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Context:
On the 26th of April 2011 the destruction of the Monument to Humanity in Kars began. In January Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave Kars a visit and fueled a debate on the sculpture, calling it “freakish” and demanding its demolition. He expressed his disagreement with the placement of the monument because it was overshadowing the historical location of an Islamic tomb and mosque. Following the Prime Minister’s visit the municipal assembly passed a motion to tear down the monument, saying it lacked a zoning permit and had been illegally erected on a historic 16th century military site. The creator of the monument Mehmet Aksoy tried to prevent the demolition but failed in turning the fate of the sculpture.
In 2006 the former mayor of Kars, Naif Alibeyoglu, commissioned Mehmet Aksoy to produce the public sculpture. The monument was meant to be a token of friendship and peace towards Armenia. The 30 meter tall sculpture symbolized a human being cloven into two in the middle, one of the figures was supposed to extend its hand to the other. The monument never got finished. In 2008 construction was stopped due to official complaints based on legal issues concerning the zoning permit. Because the construction of the monument got on hold the hand of friendship that was supposed to reach out to the ‘other’ was kept standing in front of the unfinished sculpture.
Despite the fact you may agree or disagree with the message of this specific public sculpture, its inception was exclusive and undemocratic and this fact undermines the intention of creating a unifying symbol. Shouldn’t a Monument to Humanity include different voices and views? People can only be unified when the condition that every ideology produces its own excess and extreme oppositional vision, is accepted.
Monument to Humanity – Helping Hands
A mobile workshop by Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis
04-14, July 2011
PiST/// Istanbul
The Dutch artists Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis are in Istanbul for a project as a part of PiST/// Interdisciplinary Project Space’s international research and production in residency program*. From the July 4-14 2011 Osterholt / Uitentuis** will organize an intervention around the streets of the Bomonti, Dolapdere, Elmada?, Feriköy, Harbiye, Kurtulu?, Ni?anta??, Osmanbey and Pangalt? neighborhoods of Istanbul. The central part of this performative intervention will be a mobile studio that will be wheeled around Istanbul as a catalyst for engaging the citizenry. The symbolic image of the mobile studio refers to the deplorable state of the original ‘Monument to Humanity‘ and consists of a junk-cart with a copy of Mehmet Aksoy’s hand sculpture placed on top of it. While wheeling the mobile studio through the neighborhoods, passersby will be asked to give a helping hand in order to build a new ‘Monument to Humanity’.
By giving permission to copy one of their hands, people will be asked to contribute to the production of this new monument. The artist duo will make a mold of the participant’s hand on the spot. Participants can choose for themselves what kind of sign they want to make: they can open their hands like the hand of friendship, make a fist, do a peace sign, etc. The ten-day public intervention will result in a collection of 3-D handprints, and interview transcriptions. During this process participants will be challenged to express their personal views related to the construction and demolishment of the ‘Monument to Humanity’ in Kars and its humanitarian message. The intervention tests their willingness to participate in the creation of such a unifying symbol and investigates what motivates them to either reject or become a part of the construction of a new monument. When the final collection is realized, those plaster hands will be brought to Kars in order to create an alternative monument on the location of the demolished sculpture.
‘Helping Hands’ stems from a concern with/an interest in/questions of the role of monuments in the representation of political propaganda in public space. As a response to the polarized debates on the ‘Monument to Humanity’ in Kars, Osterholt / Uitentuis propose an alternative ‘Monument to Humanity’ that does not necessarily provide symbolic “goodness”, but could also include critique, resistance and rejection. Their aim is to represent conflicting interests and experiences and accommodate a platform for debate. They propose a public sculpture, which does not carry a fixed political message but accommodates space for ongoing negotiation.
