Betül Sefika

Zomerresident Vruchtbare Grond

Betul studeerde illustratie en grafisch ontwerp.

“Tijdens het staren naar de houttekeningen in de vloer dringt het weer door dat ik naar geregistreerde tijd aan het kijken ben. Tijd is massa binnen een schors. Wat gebeurt er als we tijd mummificeren en fileren tot de planken onder onze voeten? Wat betekent het voor de beleving ervan als we splinters uit de jaarringen halen?” Al schrijvend en tekenend probeert Betül wandelpaden te bieden aan deze vragen."

Alle makers zitten in hetzelfde schuitje als het aankomt op nieuwe richtingen te onderzoeken en te verkennen, met de obstakels en overwinningen vandien. We vragen onze zomerresidenten naar hun visie op enkele quotes uit het werk 'Truisms' van kunstenares Jenny Holzer en 'Rules for Students and Teachers' van John Cage en Sister Corita Kent.


TRUISMS

a sense of timing is the mark of genius

Betül: "This statement has jumped over a few steps. A sense of timing is a sign of intelligence, fo' sho'. The ability to act upon it is a mark of the real virtuoso. Actual genius should be actual, therefore performed. This means it requires agility or a physical quickness. And like many things, this doesn't depend on simply having a way with things. People don't win things with a talent for timing alone. Creating a sense of timing takes time and it resembles sports as much as stock market trading. You have to practise, practise, practise and gamble, gamble, gamble to leave Kairos bald on your porch.
A lovely side effect however is that it enables you to recognize luck and all forms in which you're lucky right now.
"*

every achievement requires a sacrifice

Betül: "This is also the opening quote of my agreement with the devil. I can't have gluten, lactose, friends, or contact with my mother at the moment. "

monomania is a prerequisite of success

Betül: "Another diet? Just one mania?
If you don't have two and a half mania's in your Asos shopping cart every season, in what century are you even living?
Recently I did a klepto- and nympho-. Would recommend.
"

push yourself to the limit as often as possible

Betül: "What limit? The world is round."

symbols are more meaningful than things themselves

Betül: "And that's nice.
Symbols are the coolest cultural tools.
It's nice that an object can contain something larger, or even the carry the contribution of many other people
A talisman, for example, can compress a story into something you can carry with you.
I'm also thinking about the word 'Bismillah', a sort of immaterial symbol, a ritual. Muslims say this word, or the phrase 'Bismillahirrahmanirrahim' before right about anything they do, greeting the moment and mainly assuring them doing it with a sense of contemplation.
The frequency in which this symbol is honored keeps the religion alive. It adds holiness to the language you speak. Makes you live in a different story. It's mindblowing that this practise carries the dedication of heaps of people since +/-600 A.C. and I'm humbled to have experienced this at some point in my life, before I lost it many years ago to plain neglect.
"

the most profound things are inexpressible

Betül: "This reminds me of a book that's taking me forever to read. Which is allright because it's sayin the same things with different examples aaaall of the time. It's called 'the Hatred Of Poetry' by Ben Lerner. Somewhere in the beginning of the essay he tells the story of a monk who dreamt about this beautiful song written by God. In the morning he tries to write it down, make it actual, which takes all the poetry out of the song. The beauty of poetry is mostly virtual and comes about while reaching for something beyond us. When the poem is written, there is no reaching left. It is remains what it is. In that way poetry is bound to always fail as an art form."

there's nothing redeeming in toil

Betül: "It is, if it has an end in sight. I make sure to toil for about 20 minutes a day to keep my summer body intact and my critique on neocapitalism sharp. "


RULES FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

4. Consider everything an experiment.

Betül: "I live by rule four."

6. Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail, there's only make.

Betül: "I live by rule six as well."

9. Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.

Betül: "You can enjoy being angry as well and be very light in this joy. Especially when you make a product out of it. There's an art to being cruel. A fun kind of cruelty. Machiahahahahavellian."


JENNY HOLZER ‘Truisms’ 1983
‘Truisms’ zijn een paar honderd uitspraken van politieke, sociale, filosofische of moralistische aard. Soms zijn het 'open deuren', soms geven zij stof tot nadenken. De uitspraken zijn niet de persoonlijke meningen van Holzer. Sommige uitspraken of opvattingen zijn tegenstrijdig, maar samen geven ze een afspiegeling van de werkelijkheid. Holzer zegt: "Ik dacht dat het geheel een redelijk betrouwbaar portret zou kunnen zijn van de manier waarop de dingen zijn in de wereld, omdat al deze tegenstrijdige meningen tegelijkertijd bestaan".

10 RULES FOR STUDENTS & TEACHERS
Componist John Cage gebruikte een lijst met tien regels voor studenten en leraars, die opgesteld waren door zeefdruk-kunstenars, docente en non Sister Corita Kent. Kent maakte de lijst als onderdeel van een project in een cursus die ze gaf in 1967-1968. Sommige van de regels van Kent’s lijst doen ook denken aan de ‘Oblique Strategies’ van muzikant Brian Eno en de schilder Peter Schmidt (die we onze zomerresidenten-muziek voorlegden). Neem nu regel nummer zes, "Nothing is a mistake," die doet denken aan Oblique Strategy "Honor thy error as a hidden intention."