IT WOULD HAVE TAUGHT ME WISDOM, ESTHER SCHIPPER, BERLIN, 2021
It Would Have Taught Me Wisdom installation creates an environment in which text and image are entangled: it is composed of colored plexiglass panels with digitally printed collaged elements, forming a sculptural structure, set against a wallpaper representing the signing ceremony of the Sèvres contract. In both the imagery and its underlying narrative, the new work draws on the artist’ s research into the treaties of Sèvres( 1920) and Lausanne( 1923) and their ongoing impact a century later.
A major motif is a digitally reconstructed 3D model of a porcelain statue— an écritoire, or inkwell, above which the goddess Minerva sits enthroned— which was the centerpiece on the table where the Sèvres treaty was signed. The porcelain statue was a starting point for Sahin, as it seemed to constitute an unlikely linchpin: traditionally Minerva was considered the patroness of the crafts, arts, goddess of wisdom but also of strategic warfare. Therefore, the choice of the inkwell, placed centrally where a treaty to end a war was being signed, was a charged one. In Sahin’ s work, the goddess has been marked more prominently in the garb of war: her flowing robe bears the camouflage patterns of modern combat uniforms. The five plexiglass shields represent the camouflage in use today by the French, British, German, Italian and Turkish militaries, who have each in their own way had impact on controlling and reshaping the Middle East, from the time of the signing until today.
The work’ s title, It Would Have Taught Me Wisdom, is taken from a quote attributed to Prussian King Wilhelm II about the coveted Minerva sculpture, which was the starting point of Sahin’ s non-linear research into the treaty of Sèvres. It was the last of the treaties reordering nations, redrawing borders, and redistributing territories after World War I. The Ottoman Empire was forced to give up 80 % of its prewar territory, and although it was never ratified, the harsh conditions of the contract continue to echo as a traumatic event in Turkish politics, instrumentalized in nationalist rhetoric to this day to symbolize an external threat to the integrity of the Turkish state. Sahin is currently developing a series of films about both treaties, and their lasting repercussions for the region.
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