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TWO ARTISTS CREATE ALTERNATIVE 'MONUMENT TO HUMANITY'
Hurriyet
July 13 2011
Turkey
Two Dutch artists' project 'Helping Hands,' an alternative to Mehmet
Aksoy's sculpture that was removed in the eastern Kars,does not
carry a fixed political message but accommodates space for ongoing
negotiation by gathering plaster hand molds from people
The mobile project 'Helping Hands' by two Dutch artists includes a
giant hand sculpture being wheeled around on a junk cart in Istanbul's
Those walking around Istanbul's Pangaltı, Elmadağ and Taksim
neighborhoods might find it surreal to see a giant hand sculpture
being wheeled around on a junk cart. The sculpture, however, is not
destined for the scrap yard; instead it is a mobile project by two
Dutch artists touching on a current debate between art and politics.
Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis walk around Istanbul all day with
their junk cart with a copy of
sculptor Mehmet Aksoy's long-debated sculpture, the "Monument to
Humanity," placed on top of it and
ask people whether they could make a plaster cast mold of their hands.
Aksoy's sculpture was built in the eastern province of Kars and
dedicated to Turkish-Armenian friendship. Yet, during a Jan. 8 visit
to the area, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pointed
to the 35-meter-tall "Monument to Humanity," called it "freakish"
and demanded its removal. Kars' municipal assembly promptly passed
a motion to tear down the monument, saying it had been illegally
erected in a protected area.
"We were in Turkey during the debates and we felt there were a lot
of opposing views on the sculpture," Uitentius recently told the
Hurriyet Daily News. "We started to question the role of monuments in
representing political propaganda and decided to make an alternative
'Monument
to Humanity' that does not necessarily provide symbolic 'goodness,'
but could also include critique,
resistance and rejection."
Indeed, the pair's alternative project called "Helping Hands" does
not necessarily carry a fixed political message but accommodates
space for ongoing negotiation by gathering plaster hand molds from
people who have different opinions on the topic.
"When we are walking with our cart, a lot of people stop and ask
us what it is and want to start a dialogue," Uitentius said. "We
interview them on what they think about the sculpture and its debate
and we also ask whether we can make a copy of their hand. We make
it open to decide what gesture they want to make, most people choose
hand shakes, victory signs or fists.
So far, the pair has collected 105 hands; at the end of the project,
Osterholt and Uitentuis said they
would take them all to Kars and leave them in the place where the
monument once stood.
"The project is really about the democratization of public space
through the monuments. We want
it to be inclusive and reflect all kinds of views, those who support
the monument; those who say art
should be free of politics and those who say art is being used for
political propaganda," Uitentius said.
The artists will also exhibit the project at PiST///, a nonprofit
interdisciplinaryproject space. PiST///'s curators Didem Ozbek and
Osman Bozkurt said they found the project quite interesting.
"They could make even more hand plasters if they had more material,"
Ozbek said. "We are located in
Pangaltı and there are a lot of Turkish and Armenian people in this
neighborhood. Therefore it is an important site to discuss these
issues." The project will run until July 14 while the exhibition dates
will be announced at http:// www.pist-org.blogspot.com/ in the
near future.
Hurriyet
July 13 2011
Turkey
Two Dutch artists' project 'Helping Hands,' an alternative to Mehmet
Aksoy's sculpture that was removed in the eastern Kars,does not
carry a fixed political message but accommodates space for ongoing
negotiation by gathering plaster hand molds from people
The mobile project 'Helping Hands' by two Dutch artists includes a
giant hand sculpture being wheeled around on a junk cart in Istanbul's
Those walking around Istanbul's Pangaltı, Elmadağ and Taksim
neighborhoods might find it surreal to see a giant hand sculpture
being wheeled around on a junk cart. The sculpture, however, is not
destined for the scrap yard; instead it is a mobile project by two
Dutch artists touching on a current debate between art and politics.
Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis walk around Istanbul all day with
their junk cart with a copy of
sculptor Mehmet Aksoy's long-debated sculpture, the "Monument to
Humanity," placed on top of it and
ask people whether they could make a plaster cast mold of their hands.
Aksoy's sculpture was built in the eastern province of Kars and
dedicated to Turkish-Armenian friendship. Yet, during a Jan. 8 visit
to the area, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pointed
to the 35-meter-tall "Monument to Humanity," called it "freakish"
and demanded its removal. Kars' municipal assembly promptly passed
a motion to tear down the monument, saying it had been illegally
erected in a protected area.
"We were in Turkey during the debates and we felt there were a lot
of opposing views on the sculpture," Uitentius recently told the
Hurriyet Daily News. "We started to question the role of monuments in
representing political propaganda and decided to make an alternative
'Monument
to Humanity' that does not necessarily provide symbolic 'goodness,'
but could also include critique,
resistance and rejection."
Indeed, the pair's alternative project called "Helping Hands" does
not necessarily carry a fixed political message but accommodates
space for ongoing negotiation by gathering plaster hand molds from
people who have different opinions on the topic.
"When we are walking with our cart, a lot of people stop and ask
us what it is and want to start a dialogue," Uitentius said. "We
interview them on what they think about the sculpture and its debate
and we also ask whether we can make a copy of their hand. We make
it open to decide what gesture they want to make, most people choose
hand shakes, victory signs or fists.
So far, the pair has collected 105 hands; at the end of the project,
Osterholt and Uitentuis said they
would take them all to Kars and leave them in the place where the
monument once stood.
"The project is really about the democratization of public space
through the monuments. We want
it to be inclusive and reflect all kinds of views, those who support
the monument; those who say art
should be free of politics and those who say art is being used for
political propaganda," Uitentius said.
The artists will also exhibit the project at PiST///, a nonprofit
interdisciplinaryproject space. PiST///'s curators Didem Ozbek and
Osman Bozkurt said they found the project quite interesting.
"They could make even more hand plasters if they had more material,"
Ozbek said. "We are located in
Pangaltı and there are a lot of Turkish and Armenian people in this
neighborhood. Therefore it is an important site to discuss these
issues." The project will run until July 14 while the exhibition dates
will be announced at http:// www.pist-org.blogspot.com/ in the
near future.