By İrem Naz Duymuş (AMER/IV) & Eda Emekoğlu (AMER/IV)
nazduymus@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
eda.emekoglu@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
Dearest Bilkent readers, as I juggle work and life and school, I know that I am not the only one. Therefore, I need everyone who is also trying to do everything to tell me their secrets because I am in desperate need of advice. This week the tables have turned, the roles have reversed and I am the one asking for help.
Somewhere along the way, my schedule has become less of a schedule and more of a suggestion. Last week was probably the best example of that. You guys, I missed the second week of my classes for a “work event.” In my defense, the work event was Contemporary Istanbul, so I feel like I should get some credit for being absent for cultural purposes.
I know, I know. I sound performative. Trust me, I am not. I am an ordinary person. Besides, I came here to spill the tea.
Contemporary İstanbul’s focus this year, though a bit vague in my opinion, was Asia. “With Focus: Asia,” the fair brought together galleries and artists from different parts of the continent, placing Asian artistic practices, traditions and contemporary interpretations more visibly within the fair.
But, as I said, the focus still felt a little vague to me. What exactly were we, as the audience, supposed to understand as “Asia”? Asia is not exactly one small place with one shared culture, tradition or way of making art. So, how are we supposed to experience a “sense of Asia” without first having a clear idea of what that is supposed to mean? And at what point does trying to represent something this broad risk reducing all those differences into one general idea of “Asian-ness”? Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I could not help questioning how you do this without, at least slightly, entering the territory of an Orientalist way of looking at the East.
Maybe that uncertainty was also why I found myself paying more attention to individual works than to the theme itself. One of the works that stayed with me was Chisato Matsumoto’s “Sail of Light” (2026), a massive installation created through the traditional Japanese shibori technique. When I talked to Matsumoto about her installation, she emphasized the technique and its origins rather than placing an emphasis on it being “Asian.” Shibori, traditionally used to manipulate and dye fabric through techniques such as binding, folding and stitching, became something huge in this case. And I mean literally huge.
Rather than the broader label of “Asian art,” it was this specificity—the technique, where it came from and what she chose to do with it—that made the work interesting to me. If anything, seeing the individual works made me question the label even more. Why try to create one sense of Asia when what I enjoyed was seeing just how different these works were from one another? Maybe that was the point. Maybe I completely missed the point. Both options are possible.
Then again, not everything needed this much questioning. Some works made me stop, some took a little longer and some I simply did not understand. I think we should be allowed to do or feel whatever we want with art. At least, that’s what I have learned. Sometimes “I like it” is enough of an analysis, especially after walking around an art fair for hours.
And speaking of trying to do too much, all of these thoughts were happening while I was running around, meeting people, looking at art and trying to do my job. One minute I was questioning what “Asia” was supposed to mean within an art fair, and the next I was remembering something I needed to get done for work. Somewhere in between, there was also the minor inconvenience of technically being a university student.
Which brings us back to my original problem.
I like doing a lot of things. I like working. I like going out. I like being involved in things outside of school and, despite what my attendance might suggest, I actually like my classes. Unfortunately, all of these things seem to want my attention at exactly the same time. I am slowly realizing that saying yes to everything is much easier than figuring out how you are going to do everything you agreed to.
So, my friends, tell me: What am I supposed to do? Or just rip the Band-Aid off and tell me: Is it actually possible to have it all?
