Ras(t)gele, serigrafi baskı tekniğiyle (20 Edisyon) üretilmiş 8 adet, 50×70 cm, tek renk desenden oluşan yerleştirme. Tampere. Baski: Big Baboli Istanbul (2021).

My work on the Marmara Sea and its ecosystem this time got me to the Underwater Life in Istanbul (2014) documentary shot by Alptekin Baloğlu and his team. The documentary is about the diverse life in the Marmara Sea ecosystem at the beginning of the 2000s. As a licensed diver, when I saw this documentary, which is full of information and images of the underwater life of Istanbul, I admired the privileged experience of diving in the Bosphorus.

If I would dive with Alptekin Baloğlu and his team in 2021, which living beings would I see in the Marmara Sea? I constructed the main narrative of the work I exhibit here using images I compiled from diving experiences in Bosphorus. The installation, with regards to the biodiversity of the ecosystems of the city of Istanbul and the Marmara Sea, as a passageway, refers to a migration traffic metaphor and the richness of social and cultural diversities allowing the co-existence of different thoughts.

The entry “rasgele” in İmlâ Lûgati (Spelling Book) dated 1928, meaning “random,” has today another meaning, “işiniz rast gitsin” (good luck) with a new spelling: “rastgele.” In hunting and fishing, it is used to wish plenty of catches, whereas, in the context of the exhibition, it is used to invite viewers to reconsider their approaches to social and cultural diversities, to look at different views from alternative perspectives