Left on an Island
Arter İstanbul
November 2024
Arter İstanbul
November 2024
Where does land begin, and where does water end? Who decides what counts as an island? This workshop grew out of Landing Prohibited, a work by Maaria Wirkkala presented in her solo exhibition at Arter. The piece’s metaphor of the island opened a space for imagining alternative cartographies—neither strictly land nor water, but something in between.
Each participant became an island, reflecting on the “others” who coexist on nearby shores yet may evoke discomfort or a sense of threat. Confronting these uneasy presences, we explored how borders are drawn—inside and outside, visible and invisible—and what it means to blur them. Through matter, sound, light, and diverse media such as text, textiles, painting, and sculpture, we shaped islands and fortresses of our own.
As these forms took shape, they became the ground for collective exchange, where we considered what we do not wish to carry in the waters that sustain us, what we refuse to let touch our soil, bones, or breath. In this process, we remembered water as the other of air, air as the near of water, and humanity as another mutable state of the earth. Together, we traced the shifting possibilities of islands, fortresses, and seas—spaces of variability, equality, contrast, and transition.
Each participant became an island, reflecting on the “others” who coexist on nearby shores yet may evoke discomfort or a sense of threat. Confronting these uneasy presences, we explored how borders are drawn—inside and outside, visible and invisible—and what it means to blur them. Through matter, sound, light, and diverse media such as text, textiles, painting, and sculpture, we shaped islands and fortresses of our own.
As these forms took shape, they became the ground for collective exchange, where we considered what we do not wish to carry in the waters that sustain us, what we refuse to let touch our soil, bones, or breath. In this process, we remembered water as the other of air, air as the near of water, and humanity as another mutable state of the earth. Together, we traced the shifting possibilities of islands, fortresses, and seas—spaces of variability, equality, contrast, and transition.
