The Memory of the Quilt: Soft Touch
April 2026 – March 2027
BURSA, ERZURUM, İSTANBUL, TRABZON
This project aims to reconsider the traditional craft of quilt-making, which continues to survive in Türkiye, through an interdisciplinary process of artistic production within the context of contemporary art. By documenting the practice of quilt-making, it seeks to make visible the relationships between cultural memory, the body, and narrative. The quilt is approached not merely as a functional domestic object or craft product, but as a multilayered surface connected to the body, memory, labour, belonging, and everyday life.
As part of the project, field research will be conducted in Erzurum, Trabzon, Bursa, and Istanbul, including one-to-one interviews with traditional quilt makers and other practitioners involved in the production process. On-site observations and accessible personal archival materials will be documented, while the data gathered will be brought together and organised within a digital archive.
Collaborative productions will be developed with quilt makers based on traditional quilt forms and patterns. These productions will be supported by textual, visual, and video outputs and transformed into a lasting archival resource. Within the artistic framework of the project, traditional objects will be considered not only as repositories of craft knowledge, but also as carriers of historical, social, and emotional memory. This approach brings together field research and conceptual production while opening up discussions around the politics of objects and the relationships between belonging and place.
While making the accumulated knowledge and expertise of traditional quilt makers more visible, the project aims to create an interdisciplinary space for production by reinterpreting this practice within the context of contemporary art. Bringing together field research, archiving, artistic production, and exhibition preparation, the process approaches the relationship established with the quilt through a broader framework of research and collaboration. In doing so, it creates new possibilities for interpretation and dialogue between tradition and contemporary art, field research and conceptual production, and documentation and the audience.
