Dilşad Aladağ & Eda Aslan
Eda Aslan
Eda Aslan (b. 1993, Istanbul) graduated from the sculpture department of Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty in 2017. She also completed her master's degree in painting at the same university in. She is currently pursuing her graduate study in Time Based Media at the HFBK as a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholar.
In her work, she focuses on the concepts of history, space, personal and collective memory. The artist draws a sharp line between the past and the present, seeking to resist what is erased through the ephemerality of the now. Through exploratory techniques, she traces the archaic, the documentary in found materials. She runs the research collective The Garden of (not) Forgetting, which she founded with the architect and artist Dilşad Aladağ in 2017. The Garden of (not) Forgetting received several research and production funds. The artist lives and works in Hamburg and Istanbul.
Dilşad Aladağ
Doğum Yılı | Date of Birth
1993
Mezuniyet | Graduation
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Mimarlık, 2016
Şehir, Ülke | City, Country
Berlin, Almanya
Bağlantılar | Links
Instagram
Dilşad Aladağ, is an architect and researcher from Turkey. She is currently pursuing her graduate study in European Urban Studies at the Bauhaus University of Weimar as a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholar. She was one of the eight co-founders of the “Plankton Project” urban collective. Following her graduation, she worked in different architecture and design teams such as ŞANAL Architecture Research and City and KHORA Office (Aslıhan Demirtaş & Ali Cindoruk). She has been part of artistic and curatorial teams in exhibition practices and involved in art-house film productions as a production designer. She is currently co-curator and researcher as part of The Garden of (not) Forgetting Project which she conducted with Eda Aslan in 2017. The project received several research and production funds and exhibited in Hamburg and Istanbul.
While her artistic research practice is focused on the collective memory and archives, in her academic works, her main focus areas are architectural culture and urban heritage conflicts in Turkey. She is specifically interested in the role of artistic and architectural research practices for creating pluralist narratives on architectural heritage.
Unutma Bahçesi | The Garden of (not) Forgetting
Proje Türü | Project Type Araştırma ve Sergi | Research and Exhibition
Tamamlanma Yılı | Date Completed 2021
İşbirlikçiler | Collaborators Anadolu Kültür, Depo Istanbul, Manifold, SAHA Derneği, SALT, Kurt & Alev Heilbronn, Feza Günergün, Erdal Üzen
Fotoğrafçı | Photographer Cemil Batur Gökçeer
Ödüller | Awards SALT Araştırma Fonları 2018 | SALT Research Funds 2018 Kültür Bakanlığı Belgesel Destek Fonu 2019 | Ministry of Culture Documentary Production Fund 2019 SAHA Sürdürülebilirlik Fonu 2020 | SAHA Sustainability Funds 2020
Dilşad Aladağ ve Eda Aslan, bir mimar ve bir sanatçı olarak, pratiklerinde kentin değişimine, bu değişimin yıkıcılığına ve hafızada bıraktığı izlere odaklanır. İkili, Unutma Bahçesi Projesi ile olası bir yıkım karşısında “Bir mekânı kaydetmek, hafızalardaki yerini diri tutmak, şehrin hafızasında bahçeye bir yer açmak mümkün mü?” sorularını soruyor. Merkezine İstanbul Üniversitesi Botanik Enstitüsü, Alfred Heilbronn Botanik Bahçesi ve bitkilerin burada kurduğu yaşantıyı alarak başlayan proje, arşivlere, bahçe kurucularının, profesörlerin hikâyelerine eğilerek yeni katmanlar kazandı.
İstanbul Üniversitesi Botanik Enstitüsü, Türkiye’ye sığınan Yahudi Alman bilim insanları Alfred Heilbronn ve Leo Brauner tarafından 1935 yılında kurulmuştur. Dünyanın başka köşelerindeki bahçelerden gelen tohumlar ve Anadolu’dan toplanan bitki örnekleri ile enstitü bünyesinde kurulan Alfred Heilbronn Botanik Bahçesi bugün hâlâ yüzlerce bitkiye ev sahipliği yapmakta. Bahçe, 2018 yılında ziyarete kapanana dek, arayıp da bulabilenler için Tarihi Yarımada’da bir vaha olmayı sürdürdü.
As architect and artist, Dilşad Aladağ and Eda Aslan focus in their practice on how cities change, the destructiveness of these transformations, and the traces of memory left by them. With The Garden of (not) Forgetting, the duo asks if “ It is possible to record a place, to keep its memory alive, to keep a space open for the garden in the memory of a city?”. The project, centred around the Alfred Heilbronn Botanical Garden and the plants that have established themselves there, at the Istanbul University Institute of Botanics, has gained new layers as it deepened its focus in to the archives, and the stories of the professors and the founders of the gardens.
Istanbul University Institute of Botanics was founded in 1935, by the Jewish German scientists Alfred Heilbronn and Leon Brauner who took refuge in Turkey. The Alfred Heilbronn Botanical Garden, which was established within the institute with seeds from gardens from various parts of the World and plant samples collected in Anatolia, still hosts hundreds of plants today. The garden has continued to be an oasis in Istanbul’s Historic Peninsula for those who could seek and find it, until it was closed for visitors in 2018.
Sergi Objesi / Exhibition Object
Yerin İzinde Pek Çok Yer, 2021 Basılı kitap. 15x23 cm, 143 sayfa, 500 adet. Metinler Şubat 2019 ve Mart 2020 tarihleri arasında yazılmış ve Manifold’da yayımlanmıştır. Bir Yerin İzinde Pek Çok Yer SAHA’nın desteği ve Manifold işbirliği ile dijital ve basılı kitap formatında okuyucu ile buluşmuştur.“Bir Yerin İzinde Pek Çok Yer”, Unutma Bahçesi Projesi araştırması sürecinde ziyaret edilen, hikâye ve kişilerle ilişkilenen mekânları yeniden ziyaret etmek, hatırlamak ve okur ile paylaşmak üzere kaleme alınmıştır. Manifold’da Şubat 2019 ve Mart 2020 tarihleri arasında yayımlanmış olan on iki bölümlük metin, araştırmada ulaşılan arşivlerin hikâyelerini aktarmanın yanı sıra, araştırma sürecindeki karşılaşmalarımızın da bir kaydı niteliğindedir.
Many Places on the Trail of a Place, 2021 Printed book. 15x23 cm, 143 pages, 500 copy. The texts are written between February 2019 and March 2020 and published on Manifold. Many Places on the Trail of a Place will be published both as a printed and e-book in collaboration with Manifold and with the support of SAHA. “Many Places on the Trail of a Place” has been developed to revisit the places Dilşad Aladağ and Eda Aslan encountered and to memorialise and share the stories of the people they met while conducting the research for “The Garden of (Not) Forgetting” project.
Ek Materyal / Additional Material
Kitapçık, 14 x 21 cm Bu kitapçık, Sweedish Arts Grants Komitesi/ IASPIS Programının davetiyle, “Request and Respond: conviviality and reflexiveness” konuşma serisi kapsamında üretilmiştir. Kitapçık Unutma Bahçesi pratiğini özetlemek ve üzerine bir söz üretmek üzere hazırlanmıştır.
Booklet 14x21 cm With the kind invitation and organization of Swedish Arts Grants Commitee/ the IASPIS programme, This booklet aims to introduce our work and share reflection on our practice that was inspired by our conversation as part of the Request and Respond: conviviality and reflexiveness program.