During our residency at Halka Art in Istanbul, a happening took place inside a hammam, based on a saying that in a hammam souls open up like mussels in steam. By also giving shape to the philosophical idea “All that is solid melts into air”, ice-structures after being installed inside the hammam were left to constantly open up, change, melt and finally vanish into water vapours.
Interacting in this way with this specific space – a place for everybody to warm up and relax – the extreme contrast of temperature and the moment of surprise were to be intensively sensed and felt. This happening holds thus a proposal against the increasing speed in contemporary cities which is in contrast to the slow, mystic motion of melting, suggesting alternative modes of living through slow acts of reshaping, transforming, forever becoming.
The ice was provided by the local fish market.
The happening was supported by the Halka Art Residency, located in the alternative district Moda, Kadiköy; the Hammam is located at Üsküdar, both at the East/Asian side of Istanbul.
In collaboration with Gökçe Pekcan