In her weekly article Gülseren Onanç writes about her hometown Mardin and how the city evokes the feeling that another world is possible.
Gülseren Onanç
C.P. Cavafy, one of the most distinguished Greek poets of the 20th century, who was born in Alexandria, wrote this poem for his city:
“You won’t find a new country, won’t find another shore.
This city will always pursue you.
You’ll walk the same streets, grow old
in the same neighborhoods, turn gray in these same houses.
You’ll always end up in this city. Don’t hope for things elsewhere:
there’s no ship for you, there’s no road.
Now that you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner,
you’ve destroyed it everywhere in the world.“
I was born in Mardin. It is a city which has been a part of what has been termed “the cradle of civilization”.
I ran in the garden of our stone house and slept on the roof, counting the stars.
Then my father took his family to Istanbul, the city he fell in love with during his military service.
He dreamed of looking for dreams for himself and his family in a metropolis.
I followed my dreams in Istanbul.
But as Kavafis said, the city, Mardin, always followed me.
I turned around and came back to this city.
I have been in Mardin since Tuesday evening. I attended the 5th Mardin Biennial, which reflects the city’s ancient culture.
Mardin invites us to explore
The Biennial, under the theme ‘The Promise of the Grass’, invites an exploration towards a mysterious universal politics. This presents the possibility of social ecology that internalizes the concept of renunciation. In the background of this discovery, there is the common fate of the people whose rights have been taken away in events like floods as a part of the effects of the climate crisis. These events create vulnerabilities that millions share—from Chile to Hong Kong—making us all part of a collective precariat.
Focusing on Mesopotamia and its south, known as the cradle of civilizations, the 5th Mardin Biennial brings together artists from various parts of the world who are at the forefront of this imaginative proposition.
As it has done for centuries, Mardin invites us to purify ourselves from all our identities and become a part of the harmony of the earth, purified from humanity’s evils. Mardin has been a city of co-existence, with multiple religions, and peoples living in harmony.
When I look at Turkey and the world from Mardin, I can easily say that another world is possible. Here, women, Kurds and LGBTQ+ individuals feel equal, valued and embraced as part of a common existence.
When you are bored with the authoritarian power that surrounds us and worry about the course of the world, think of Mardin.
There is a place where differences live together, respectfully with nature and all living things.
We are lucky that this place is so close to us.