Turkey's first open-air lighting installation exhibition, ‘Light the Dark’ illuminates Istanbul for gender equality
First opened in 2019 at a public park in Turkey's capital, Ankara, as part of UN Women's award-winning ‘Light the Dark’ campaign, this year the exhibition was expanded to a public park in İstanbul as part of the leading annual art fair, Contemporary Istanbul.
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Initiated by UN Women Turkey, the ‘Light the Dark’ Exhibition first opened to visitors in November 2019 in Ankara, Turkey's capital, with a call for a world free from violence against women and girls.
This year, five of the exhibited works were displayed at Maçka Park, İstanbul, as part of the ‘İstanbul the Lights’ project organized by Contemporary Istanbul, also İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Art, Culture and Education Foundation.
Created by contemporary artists Esra Koruç, Hazal Ünsal, Ece Kibaroğlu, Emre Okçuer and Fırat Engin, the exhibited works drew attention to gender issues including, physical violence, gender inequalities, and violence against women in politics. The artists skillfully blended in their works with Maçka Park's landscape, lighting the dark with neon, led, and fluorescent lights.
As part of UN Women Turkey's award winning 16 Days of Activism campaign for 2019, ‘Light the Dark’, the exhibition was curated by Ekin Kılınç and Fırat Engin. It hosted 10 different installations created by 12 well-known contemporary artists. The exhibition was billed as Turkey's ever first lighting exhibition opened in a public space. The exhibition was led by UN Women in collaboration with the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, Çankaya Municipality and the Embassy of Sweden in Turkey.
Higher than the Ground emphasizes gender equality in politics. It is designed with platforms of varying sizes that can be stepped on and represent podiums. The podiums bear either pink or blue lights referring to two genders, but when stepped on, regardless of the sex, weight, or height of the person, they turn orange.
Safety Booth was built as a spatial structure based on the 'shelter' metaphor. The piece reacts to contact and functional use and is designed to raise visitors’ awareness about the concept of shelter as an area of 'empathy’.
Women and men are equals. However, women's inner light, power and potential are dimmed in patriarchal societies. Furthermore, women are subjected to different forms of violence. Their voices are similar to the whisper of the wind. Some completely silent or altogether silenced.
The Killjoy shows that a world without violence is only possible if mutual action is taken, with effort from both sides. When equal, the light turns orange, when unequal it is red.
The work titled ‘Wishing Tree’ expresses the hope that violence remains only as a phenomenon in nature. The following phrases are written using neon lights on the branches of a tree in the Park of Seğmenler to state the artist's wish for a society free from violence: "Strike of lightning, blast of rain, severity of winter, sound of thunder, hit of wind".