Update / Bitter Coffee Chronicles

Reflecting on the impact of the 1923 Greek-Turkish population exchange, which uprooted 1.4 million lives and reshaped destinies. I’m happy to finally share this narrative, a blend of personal and collective history—which is also my grandfather’s story who I could never meet. A return to his land, a reverse/symmetrical migration echoing through time.

Repost from @groundless.group
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Bitter Coffee Chronicles, 2022, video, 8 min
Özcan Ertek

In “Bitter Coffee Chronicles,” the artist navigates the complex terrain of identity, with roots stretching from Istanbul and Anatolia to Thessaloniki and Europe. The project revolves around the historical backdrop of the 1923 population exchange -also known as “Mübadele”- between Turkey and Greece, bridging personal family narrative with this broader context. Via Turkish coffee reading, Ertek decodes his grandfather’s migration journey, extracting meaning from the shapes and forms within the coffee cup. This method serves as a metaphorical tool for contemplating the past, present and potential future in Europe post-migration. By doing this, the project becomes a reflective exploration of identity guided by the patterns in the coffee cup, fostering a dialogue about roots, history and future, encapsulating the introspective quest to decode fundamental aspects of selfhood and destiny.

As a part of Groundless - Dissonance within,
Zwitschermaschine, Potsdamerstr 161
Curated by @fangts_

Voice @miracle.yigit
Edit @alicandurbas