Man-made Maps — betulaksu

Betül AksuMan-made Maps
2023
Torn wall paint on paper, 42x30 cm each

Man-made Maps gathers phallic-like fragments of wall paint taken from the walls of sezon, an artist-run space imagined as a refuge from patriarchal structures. These pieces, originally part of the architectural surface, carry traces of both material and symbolic histories. By relocating them onto paper, Betül aims to reposition the material as a site for questioning how power and memory are embedded in everyday environments.

The artist-run space sezon is shaped by a family story of migration and gender inequality. Betül’s grandfather, born in Yugoslavia, immigrated first to Turkey, then to Germany as a worker, sending money home to build the family house. When he returned, he bought three plots of land for his children. The son’s was on a main street and became two flats; the daughters’ plots had no building permits and stayed empty for three decades. In 2020, they were finally turned into flats, one of which now hosts sezon. The artist’s mother generously passed down the space to her, an act that has become foundational to Betül’s artistic practice, rooted in everyday care and the solidarity between mothers and daughters.

Through this work, Betül explores how feminist perspectives can open up different ways of reading spatial and historical maps as structures layered with power relations, omissions, and embodied experiences. By reassembling wall fragments into her own map, Man-made Maps proposes a rethinking of inherited structures and the possibilities of reclaiming space.