kalp
2021
Yaklaşık 3 milyon yıl önce, insan atalarının karşısına tanıdık bir çakıl taşı çıkmış. Suyla zamanla aşınmış çakılda kendi suratlarını görmüşler. Yanlarında taşıdıkları Makapansgat Çakılı bugün bilinen en eski manuport.
Bu yaz karşıma bir sarmaşık çıktı. Kıvrık dallarındaki yapraklar tanıdık geldi. Telefon ekranlarında, mesajlarında kullandığım kalbin atası, toprağın sevgi mesajları. Birkaçını aldım yanımda taşıyorum.
First International Festival of Manuports wants to address, at the same time, an abruptly changed planetary reality (life under pandemic conditions, the suspension of foreign travel) and a longer-term need to rethink the international art circuit (especially the continued growth of curated mega-events). Already before last winter there was widespread unease with the unsustainable ways of the globalized art world, with many of its actors wishing for a “back to basics” approach that wouldn’t make the incoming twenties boring—because they should be roaring.
“Manuport” is the archaeological and anthropological term for “a natural object, especially a stone, that has been carried and deposited somewhere by humans but has not been artificially shaped.” The oldest such object known to us is the so-called Makapansgat pebble, a piece of jasperite measuring 8.3 centimeters across and weighing 260 grams. It was found, together with remains of the oldest relatives of humankind, in the Makapansgat cave in South Africa in 1925.
On view between 2.8.—10.10.2021 in Kunsthalle KOHTA in Finland, First International Festival of Manuports exhibits manuports sent by artists from all around the world.
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heart
2021
About 3 million years ago, a familiar pebble appeared before our human ancestors. On this pebble eroded by water and time, they saw their own faces. The Makapansgat Pebble, which they carried with them, is the oldest known manuport today.
I came across an ivy this summer. The leaves on its curved branches looked familiar. The ancestor of the heart symbol I use on phone screens and messages. I took a few them to carry with me.