Juliette Hanson

Gelibolu: A Turkish Australian Perspective on Gallipoli

 

18 March - 25 April 2015

No Vacancy Gallery, QV

 

Co-curated with Nilgun Guven and Deniz Gunal-Dinckal

 

 

Australia and Turkey are connected by their shared history of conflict and loss in the Battles of Gallipoli. For both countries these battles contributed to the formation of new national identities. Gelibolu aims to highlight this shared history and to encourage a unified remembrance. 

 

Initiated by the City of Melbourne as part of the centenary commemoration of Anzac Day, this exhibition provided a platform for the Turkish-Australian community to share their perspective on the significance of the Battles of Gallipoli and Anzac Day. The themes of the exhibition were inspired and guided by interviews conducted with a broad range of people from Melbourne’s Turkish and Turkish-Australian community.

 

Featuring the work of four Turkish and Turkish-Australian contemporary artists and a specially commissioned film, this exhibition blended the personal with the political, the traditional with the new and the symbolic with the experiential, all of which were vital contrasts within the landscape of the shared commemoration in 2015.  

 

Gelibolu offered a contemplative space within which to consider the entwined histories that exist within Australia’s multicultural society, to engage with alternative narratives of war and nation building and to question the role of remembrance. Above all this exhibition aimed to promote peace and social unity by acknowledging the impact of the past, whilst cultivating inclusion and respect.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu6Gw4IwFUA

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwMApzUGBDo

 

 

Juliette Hanson and Nilgun Guven - Interview with Richard Watts for Smart Arts on RRR radio

 

Image design: Hypergraphia