ERDEM VAROL - BÜYÜSÜZ ÇEŞME

Those who have survived might read these words.

I, too, remember what I saw back then.

While wondering what the survivors might recall, I find myself remembering those who didn’t survive. I remember them. They can be remembered.

We are moving through a time when life itself becomes the question — when the question is nothing less than life or death. I remember those who let go of life — not out of weakness, but because of hunger, poverty, the pain of not being able to meet their children’s eyes, the trauma of police custody, the unbearable weight of rent. They chose death. I remember them. I can remember them.

I recall a time both distant and near — a time of being caught in between, of ignorance, of those who hoard knowledge, those who mock, those who peddle false hope, the thieves, the good-hearted, and the devils.

As I write this, I am still alive. Survivors can write.

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* 'Büyüsüz Çeşme' (Fountain without Magic) is an installation consisting of the artist's writings, drawings, photo archive and the photographs he took, and is inspired  by Georges Perec's novel 'A Man Asleep', published in 1967