Eda Gizem Uğur

Story I, 2016, stitching on a tulle curtain, wooden radio, audio recording

Every story left in the past continues to be lived by someone else today, even if it is not repeated in exactly the same way. This is particularly true of stories involving women and violence.

Before me stands a woman recounting her past in all its reality—a woman who continues to repeat what she has experienced, without even being aware of these repetitions. At a young age, she escapes the violence inflicted by her father by getting married. Yet in the new world she chooses as a means of escape, she encounters infidelity and even greater violence. She explains that, under these circumstances, she tries to fulfil her children’s wishes by producing handicrafts for others. She also says that she feels at ease only when she has some work in her hands.

Why a curtain? She adds: “I always waited by the window, behind the curtain, hoping that the people passing by would notice me.” This sentence became the turning point through which the story was transformed into an artwork. I embroider her words onto her curtain, reproducing them in her own handwriting. The woman’s gentleness, her concealment of herself, the boundary between her and the outside world, and her response to the interventions of others are all like a curtain. The combination of thread and curtain, and the needle wearing away the delicate tulle, form an image of the woman whose voice we hear.

Finally, that woman is my grandmother, and this story is our story.