John 14:27: My peace I give to you (KLPS 15)
This work belongs to my “KLPS” series (2022-2025) and serves as a visual testimony of a heritage crime at the Monastery of Lips in Istanbul. During the 2013–2018 restorations, thousand-year-old reliefs were flattened, and a specific wreath relief with a cross was removed and presumably stolen. By fusing contemporary graffiti with Byzantine funerary styles, I perform an act of restitution for this lost imagery through a situated practice.
I chose to paint the religious verse John 14:27, “εἰρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν” (My peace I give to you), to explore the "multiplicity of meanings" in language. While ‘peace’ serves as a greeting in Hebrew (Shalom), Arabic (Salam), and Turkish (Selam), the Greek Eirene is not used this way. This linguistic nuance highlights how the politics of language is deeply inscribed in the ways we define cultures.
My painting is a direct criticism of the 'conquest rhetoric' currently employed by Turkish authorities, who present Byzantine monuments as objects to be 'conquered' by converting them into mosques. This rhetoric not only instrumentalizes religious identity for political agendas but also paves the way for the illicit trade of antiquities and the erasure of shared history. By using a religious verse centered on peace, I challenge this narrative of ownership and conflict. I submit this work to the glossary to ensure that Byzantine architecture is acknowledged as our shared cultural heritage, moving beyond its use as a political tool toward an expansive form of kinship.
Bio
I am an Istanbul-born artist and art historian (PhD, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University) specializing in 19th and 20th-century architectural history. My practice is informed by my academic research, as well as my experience as a migrant worker in Athens and Sofia.
My work often bridges the gap between digital activism and institutional policy. In 2014, while the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum (İRHM)—the first state art museum of the Turkish Republic —was closed by the government, I manipulated a self-portrait by Avni Lifij as a protest. I shared this with Dutch curator Olivia Muus for her Museum of Selfies project to highlight that while the Turkish art scene was locked out of their first state museum, we still aimed to participate in global cultural dialogues. This act of "speculative advocacy" preceded the Turkish Ministry of Culture’s eventual adoption of the national "Müzede Selfie" (Selfie in the Museum) day. My current research and art continue to visibilise and archive heritage at risk, moving beyond institutional critique toward a healthier arts' ecosystem.
Institution(ing)s is a medium-scale collaboration project co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.