Huo Rf

Since 74

Mersin Metropolitan Municipality Cemetery has been a place where, not only, I wandered hiding under its shadow in the summer heat, but I also had to take occasional visits since my early childhood. It was a terrifying place in the beginning. As time goes by, with its ecology housing a variety of plants and its power to hold people from different backgrounds, it started to grow into me. My first visit to this cemetery was the time I learned about my late boxer uncle, whom I was named after and did not have a chance to get to know, Ümit Özdoğan's life story in front of his grave. My uncle died in a car accident in 1974. Later in 1998, the year I was born, my grandfather Hayrettin Özdoğan was buried next to him. My other uncle Salih that I barely remember, whom I saw in 1994 in a gloomy house only once,  and my father whom I lost in 2014 was buried in the same family grave. I remember from my parent's talk that my grandfather made a fountain after our loss of my uncle Ümit. My grandfather was distraught because people were always stealing the faucet and he had to buy a new one each time. Now there's a plastic faucet on that fountain, and I think it is still there because it does not carry any economic value. However, because it is quite old and being repaired repeatedly, it is damaged... Using my mother's memory as a source, this fountain that is there since 1975 has been the source of life not only for the flowers and trees planted for my relatives but also for other people's. It has been water for people who are thirsty, a tool for people who wants to cool off from the heat, a source to clean the surrounding graves, and a place for people who want to catch a breath. Since then, I find myself thinking about how water in cemeteries represents an inseparable part of the ritual between death and life. 

When I was invited to this event on which the water is being focused, this fountain named after my name, which is running for 48 years, came to my mind. Water and water sources are not as reachable as it was 48 years ago, and the purchasing power is not the same. The installation here combined my personal and family memory in one piece as if they started a little journey together. The waters of this fountain, which is open to everyone and free of charge -considering the limited water resources and the possible water crisis today- are limited to different extents in this installation and are protected and preserved by the object they are in. Somehow this fountain, because of its water, made me come back to this place and at the same time meet my past. I wished I could find the same trees, fresh shade, flowers, and water on my next visit.

Huo Rf

Translate: Bekir Arslan

Videos of production, resource of the water used in the installation, Mersin Metropolitan Municipality Cemetery.