The gift that keeps on giving
On the eve of a major exhibition in Turkey, the Istanbul-based artist Vuslat gave a talk on her art and the concept of ‘Emanet’, at London’s Royal Academy of Arts
Twenty years after the first serious exhibition about Ottoman art, the art of Turkey, was held in London, the revered artist, activist and philanthropist Vuslat spoke at the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly, in conversation with acclaimed art-historian Andrew Graham-Dixon.
The conversation preceded Sabanci’s first solo exhibition, ‘Emanet – The Promise’, which comes to the Baksi Museum (European Museum of the Year, 2014) in northeast Turkey in June 2023, a year after her first exhibition in London in May 2022.
This latest exhibition seeks to provide an optimistic counterpoint to volatile times in politics and geopolitics, especially during a pivotal year for Turkey as it goes through one of its most important elections to date.
The title, ‘Emanet’, means to entrust something to someone else for safekeeping. Vuslat first heard of the concept via a fairytale told to her by her grandmother, a “fairy tale found in all cultures and languages”, concerning a meagre gift whose price unnecessarily becomes higher and higher after a succession of people fail to care for it. “I lived with the fairytale for some time, and really contemplated the essence of it,” she said. “Emanet is to protect and safeguard something that's needed for us with great attentiveness… It's a solid agreement of trust, a precious promise and a commitment from both sides.”
Paying respect to the natural world especially is something that goes through the entirety of Vuslat’s work, and is epitomized by one of her artworks that coats a relatively humble plant found near the riverbanks in a wild, natural region of Turkey with silver. While the plant has medicinal properties, it's often not valued, and merely becomes fuel for bonfires. Coating the 2,000-year-old plant with silver is one of the ways of symbolically valuing the gift.
“All the mountains, rivers, birds, trees, there are precious,” she said. “Travelling to Turkey’s Northeast region I sat in the mountains, I listened to the sound of the birds, even to the pulse of the earth,” she said. Her Vuslat Foundation focuses on the skill of “Generous Listening” – the skill of listening to ourselves, each other, and nature with generosity, which leads to understanding, empathy, and better collaboration. For Vuslat, listening is a preventive medicine expressed time and again through the forms and concepts of her work.
“I already think of her as a force,” said Graham-Dixon in his opening remarks, “a very strong, powerful female force and we need more of these in our world.” Acknowledging what an “extraordinary journey she's had”, he called her “a very, very unusual artist”, having been a campaigning journalist, a super-high media executive, and a philanthropist.
A noted human rights campaigner, especially in the field of gender equality, Vuslat’s efforts have resulted in a law on domestic violence, and she helped establish a platform to gather all Non-Profit Organizations formed around issues concerning women. Her efforts have led to an increase in the number of female MPs in Turkey.
“She might seem like many, many different persons in one person, but I think they’re all united by an interest in certain fields that are joined together in this exhibition,” said Graham-Dixon. “It takes the form of works of art, but the concerns and preoccupations are those of a journalist.”
Working on the exhibition allowed Vuslat to establish a deep connection with her roots, she said. “It invites you to remind you of our responsibility to take care of each other and for the future, to care for everything that has been given to us to pass on to future generations.”
She ended her talk by inviting those assembled to “leave this room with one question in mind: what is your most precious Emanet that life has given you?”