Burçak Yakıcı (1986, Baghdad), before settling in Ankara, she lived in Strasbourg, Oslo, Aleppo, Geneva and Moscow. She earned her Ph.D.in translation of philosophical texts from the University of Strasbourg. She worked as a lecturer at Bilkent University in the department of English, French Translation and Interpretation. She completed ‘‘Curating Contemporary Art’’ at Akbank Sanat-Open Dialogue Istanbul in 2021. In addition to being an independent curator she is also the liaison curator for Turkey and MENA region at Looking Forward CIC Art Projects, a London based non-profit curatorial office.
The reason for this variability may be the diversity of the ties that we establish with spaces in displacements and the different reactions of language and body in these spaces that we associate with ourselves.
The exhibition ‘’How faithful is it to its original?’’ invites the viewer to experience the reflections of emotions brought from these ties, and to think interactively about the sense of belonging based on feeling foreigner in the situation of being caught between different geographies and languages in an embracing manner. So, how are the intertwined geographies, societies, languages and reflections of emotions that are deeply blend with the essence of human translated?
Author and translator Jean-Yves Masson defines translation as 'the incarnation of a soul in another body'. Indeed, if we take the act of translation as a metaphor, as in the production process of a new art work, a person re-translates (language) into a new space in the process of re-expressing himself. By putting himself in the writer's place while performing the act of translation, reminds us as if the translator can incarnate in a new body. Like the translations that bear traces of the translator's personality and body, the works of the artists also bear traces of experiences, displacements and the concept of belonging.
As the translation scientist Lawrence Venuti states, the translated text is accepted-adopted in the target culture with the use of "domestication" method, and the cultural difference is made felt to the target audience by "foreignization". The translated text that adopted foreignization method indicate a ‘’resistance’’ by not following translation norms in the target culture. The process of expressing oneself have similarities with the act of translation. The language we use as a means of expression is also an expression of the way of life that we associate with the place we feel. A person sometimes resists, makes himself foreign, become excluded from the society, and sometimes become local and accepted by the society. The confusion, conflict or reconciliation of the differences brought from social life and displacements lead us to think about belonging. When Michel Foucault goes abroad, he discovers that the only homeland he can take refuge in is the language he is speaking. While Foucault stays in a place called 'homelessness', he states that his language 'has its own laws, shortcuts, tunnels, ramps, slopes, indented ways, in short, it has its own physiognomy'. Isn't it a search for belonging that the body is bound and wandered tightly in the landscape it describes in this displacement?
In the exhibition ‘’How faithful is it to its original ?’’ we question the issue of “belonging” through the reflections of displacements on body and language. How do the body and language react to the rules ordered by social life in the geography where the individual is expected to adapt itself after the change of location? How does the body react where belongings clash between cultures, languages, lands and traditions? The works of artists, whose ways of handling all these questions vary, also will be waiting ‘’to be translated-interpreted' by the audience.
The exhibition ‘’How faithful is it to its original?’’ deals with both the old works and the new productions of the artists who bring new perspectives to the concept of belonging. Just like the transposition in the act of translation, it invites to an inner-questioning, creates affection and meet the audience through the confusion brought about by the question of belonging. Within the scope of the exhibition, there are also seminars where artists, academics and viewers from different backgrounds can come together and exchange ideas on how they feel and question the question of belonging. ‘’How faithful is it to its original?’’ presents works by Betül Aksu, Işıl Kurmuş Aleksandrov, Hanan Benammar, Seda Hepsev, Umut Kambak and Anna Raimondo.