surveillance methods in relation to taste. Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu’s video* installation focuses on the cemetery of the kimsesiz [Those Who Have No One] in Kilyos, Istanbul, alongside an installation reimagining the inclusive rainbow flag. The cemetery houses bodies located in numbered areas. Their names are withheld from the public, either because their consanguineous relatives could not be located or refused to acknowledge their existence, or because the state opts against returning the bodies to their families. Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu visits the cemetery with their comrades Kübra Uzun and Onur Tayranoğlu, to honor the memory of the dozens interred there by holding a grieving ritual and an act of care. This cemetery is known as the final resting place for the underprivileged communities whose bodies (could) have not been claimed by their legal inheritors. In tending to these graves with the utmost care, Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu exemplifies the potential for kinship across intersecting struggles, together with their deconstruction of symbolism they question the current state of queer politics. (*The video was created by Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu in collaboration with Performistanbul and produced with the support of SANATORIUM.)