PLANT STORIES #3: Grapes, Land, and Resistance: Letter-Based Dialogue
In the organizer's words:
/ German below /
Installation by Bilge Emine Arslan
SATURDAY 26 JULY - 16:00 - 20:00, Guided Tour / Introduction to the project: 17:00
SUNDAY 27 JULY 2025 - 11:00 - 13:00, 18:00 - 23:00As part of her long-term project Grapes, Land, and Resistance, artist Bilge Emine Arslan initiates a letter-based exchange between her aunt Hatice Sönmez in the village of Çolaklar, southeastern Turkey, and Gülistan Yılmaz, who is part of a community garden in Berlin. Rooted in ancestral memory and family archive research, the project reflects on the role of women in preserving land-based knowledge through everyday practices. The correspondence offers a poetic space for sharing everyday routines, ecological practices, and reflections on land-based resilience across two different geographies. Through a small series of personal letters, the project connects lived experiences shaped by care, cultivation, and storytelling.
BILGE EMINE ARSLAN is a Berlin-based visual artist, researcher, and art mediator whose work weaves personal narratives and collective memory. Originally from İskenderun, Turkey, her artistic journey is shaped by themes of migration, identity, ecology, justice production and our evolving connection to landscapes. Holding an MA in Spatial Strategies from Weißensee Kunsthochschule, Bilge Emine creates her projects with a variety of media, including video installations, photography, ceramics and drawing. Her projects have been displayed in various exhibition spaces like Spore Initiative-in the scope of Berlin Art Week-and Kunsthaus Bethanien. She has received support through grants such as DAAD Promos for her field research and has continued to explore the intersections of narratives and socio-political landscapes as an artist-in-residence at ZK/U in Berlin.
Free entrance
The installation is part of PLANT STORIES, a program running from June - October 2025 at ZK/U.
Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
/ german /
Installation by Bilge Emine Arslan
SATURDAY 26 JULY - 16:00 - 20:00, Guided tour / Introduction to the project: 17:00
SUNDAY 27 JULY 2025 - 11:00 - 13:00, 18:00 - 23:00As part of her long-term project Grapes, Land, and Resistance, artist Bilge Emine Arslan initiates an exchange of letters between her aunt Hatice Sönmez from the village of Çolaklar in southeastern Turkey and Gülistan Yılmaz, who is part of a community garden group in Berlin. In conjunction with ancestral memory and research in family archives, the project reflects on the role of women who preserve rural knowledge through everyday practices. The correspondence between Hatice Sönmez and Gülistan Yılmaz opens up a poetic space for their exchange on everyday routines, ecological practices and reflections on landscape-based resilience in two different geographical regions. Through a small series of personal letters, the project connects lived experiences characterized by care, cultivation and storytelling.
BILGE EMINE ARSLAN is a Berlin-based visual artist, researcher and art educator who weaves together personal narrative and collective memory. With origins in İskenderun, Turkey, her artistic work is characterized by themes of migration, identity, ecology, justice and how the connection to landscapes is changing. With an MA in spatial strategies (Kunsthochschule Weißensee), Arslan works with video installations, photography, ceramics and drawing, among other things. Her projects have been shown at Spore Initiative and Kunsthaus Bethanien, among others. For her field research she received support from the DAAD and was artist-in-residence at ZK/U Berlin in 2025.
Free admission
The installation is part of PLANT STORIES, a program that runs from June to October 2025 at ZK/U.
Supported by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
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