Kapı ve Bellek

Abstract

Doors are architectural units that have a dynamic structure of connecting internal and external spaces, with including tense denotations of dividing, guarding and connecting. Starting as early as the Antiquity, doors symbolize abstract concepts in numerous fields, such as art and philosophy, alongside their physical functions of being the entrance and exit of spaces and buildings. Doors have sustained their existence in numerous forms since the human life begun on Earth, such as natural structures in cave entrances, entryways of cities surrounded by walls, crown gates of religious structures that ascends to the gods, the sarcophagi lids, the Roman arches that represent the triumphs of the emperors. In this thesis, deriving from the rich variety of doors and the polysemy of the image of door, the wooden doors of old and empty buildings are chosen as the main point. Doors will be considered in various forms and roles; as having a wise stance amongst ruins, as chained prisoners, as notice boards, as a branch of ivy infiltrating through ruins, as the weariness of a wood piece living under silent ruins that is collecting memories by witnessing the past and the future. In my works, I intended to question this multi-metaphorical object’s relation to the time and space and track the enigma of the life experience that stems from the history. My other intention was to blend the link between past, now and future; eventually constructing a cultural item anew. As the polysemy of the door allows the formation of unique layers of senses, it generates the memory of historical and cultural experiences. In this study, the memory of the doors that is created by the intense portrayals of artists will be discussed. Moreover, aforementioned connection between doors and memory and this connection’s influence on contemporary art will be investigated and they will be interlinked with various philosophical contexts.