https://www.gate-27.com/en/didem-erbas-collection

The starting point for the drawings were the buildings at Gate 27’s Yeniköy location and their surroundings, the architecture, and its relationship with nature. I produced these drawings around the possibility of creating in my own shelter models. In these works, I was inspired by the notion that if everything was destroyed and humanity would begin again from nothing, what would be the most basic need and where would we start from?

Based on my observations about the environment, the images I photographed or recorded during my residency period in Gate-27 and on my way to and from the residency premises, became the guiding elements on my wall, serving as visual notes I used during the program. 

Shanty houses along the roads, structures or objects shaped with human intervention, stray cats and dogs wandering the streets are some of the main themes of the images I collected. The buildings in Yeniköy and its surroundings, their architecture and their relationship with nature also constitute the starting point of the sketches produced in Gate 27.   

Referring to the relationship between the concepts of refuge, shelter and geography, which I started to tackle before the residency, and the shelter architecture concept mentioned in Paul Virilio’s “Bunker Archeology”, I produced drawings around the possibility of creating my own shelter models. In these works, based on the question “What would be the most basic needs if humanity had to start life again when everything was destroyed?”, I aim to create new kinds of escape areas and refuges.

Ink, charcoal and pencil on paper in various dimentions, 2020