Bilge Emine Arslan,
Asi River/New Alphabet
Asi River/New Alphabet is on display in Projektraum Kunstquartier Bethanien Gallery August 25th – 10th of Spetember.
Bilge Emine Arslan’s video installation work is about the
demographic, historical, political, and mythological significance of the Asi river and the landscape of the river basin. Asi is crossing three countries, Lebanon-Syria-Turkey in the Levant region, flowing backwards and pouring into the Mediterranean sea. She aimed to look at the history of this landscape and riparians by trying to grasp the memory that water carries and has. With this research, she wanted to claim the monumentality of water: A natural monument which is endangered. In other words, to question what is the memory of water and what traces that landscape contains through the water path.
The biggest question in this project is whether it is possible to take the human out of the focus when comprehending a water source. To achieve this, she uses some speculative expressions that refer to a new alphabet. Imagining that the river also narrates the landscape to some extent.
demographic, historical, political, and mythological significance of the Asi river and the landscape of the river basin. Asi is crossing three countries, Lebanon-Syria-Turkey in the Levant region, flowing backwards and pouring into the Mediterranean sea. She aimed to look at the history of this landscape and riparians by trying to grasp the memory that water carries and has. With this research, she wanted to claim the monumentality of water: A natural monument which is endangered. In other words, to question what is the memory of water and what traces that landscape contains through the water path.
The biggest question in this project is whether it is possible to take the human out of the focus when comprehending a water source. To achieve this, she uses some speculative expressions that refer to a new alphabet. Imagining that the river also narrates the landscape to some extent.