CANSU YILDIRAN - SHELTER

The geography where I am from used to be considered as the bridge between the East and the West. Now, it’s more Middle Eastern. I believe this was triggered because of the post-2000s’ changing political climate as well as war and migration in the Middle East. These changes all coincided with the development and self-exploration of Generation Y which I am a part of.

As this situation affects people’s living spaces, the development process which the Generation Y goes through is also affected. Those who belong to this generation grow up in a more conservative way in Central and Eastern Anatolia, while a whole different story goes on in the West. The west of the country has a diverse population because of heavy migration from the East that is caused by war and economical problems.

Eventually this situation becomes a major factor in having an identity crisis for people of Generation Y in the West. Many people from different cultures and backgrounds migrate to the same place because of different social reasons to seek a new life by adapting to it. They carry their own backgrounds and culture with them to the place they migrate. They form a new life with the people they feel relevant to in terms of their own mindset, culture and identity. So, I wanted to talk about the stories of groups that were marginalized because of their sexual identities and lifestyles among the groups that could be counted as a community. One of the basic reasons for this is that I do feel as close to these communities as ways of thinking, feeling and living.

From an external perspective, the most basic concern of these groups, which are considered as utopically 'other', is to exist. The right-wing conservative lifestyle, which encroaches upon increasingly habitable areas, and the consequences of political power lead these groups and identities to further close in. Although the communities where Generation Y feels safe inside provides a space for the individuals to flourish, the same safe spaces also become cages, sheltering them from outside creating a paradox. 

When these identities and communities which can be considered as safe spaces are getting smaller and smaller every day, I want to tell the process and changes of the Generation Y which has the most fluid structure of these identities.