2023-2025; series of works, a collaborative project with Mochu

Centered around figures of movement, this project inquires into certain unusual ideas of political economy that emerged in conjunction with ancient philosophy in the region earlier known as Ionia (~8th-6th century BC), now spread over Turkey and Greece.

Today, the Aegean region is a paradoxical theatre hosting both the frivolous neoliberalism of tourism and one of the most heavily policed maritime borders in the world. This combination highlights quite a deranged world order creeping on the subjectivity of individual citizens familiar with the power of sovereign nations and free trade.

2025; lecture performance, about 50 mins

A lecture-performance that looks at geography as philosophical terrain, set largely around the Aegean region in Türkiye and parts of Greece. The work takes off from notes about the historical origins of philosophical thought in Ancient Ionia and how it was tied to notions of political freedom and equality.

Generally, philosophy is assumed to be an abstract, contemplative activity. However, the systems of thought developed in Ionia reveal how freedom of movement and the emergence of the individual are both tied to the recognition of immanent physical laws, as opposed to speculative, transcendental ideas. The lecture-performance drifts along this ancient medley of thought and sensible matter.

2025; plywood, metal sheet, vinyl print, plaster, watercolor and arcylic, and magnets, 60x180cm

Philosophical Magnets are what happens when a tourist visits a terrain of philosophy and thoughts stick to them. As it is, the strange thing with souvenir magnets sold in tourist spots is that they literally stick the place and its memory on to you, while the tourist is a particular neoliberal figure of mobility that inherently refuses to stick to any place. This work could also have been called Attractions of Philosophy.

2024; two-part text
Produced for Sharjah Biennial 16 YAZ project (2023-2025) commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation.

The initial thrust for our research is derived from a book by Kojin Karatani, Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy, where he elaborates upon a governance model practiced in ancient Ionia called isonomia –a ‘no-rule’– that was built upon free market, freedom, and egalitarianism.

For YAZ Publications, we wrote a text on this book and did an interview with Kojin Karatani.