This installation was displayed in Esta Gallery as part of an exhibition focused on anthropological study by Austrian Academy of Science on the a documentation by Werner Finke and Mehmet Emir about the lifestyle of the Zozan.
Mud is an essential element for the Zozan and Kurdish people. It has been the bonding factor for architecture and construction for hundreds of years. The houses that has outlived their owners by hundreds of years, and yet we look at them as unreliable inventions and short-lived materials.
The Zozans have been traversing these lands to stay in a well hydrated and green environment suitable for their herd. They only faced mountains and plains. But as civility decided to be more imaginary borders related to political authority rather than their natural boundaries. The Zozan’s simple lifestyle wouldn’t fit the requirements of authorities, as priorities and definition of things change, The Zozan care for what is vital to their existence only. These sides have different understandings of nature, sanctity and borders.
This artwork displays a wall of mud and how it gets washed away by water. The installation itself clashes with the space as it shows natural borders trying to withstand the flow of civilization.
In Kurdish architecture we used mud to create houses, in the dry seasons, they would undergo re-covering and as winter came, rain and snow washed the mud away – again and again. This cycle of Inevitably is same with the Zozan and their geopolitical origin as new materials come the mud houses were abandoned and left unmaintained. The Zozan have no power to back their ways of life and the only way to stay away from politics is to understand the people with maps.
