Each retreat had a performance aspect and Defne is going to write or Video telling about the procedure of the dynamics of “living together”, “exchanging”, “creating performances” and “presenting these performances” — we can decide together where and how to place this on the publication. But briefly we can say:
In all three retreats we lived together — co-living and co-creating was in all….
Mind, body and emotional level we worked in all 3 meetings. In the outcome performances the emphasis was in different aspects:
In the first performance emphasis was on language (mind-body)
In the second performance emphasis was on body (sensational-body)
In the third performance emphasis was on emotions (emotional body)
The first step was less daring step because we stayed within the language- communicating with language- storytelling – artistic way of breaking true- but the language way of communication was still an obstacle – we dealt with the topic of language in Sirince and national cultural identities – the experience of starting and not being as daring –
Framing – Sirince was verbal – this was important for us as women to express
Milena : Şirince — even before we met, it was difficult. to be so empowered — did not have support : just to even start was big thing. But even arriving there and seeing it is happening, I was inspired by my own power and Tuba. “we can not make magic alone!”
in Aghdzq it was not so important, because it was beyond –
This was the beginning then our goal transformed – we were thinking about language and how to go beyond language?
Camp Armen – once we go through the performance – creating it, we go through a transformation ourselves and the audience also goes through a transformation – we were living the experience – but for all the times we were together there was emotional engagement – because the Camp Armenia performance didnt have more direct audience it stayed more in the processing of it – ritual-like experience – rituals are not necessarily for the audience,they are more for the people doing it – it makes sense that we had to come back to what we are doing – it was the theme of the Buyukada meeting- it was more self-reflective –
Check BELow:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jR0TGjhJbKelEVQzR9M_Dbby8-5hx1Z2-fsHLioQyTw/edit
Sharing of Senem + values, principles… emotional process. Quotations from Büyükada. Memory 1 – Everyone finding place — why they are in that place. Ended at the pool… Prayer to the Water… ritual… need of purify — relationship with water.
Memory 2 – Singing the Kurdish song. Into the performance of Camp Armen.
OLD NOTES :
Soul – fire -east – artistic identity, creativity (underlying every meeting + it si eveywhere) – birth
Body- earth (physical identity – get awareness of body) – west – Aghtzq
Emotion – water – south (emotional identity , being human, beyond culture, beyond physical)
Mind – air – north (cultural identity, history) — Sirince, we focused on our stopries, language, we didn’t know each other well, even Lyon (beginning and end of the project) child
DISCUSSION ONLINE:
Defne Milena Senem
Why does the organization exist or did exist? What was it doing? What were its activities?
We prefer to call ourselves “Initiative”…
Mainly becuase we are not an organization and we are not a association or ngo but a group of women…
And also we are constantly trying to initiate things… for ourselves and other women like us.
We have been focusing on peacebuilding and acting as “political agents” in an alternative way: as feminists. We were passionate about expressing our work for peace and in peaceful ways — not responding to the violence with violence.
Our goal transformed from building peace in the region towards other key principles but there was always “building peace” within ourselves and on earth as an undercurrent.
This was predominant in our “living together” — can we live together in peace? Expressing ourselves to the outside world – showing how there can be trust and solidarity among women. These women are Turkish and Armenian…
At the core of all our activities there was the question:
How could we go beyond cultural, national, gender identites … How to go beyond those! How can we not reproduce patriarchy in connecting across borders?
Peace-building to apply to funding. It was a new field. Particular way of peace building — beyond those ways… Discussing history, having dialogue (classic text book style) for us it was important to have an alternative… what can women do (when they do not reproduce patriarchy… stereotypes.
The first step was less daring step because we stayed within the language- communicating with language- storytelling – artistic way of breaking true- but the language way of communication was still an obstacle – we dealt with the topic of language in Sirince and national cultural identities – the experience of starting and not being as daring –
Framing – Sirince was verbal – this was important for us as women to express
Milena : Şirince — even before we met, it was difficult. to be so empowered — did not have support : just to even start was big thing. But even arriving there and seeing it is happening, I was inspired by my own power and Tuba. “we can not make magic alone!”
in Aghdzq it was not so important, because it was beyond –
This was the beginning then our goal transformed – we were thinking about language and how to go beyond language?
