KOVANLIK STORY

Interactive documentary kilim · 2024

Kovanlık Story developed during six months I spent in Kovanlık, a village in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey, where I was hosted by the Taç family.

I found master weaver Ayşe Taç while looking for someone from whom I could learn double knot carpet weaving. Over the following months, she taught me the technique and allowed me to set up and work on one of her looms in her home. I used this period to experiment with bringing together three techniques that are not normally combined: double-knot carpet weaving, vertical kilim weaving, and cicim, a technique that uses additional threads to create raised patterns over the woven surface. I explored the cicim technique together with my cousin Zeynep Ertürk.

The textile was woven outdoors in the centre of the village, where the Taç family and the wider life of Kovanlık gradually became part of the work.

The composition was not planned in advance. It developed as a woven diary of our time there. It begins with the Taurus Mountains and the nearby prehistoric caves, then gradually absorbs the ancient Roman road Via Sebaste right behind Kovanlık village, animals and everyday village life, our distressing encounters with the local hunting culture encounters with violence and death, the 2024 local elections, political conflicts, and other events unfolding around us. 

Alongside the weaving, I kept a written diary documenting these experiences. More than 20 hidden touch points embedded in the finished kilim activate fragments of this archive through minimal text and sound. There is no fixed route through the material: visitors encounter fragments in different orders, allowing the story of Kovanlık to unfold nonlinearly through the textile.

2026 — BBA Artist Prize, Global Shortlist Exhibition, BBA Gallery, Berlin
Kovanlık Story was selected as part of the 15 artist global shortlist for the BBA Artist Prize 2026 and exhibited in its non-interactive form from 30 April–15 May 2026.

Photos from BBA Artist Prize, Global Shortlist Exhibition 2026