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TURKEY


2006

Birgül, 2007

Turkey
Gouache on paper (detail)

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TURKEY
2006

Istanbul

“They arrived one morning at dawn. We were all asleep. They threw us out. In every house, one person stayed: children, old people. After they chased us away, they also kicked them out. The bulldozer arrived.” Birgül

Abstracts

“'There aren’t many Roms around here,' I was told in Istanbul. 'A few villages around Edirne at the Bulgarian border, at the most; otherwise they’re perfectly integrated…' In reality, two million Roms are dispersed throughout Turkey. (…) I had the greatest trouble in the world to find an 'integrated Rom.' My assistants were the ones who first met Elmas. They announced in a whisper: 'She’s a genuine Rom with a university record as long as this. She has a radiant smile. She’s been making documentaries on Roms in Turkey for four years!'

(…) Pretty Birgül was a far better representative of the normal treatment that Roms receive in Turkey. We were welcomed most warmly by her whole family whose unfortunate lot it was to camp on the rubble of their site, surrounded by buildings being raised by real-estate developers who had the connections, and above all, enough cash in hand, to cancel out a Rom’s petty ownership title."

Extract from Zoé Zoé, Femmes du mondes, 2007, Éditions Gallimard

Works

TURKEY 1282
Birgül , 2006

Turkey
Gouache on paper
46 x 37 cm

TURKEY 1280
Birgül 2, 2006

Turkey
Gouache on paper
46 x 74 cm

TURKEY 1284
Birgül 3, 2006

Turkey
Gouache on paper
46 x 37 cm

TURKEY 1288
La ville gagne sur les décombres, 2006

Turkey
Polaroid silver print
80 x 64 cm

TURKEY 1290
Survivre, 2006

Turkey
C-Print
144 x 300 cm

TURKEY 1292
Elmas, 2006

Turkey
Gouache on paper
46 x 37 cm

TURKEY 1294
Elmas 2, 2006

Turkey
Gouache on paper
46 x 37 cm

TURKEY 1296
Elmas 3, 2006

Turkey
Gouache on paper
46 x 37 cm

TURKEY 3420
Elmas 4, 2006

Turkey
C-Print
120 x 169 cm

Maps

TURKEY 1275
Map of Roms, 2007

Gouache on paper, 80 x 120 cm

Making-of

Illustration Making Of
Portrait of Birgül, 2006

Turkey
© Bruno Pellarin

Illustration Making Of
Children in rubble, 2006

Turkey
© Bruno Pellarin

Illustration Making Of
Preparation for the photo-tableau "Survivre", 2006

Turkey
© Bruno Pellarin

Film by Marc Jampolsky

Image by Delphine Bole

Books

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