Camp Armen – once we go through the performance – creating it, we go through a transformation ourselves and the audience also goes through a transformation – we were living the experience – but for all the times we were together there was emotional engagement – because the Camp Armenia performance didnt have more direct audience it stayed more in the processing of it – ritual-like experience – rituals are not necessarily for the audience,they are more for the people doing it – it makes sense that we had to come back to what we are doing – it was the theme of the Buyukada meeting- it was more self-reflective –
In the first performance we put our language (mind-body)
In the second performance we put our body (sensational-body)
In the third performance we put our emotions (emotional body)
In all three levels we lived together — co-living and co-creating was in all….
Mind, body and emotional level we worked in all 3 meetings.
HOW DO WE RECALL MEMORY? Camp Armen…
This group was a feminist initiative that had the aim of peace building between Armenia and Turkey, the two countries that have closed borders. The organization made it possible for women from both countries to meet and reflect on the history and their personal stories. It made it possible for the women to meet, live together, re-visit their womenhood, national identities and personal competencies. There were exchanges of stories, practices and performative actions, that lead to a creation of a performance which than served as a dissemination practice for the values and tools of Beyond Borders.
This group exists and existed to take up space in the sphere of peacebuilding that had been growing since the 90’s, but that had been quite male dominated and in many ways continues to be male dominated. Our aim was not simply to add to “participation” of women in peacebuilding activities taking place in the region, but to do peacebuilding differently. So once we started to work together across the Turkish-Armenian border to live together, to share our stories, to create performances and safe spaces together, to move together and share our experiences of womanhood through non-verbal communication and body movement, we started to name what we were doing differently: not as peacebuilding but as building trust and solidarity among women affected by the conflict of not only regional politics, but also patriarchy, homophobia, classism, xenophobia, etc.
This group is first gathered with the intention to create understanding and solidarity among Armenian and Turkish women, to explore alternative artistic ways for expressing women’s voice in peace-building beyond closed borders and beyond mainstream political conflicts.
In 3 retreat type gatherings which took place in 2013 in Theatre madara, Turkey, in 2014 in Aqhtzk, Armenia and in 2015 in Büyükada, Turkey, we lived together, shared our stories with each other, created a safe and secure space for artistic expression so women in the group were able to find their authentic artistic way of expression, then we shared our co-creation experience with public via performances.
First performance focused on oral storytelling, mainly verbal expression (sub-tittle). Second performance focused on body expression and non-verbal communication. With different versions.
Third performance focused on emotional expression, it was transformed into a ritual-like experience.
-bu organizasyonu ilk bakista anlatan bir figür, slogan, kewyordler vs var
mi? googleda biz sunu yazinda cikalim, giren ilk sunu görsün vs
Is there a figure, slogan, keyword etc that expresses this organization at first sight. If we were to search for it in google what should appear primarily
Here we can give all the key words that take place in Büyükada Video. I can watch it and add them here in a few days. Very good idea
The image of Tuba and Kara. White Dressed Women by the sea in Buyukada. And maybe we wish to create something more abstract now?
Key words would be: linking our stories, building trust and solidarity, using performance art as a method…
In addition to Milena’s key words: Solidarity, co-creation, co-resistance, living together in an artful way
We may also think of a slogan – we could use that as the main title in the publication
I agree that the image of Tuba and Kara symbolizes our work. There are also other images, where we there is a sense of fun and intimacy for example:
-bu sekilde kalici olmasini saglamaktaki amac sizin icin neydi ve niye buna
karar verildi? dahil olmus kisiler icin bir referans olmasi mi, yapilmis
isin unutulmamasi, örnek alinmasi veya ayni grubun daha sonraki isleri icin
yol göstermesi mi, fon aldiginiz yerler icin belge olarak mi vs.
What is the aim behind having such a permenant website? Why did you decide to have this website? – for it to be reference for the involved people? For it to mark in history the work that has been done and for it not to be forgotten? For it to be an example, inspiration, reference? For it to shed light to the future practices of the group? For the funders?
