Berka Beste Kopuz’s Solo Exhibition “The Soil Collects the Past II” Opens at Merdiven Art Space on November 7
Berka Beste Kopuz’s solo exhibition “The Soil Collects the Past II” will be on view at Merdiven Art Space from November 7 to 30. At the heart of the exhibition lies an abandoned mansion adjacent to the artist’s own home in the Acıbadem neighborhood, where she has lived since childhood.
Kopuz’s interest in the mansion’s past sparked an in-depth research process in 2019, stemming from the question, “Where do I live?” What began as a curiosity evolved into a long-term archive-based and artistic production journey. With her drawings and subjective narrative style, the artist focuses on forgotten places and individuals around her through the lens of identity, memory, and space. Tracing the past, she explores testimonies, archival documents, and memory sites. The exhibition takes its shape from a special notebook meticulously compiled by the artist, rising from the foundations of this long-forgotten hunting lodge that no one even notices.
Berka Beste Kopuz’s artistic practice reveals stories hidden in the fragments of memory and dares to attune to the inner rhythm of space. Rather than remaining on the surface, she proposes delving into the depths and forming a connection with the roots of a structure lost in the dusty shelves of history.
The Soil Collects the Past questions the relationship between time and space, remembering and forgetting. Kopuz listens to the voices buried deep in the soil and attempts to capture the echoes of memories reverberating off cold concrete surfaces. This exhibition is not only a historical investigation or a glance at a forgotten hunting lodge—it is also a striving to reconnect with the past. With each work, Kopuz invites the viewer to witness the difficulty of remembering and the inevitability of forgetting. Once remembered for its garden filled with white lilacs, the lodge fades into the earth, its presence affirmed through a romanticized depiction and enduring materials. The memories suspended between space and time open the door to the unknown stories of Acıbadem through the lens of a derelict lodge.
— Excerpt from the exhibition text by Melike Bayık
