At the Same Table
April 2026 – January 2027
Konya
Affiliates: Ayşe Yerebakan, Emre Can, Ferda Tazeoğlu Filiz, Öznur Yıldırım
This project is a collaborative ceramic art project that addresses the drought, drying lakes, and loss of ecosystems in the Konya Basin through the metaphor of “the same table.” The disappearance of lakes such as Beyşehir, Akşehir, and Meke represents not only the loss of water resources, but also an irreversible transformation in the relationships between humans, animals, soil, and the natural environment. The project aims to make this multilayered ecological crisis visible through an artistic production process.
As part of the project, five contemporary ceramic artists will be invited to participate in a production process centred on the absence of water. Each artist will be provided with a traditional wooden floor table (sofra), red ceramic clay, and a conceptual framework, and will be asked to construct “a table without water.” As a symbol of sharing, togetherness, and life, the table is reimagined in this project through the notions of absence, drought, and vulnerability.
The resulting ceramic tables will be presented as a temporary outdoor installation on the dried lakebed of Lake Akşehir in the Konya Basin. Cracked earth, the dried landscape, and ceramic forms will be brought together to create a powerful spatial narrative.
The project’s main objectives are to make the impacts of drought on ecosystems visible, to approach the water crisis not only as an environmental issue but also as a social and cultural one, and to raise public awareness through art.
Selim Çınar
Born in Sakarya in 1988, Selim Çınar graduated from the Department of Art Education at the Faculty of Education, Abant İzzet Baysal University. He completed his MA in the Department of Ceramics at the Institute of Social Sciences, Uşak University, and received his Proficiency in Art degree from the Department of Ceramics at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Anadolu University, in 2021.
Çınar’s artistic practice focuses on the invisible and hidden layers of all living beings and the universe, as well as on new cycles triggered by ecological ruptures and drought. In this context, the act of revealing what remains unseen creates an opportunity for a deeper understanding of both individual existence and the cosmic order. He approaches life cycles disrupted by drought not as endings, but as processes that are transformed and re-established in new forms.
Drawing eclectically on philosophy, analytical psychology, geography, and prehistoric cultures, the artist references the layered structure of consciousness in his figurative and amorphous works. He has held six solo ceramic exhibitions and participated in numerous national and international group exhibitions, receiving fourteen awards in the field of art. Çınar continues to participate in various ceramic symposiums and workshops with his works and currently pursues his academic practice as an Associate Professor in the Department of Ceramics at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Selçuk University.
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