For me it is to be a reference for interested new generation of feminists and activist. It is to be a spring boards for some of the BB members who are now actively utilising the tools and methods we have used as BB. I think it should serve the portfolio of these still active BB members. It would also be lovely if it serves as a reference/tool box for activists willing to have similar practices. (on this I am not clear to what extend we should share our tools, methodology details? To be discussed? — working with groups… ) → do we need to share exact details of tools and methodology? Or rather know the intention behind doing the body-movement, non-verbal, performative, etc. etc. exercises – training is more practical – people need to live and experience the process in order to understand → it’s in the doing and the living that these concepts come to be embodied
The idea for the website is to have visibility as a women’s project in bringing together women from across difficult borders and building trust and solidarity. It is to give worth to the work we have done and to make it part of history. In addition, we want it to be an example others can use for what can be done in the sphere of peacebuilding other than reproducing male-dominated patriarchal modes of building peace.
I think we created an exceptional sense of solidarity and artistic expression in Beyond Borders group, this could be an inspiration for other women groups especially who are living at conflicted borders. I would also like to mark our herstory approach into history.
Relating to each other in new ways – not replicating harmful ways — de-colonizing our relations. Write it from a more nuanced place — I can not go beyond borders, I can only relate to the borders… (meet in the borders ! personal) and what do we mean by borders? It’s not only country borders, it’s our physical borders- we have to have the capacity to meet each other in each other’s borders- to meet there, not try to go beyond those borders when its not the time – out of relating to borders meaning starts to arise
-yaratacagimiz arsivin hedef kitlesi kim? bu soru tabi yukardaki ile
baglantili, kafanizda direk steril bir profil oldugunu da sanmiyorum, ama
eger var ise bilmemiz iyi olur + disardan verilecek linkleri buna göre
tavsiye edebiliriz (ki bence cok cok önemli)
Who is the target group for this online publication? Do you have a clear/sterile target group? This is important for outside links.
Stated above.
For me the target group is mainly people like us – women, especially younger women – generations- who are very powerful but maybe doubting their power to create powerful energies in the world and to share that energy with other women.
I agree with Milena, I also would aim to target people (women men do not matter) who are in search to express their political opinions and their identity in an artistic and authentic way
- Empowerment, artistic and authentic way to express their political, individual, social needs.
- Politics of daily life – reflecting on politics of daily life – that is shaped by our politial identities — reflected on it to create performance…
- Not only fighting, or demonstrating but creating, making change on small scale where we can hope for a larger scape change
How we are gonna be together — process, creating something is already a way to intervene in the politics that I disagree with that is taking place in the world. Subversive way to do politics —
Learning about how we relate to each other.
Creating instead of reaction — to act upon the reality that we are faced with in daily life.
Small is in huge, huge is in small :: not big policy change, act upon decision makers — not the women/feminist/feminine way! Not-reproducing the way we have been thought…
-sizin icin su asla olmaz ya da illa söyle olmali denilebilecek seyler,
kurallar var mi, mesela iceriklerin alt alta bir formatta sergilenmesi ya da
x icerik y icerik ile yan yana gelmemeli, kronoljik olmali, projeler mutlaka
segmentlere ayrilmali vs
Do you have “musts” for this site? Rules, order of things, things that should not be next to each other, projects that need to be in different segments etc?
For me the time line idea is good. And if it is interactive where we can jump between segments and it is not linear that would be lovely. I would wish it to be more interactive looking than segments in the above (like in classical sites).
I also like the time line idea, but maybe we can also order it in terms of themes – or lessons learned? How we evolved…I think it will be more clear what should not be next to each other as we start putting things together more and more…
I agree with Defne, non-linear timeline would be great. Images and design should support our approach to life, art and politics therefore we need to define our principles as Beyond Borders and share with NoD factory. I am sure they will tune into our approach.
-eldeki materyallerin cesitliligi/yogunlugu/orani nedir? text mi
video/resim mi vs ve tabi sizin bunlarin teshiri icin bir tercihiniz var mi?
mesela fon aldigimiz xyz text olarak referans görmek istiyor ya da biz
sadece görsel agirlikli istiyoruz, xyz metin/fotograf mutlaka gözükmeli vs
What is the variety/intensity/ratio of the material, text, visual, video? Do you have a preference over one thing over the other? Which visual/text has priority?
For me we should have simple short texts scattered around the photo and videos. Texts that are more poetic should be treated as visual objects. And there should be more explanatory short texts as intros to the video/photos.
I agree with the above- I would like to have visual and textual content be minimal but portraying a lot – content can be dense but portrayed minimally – is it possible to do so?
I agree with both of you. Less text, poetic language and impressive visual