"From the Field", curated by fam° and funded by the British Council Creative Collaborations Grant, brings together four artists from Turkey and the UK and features multimedia works inspired by stories from the operational fields of non-governmental organizations Support to Life and Choose Love. The exhibition will open on 6 April at fam°s gallery in the Istanbul Design Museum.
Artists: Lena Yokoyama, Maya Kurdoğlu, Nurbanu Asena, Vicki Turner
Main Partner: Grand Matter
Supporters: Support to Life, Choose Love
“The From the Field” exhibition aims to inspire its visitors with compassionate creativity by adopting a consciously slowed-down gaze when encountering the stories of others in our age, where speed and the limits imposed by geographical divisions rule our perception.
Ripples AR (2024)
Artist Statement:
When I encountered data on Syrian refugees in Lebanon, I struggled to connect with the crisis on a personal level. It felt like dealing with numbers rather than individual lives, stripping away the layers of the issue and reducing it to a mathematical problem.
Then, I stumbled upon stories like that of the Peace families, where a group of 20 Syrian partners came together to launch an initiative promoting social peace between communities and bridging the gap between the Lebanese (host) community and the Syrian community in the area.
After receiving training from Hope, they decided to open a bakery and begin distributing bread and sweets as part of their campaign. Throughout the project, they learned to communicate passionately with their partners and friends, and came to realize the importance of listening and advocating for equal rights for women and men in both home and work life. Most importantly, they emerged as influencers within their communities.
However, these inspiring stories are occurring on a much smaller scale compared to the migration statistics. Change often begins with small actions that create ripples across society, but the challenges remain vast. I wanted to highlight the disparity between the ongoing migration crisis and the relatively few positive change stories unfolding across the region.