Book to
turn the page, my hand 2023
Offset print
14 pages
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation and supported by SAHA
turn the page, my hand (2023) is a manual for getting out of bed with hands. It displays attempts to go on with life from dawn to dusk. The manual sets the tone for a video of the same name, in which hands act out the movements of the light coming into a bedroom.
turn the page, my hand (2023) is part of Day to Day, curated by Merve Elveren & Zeynep Öz, published in YAZ Publication Series as part of Sharjah Biennial 16.
Exhibition
turn the page, my hand2024
Single-channel video
5 minutes 35 seconds
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation and supported by SAHA
turn the page, my hand (2024) is a video manual for getting out of bed and reflects on the delicate tension between stillness and movement. Through a series of attempts – gradual, repetitive actions such as opening of the eyes, breathing and observing the light shift – the work reflects on the subtle effort of awakening. The soft bed facing closed curtains acts as both a physical and metaphorical space of resistance. As time passes and the light shifts, the manual invites visitors to meditate on the rhythms of the body, the passage of time, and the intimate, often unnoticed actions that drive us to break free from stillness and engage with the challenges of the everyday world.
— Merve Elveren and Zeynep Öz
Merve Elveren curated Day to Day with Zeynep Öz for Sharjah Biennial 16. The project followed a book-to-exhibition format, contrary to the exhibition-to-publication sequence usually seen in the art world.
Day to Day features works by Ayşe İdil İdil, Betül Aksu and Okyanus Çağrı Çamcı, emerging from shared experiences of social and political upheaval. The book and its ‘open-ended’ process explore pressing questions: How do we go on with our everyday lives? How do we answer questions about being constantly on the move and on belonging/not belonging to a place? The artists reflect on themes of mobility and immobility—physical, temporal and psychological—shaped by contextual and geopolitical realities.