Turkey’s world-renowned artist: “For me, there is a direct connection between every piece of a shoe and a body that is no longer there.”

Ahmet Güneştekin answered questions from Turan Information Agency a few days after the opening of his solo exhibition, Lost Alphabet, held in the 8,000-square-meter indoor halls of the Feshane Cultural Center, managed by the Istanbul Municipality. The exhibition, inaugurated by Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, will remain open until July 20.

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Turan:  The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality played a significant role in the opening of what is considered the largest art exhibition in Turkey’s history. In the 1850s, Russian merchant Ivan Tretyakov began collecting paintings, which he later donated to the Moscow municipality in 1892. Today, the Tretyakov Gallery generates annual revenues worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the Moscow government. Do you believe that the initiative launched by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality with you can develop along similar lines?

Güneştekin: Among the actors shaping and managing the cultural sphere, local government bodies are the most influential state institutions in bringing together artists and art lovers. Since the change in leadership at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, a highly coherent cultural policy has been pursued in collaboration with other cultural institutions in the country. I find this very promising. They are implementing a cultural policy that prioritizes the people who live and create in this city, in cooperation with other players in the field.

They have established cultural spaces that are accessible to everyone, rather than concentrating them in a few specific centers. From the Gazhane Museum to the Çubuklu Silos, from ArtIstanbul Feshane to the Basilica Cistern, these newly introduced cultural venues are also strengthening the metropolis’ cultural ecosystem. The restoration and revitalization projects carried out by Miras, a subsidiary of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, have demonstrated that they are capable of designing an internationally scaled exhibition, especially following their collaboration with Tate Modern at ArtIstanbul Feshane.

They have included the Lost Alphabet exhibition among the projects that will amplify Istanbul’s presence in the global art scene. Over the past two years, the preparation process for this exhibition has been successfully completed with the efforts of numerous cultural experts, including teams from Güneştekin Art Refinery and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Miras company. I believe that as the exhibition continues until July 20, its impact will expand even further.

Turan: Last year, during an interview marking Salvador Dalí’s 120th anniversary, I mentioned that the sacred object in Dalí’s work, from start to finish, was bread. What are the sacred objects in your work? The alphabet, suitcases, rubber sandals?

Güneştekin: There are so many objects that hold associative meaning for me that I cannot choose just one. However, I can say that the common environment in which they all converge is memory. Every object I use is deeply personal, but they do not emerge simply as reflections of my emotions and personal experiences; rather, they transcend into a broader context. I can say the same for the installations I create with suitcases and the sculptures I use to represent the alphabet.

For example, the rubber shoe I used in the Memory Hill installation is an object associated with my childhood, a representation of the feeling of absence. At the same time, it symbolizes the long exile of the Yazidis from Sinjar, the horrors of Roboski, the miners trapped underground in Soma, the assassination of Hrant Dink, and the way natural disasters such as earthquakes devastate lives and reduce them to rubble.

For me, every piece of a shoe establishes a direct connection with a body that is no longer there—each one goes beyond its functional purpose and materializes memory.

Turan: After my first interview with you for the nationalist-leaning Yeni Çağ newspaper, some people from that circle called and encouraged us to continue this dialogue. Do you think that your art or Yaşar Kemal’s novels will play a defining role in bringing the people of this country together?

Güneştekin: When Yaşar Kemal received the German Publishers Association Award in 1997, he said, “Just like flowers, cultures also experience cross-pollination.” In his view, the world is a garden filled with countless cultural flowers—each influencing the other but never disappearing.

Moreover, Yaşar Kemal presented his homeland as a source of universal culture, saying, “Those who read my books should know that those who destroy this culture have lost their own culture, their own humanity.” That is why he expressed themes of peace, equality, and freedom through the characters he created.

His universe carries a deep longing for a world where people live together with dignity and equality. How could a writer so deeply committed to language and human dignity not have an impact? I know that his influence does not just shape the present but will also transform the future through generations.

Turan: Some Turkish artists before you—such as Sabri Berkel, Ferruh Başağa, and Adnan Çoker—could not break out of a narrow framework, whereas your works seem to expand the intellectual scope of Turkish painting. To what do you attribute this?

Güneştekin: The main focus of my work is to load different meanings onto my artworks in every exhibition without distancing myself from the sounds and colors of the geography I was born in. Contemporary art exhibitions are spaces created to engage face-to-face with audiences through objects and environments. To create a true encounter, you must develop your own style. You cannot achieve this by confining yourself to other styles in which your voice is absent.

While keeping a distance from mainstream currents, I closely follow both the practical and theoretical developments in my field. I always work with the mindset that I am in a continuous learning process. Today, in all areas of art, the primary approach is the ability to create and move within the boundaries of different disciplines. The material an artist chooses has now become a means of understanding them. I also develop my methods and approaches by working with various materials.

Turan: In previous interviews, you mentioned that you do not adhere to any specific artistic theory. Are there any artists following in your footsteps? Can you think of any artists capable of undertaking projects of such vast scale?

Güneştekin: Among the artists I follow closely are Anish Kapoor, Damien Hirst, Mona Hatoum, Ai Weiwei, Hans Haacke, and Walid Raad—masters who question concepts through objects and symbols while looking at their own cultures.

Today, we can confidently say that it is possible to elevate works belonging to any country to an international level through global analysis. My Lost Alphabet exhibition, which I designed with references to various dimensions and theories, emerged from the harsh realities and fractures of the geography I live in, expanding with fragments of everyday life.

These fragments, influenced by an aesthetic perspective shaped by spaces that have been reduced to rubble, are primarily composed of ordinary yet captivating objects. They take form based on their place within a given space, the moments they are affected by, and the stories they convey. In my view, truth can only emerge through such aesthetically rich works.