Tayyare Hakkında Malumat Vereceğim I Will Give Information About Airplane
According to records, the towers of Rumeli and Anadolu Feneri were bombed by air for the first time in 1915, marking a revelation that Istanbul could frequently be exposed to air raids. The phrase "Tayyare Hakkında Malumat Vereceğim" ("I will provide informatio about the airplane") was a coded expression used among soldiers to signal the approach of an aircraft. This work brings together the historical reality of air raids in Istanbul with a fictional character named Rakik Mayreni.
Still from 17’27’’, 4K single channel video, 2024
Rakik Mayreni represents an identity born out of a limitation in historical narrative, finding a place within this gap. Her letters form the foundation for constructing this identity. The letters in the video were generated using a language model enriched with various data from the period. Similarly, Mayreni's voice was created by blending the voices of individuals recorded in period-specific cantos and archives. The work expands this narrative with physical elements such as photographs taken by Mayreni and pages from her diary.
The dichotomy of underground and aboveground plays a significant role in the narrative; the contrast between underground cisterns and caves, and airplanes circling the sky, evokes the cultural and symbolic meaning of seeking a safe space against the threat of destruction. The name and character of Rakik Mayreni respond to this need. The word "Rakik" comes from the Arabic root "rķķ" and means tender-hearted, gentle, or compassionate. "Mayreni," on the other hand, is derived from Armenian and corresponds to concepts like maternal and home.The personal narratives in Mayreni's letters make the cyclical nature of history visible through individual experiences, aiming to convey the unique yet strikingly similar struggles of each generation.
Rakik Mayreni's photographs, various dimensions on Hahnemuhle Paper, 2024