İmran Atasal 

 BREATHING SPACES 

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I have been living in Midyat since the day I was born. Midyat is known as the city of religions and languages, and is a home to different languages, cultures and religions. Although I am not always fully in touch with this side of Midyat in the hustle and bustle of the city, I am always intrigued by the places people seek refuge to breathe a little. People stuck in their houses, especially during the pandemic, ran to vineyards, parks and other places where they could be alone. In a relatively small town like Midyat, these places of refuge and breathing are usually located closer to the city

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Despite Midyat being a small rural town, there are places that I call mine, or at least I consider them to be so. I go for walks on the trails when I get bored of just sitting around in these breathing spaces, places I seek to be alone with myself or for their silence fit for introspection or dreaming. 

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‘When I joined ‘Değiş Tokuş’, I was walking on one of these trails and started wondering how the people in big cities seek places to breathe or to be alone during this period of time. Even though I’ve never been to Izmir, I started to wonder about the breathing spaces of people who had to lockdown at their homes during the pandemic, assuming that the stress brought by daily life and business life may be more intense due to the crowdedness of the city - at least that’s what I could gather from social media, television programs or what I heard from my friends. So, I started chasing these places with the help of my project partner, Ayşegül.

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Naturally, this process led me to compare the town I was born in, Midyat, and the city I have always wanted to see, İzmir. Midyat presented a tremendous advantage by being in the vicinity of natural breathing spaces and having a small population; but, I was surprised to learn about the plentitude of planned breathing spaces in a metropolis like İzmir. Large open spaces such as Aşık Veysel Park, Kültürpark, İnciraltı, along with smaller parks shaded with trees surrounded by buildings, which render them immediately accessible, or the possibility to sit around Kordon area to watch the sea for hours reminded me of the importance of having breathing spaces in a city, no matter its size, especially during the pandemic that radically affected our lives.  

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PROJECT TEAM: İMRAN ATASAL (MARDİN) & AYŞEGÜL KAYCI (İZMİR)