Is There Any Possibilty for the Companionship of the Past, the Present and the Future? Whatever the answers may be; we are quite sure that asking too many questions is not a crime, and we have an intention of bombarding us firstly and then the others with the questions. Is something bygone always worn-out? / Is the past to be repeated? / Is repeating a crime? / Is “Handwork” a nostalgic perception? / Is change to reject the past We are pursuing the past with a new style and new production technique, and we have an intention of attending to it. We believe that this can be achieved through building bridges spanning the past with the present, and continuing to remember the presence of the people who are inside the present and will be inside our future. All of the questions happening are meant for reaching the better, the more beautiful, the further, and at most, the fastest ones... And this has been included in the question “Do we forsake the past so easily?” All right, what if the thing that we have forsaken is better than that of the “present”? We know that the good and the fast and the further do not inescapably come to mean the “right”. “Right” can only appear in the end of the conflicts of the perceptions, and it is easy for us to become a stranger to “right” as long as we do not let this conflict happen. The project “Unrepeatable” aims to hear these inquiries from the real owners of the past and let them be heard. Not providing a clear answer for the audience, however, a word, looking as if as a simple term, to be uttered by the weaver may convey a sharp meaning, “We would gather the herbs and paint the threads with them, now these are purchased from the factories. We would not even throw the walnut shells and the like...”

1. Ember Mustafa Özbezirci B.1954, Smelters İstanbul - Beyoğlu My name is Mustafa, I have been in this profession for 46 years. I’ve been doing this since my childhood, pursuing my dad’s profession. I have enjoyed and I am still enjoying doing this job, of course, I am fed up with this, but, if I were born again, I would do this job again. This profession, foundry work will not exist in the near future, ten or twenty years later. Because, this time, people will certainly hanker for this. The people seeing dust and dirt flee away in that this is a demanding and heavy profession. A different problem comes in winter for us, there is trouble coming from hot in summer and from cold in winter. If you ask why, the sand is as cold as ice, because we mould in the sand, and when you mould, your fingers freeze as hard as a stone. This time, your hands are cold, then you go to heat your hands and you have cracked-fingers due to the transitions from hot to cold, and vice versa. This quite a difficult thing for a foundryman. When you look and examine a mould, you starts to plan in your head, how is this moulded? How is it poured into the mould? Will I get injured or not? You load the molten metal into the furnace, you should be very careful after loading. You should not throw a wet, cold thing. Otherwise, it blows up, booms, and the good pops up like a cork as it is, you can also catch on fire. Once upon we had been casting serially, however; it reduced with the emergence of the factories. We were six people working together, everybody left the profession. We are the last crew, there is no one that will carry on this profession after us, not many foundrymen like us left.

2. Glaze Adil Can Güven B. 1953, Encaustic Tile Artist Bursa - İznik Abdulrahman Özer was my master, my great- uncle from my family, and we had a ceramic development coming from our family. I went ahead next to him with master-apprentice relationship since I was 17. We have been trying to do this profession for roughly 42 years. In the 15th century, with the desire of the palace for porcelain making during the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror, the ceramic activities started in that the good craftsmen were available here. We call this tile. Actually tile is something like the surname of the Turks. Coming from Central Asia to today, and despite the presence of a different technology in Central Asia, İznik tiles, which are made with the most beautiful and diverse technology in İznik, are very important, and this has also been registered as a brand by the world and not made elsewhere across the world. Of course, this is a ceramic type which was made to resemble porcelain in the 15th century, then this ceramic type continued with a group called Damascus after having experienced the white and blue periods. This Damascus group is mostly adorned with floral motifs and such colours as magenta, cobalt, turquoise and olive green. After this transition period, we see that the tile hit the top in 16th century with the invention of red that we call southwester work. Traditional works and handicrafts are gradually disappearing in the world, now that everything is industrial. I would want everyone to have a liking for traditional arts, to realize their essence and finesse. Because we do not want them to disappear, then we lose our own self.

3. Knot Carpet Weavers Nevşehir - Göreme I came to this house in 1971, quite a few carpets were woven. I would sit beside them, making loops. After then, we wove for years. When I came to the house, my sister-in-laws were weaving, I learned from them. I have two grandchildren, one is three years old and the other three and a half. They will learn when they have grown up. There are quite a few weavers in Ürgüp as well as Göreme. Thread comes painted from the stores, we weave the threads as to the colour of the carpet we wish to weave. Formerly, my sister-in-law, elder sister and mother-in-law used to paint the threads. We would gather the herbs and paint the threads with them, now these are purchased from the factories. We would not even throw the walnut shells and the like... My sister-in-law, my elder sister and my mother knew that very well, they would paint in accordance with the herbs we gathered from the gardens. At that time I was ignorant, did not understand at all, I would help them, they would paint. Now that, all of these are purchased, painted in factories and comes painted from the factories. We would paint and dry them by exposing them to the sun. My mother would spin them from sheep’s wool, then would make hank of yard. After then adding a little bit paint into the water, they would paint like this. I am all by myself save my daughter-in-law, she has two kids, but they are not interested in this profession at all.

4. Clay Galip Körükçü B.1955, Potter Nevşehir - Avanos I am carrying on a profession handing over from father to son. I learned from my father, my father from his father, as it has been going like this, we are continuing this profession as the fifth generation in my family. The raw clays of our pots come from the old stream beds of Kızılırmak River and the mountains surrounding Avanos. Then the clay is mixed with water and is kneaded like dough, being given a name, Mud. The clays without stone should be obtained, molecular bonds should be fastened on tightly, if it doesn’t withstand, we could not shape while it is turning, therefore, the clay is of great importance. After completion, the pot is exposed to the sun, if available, for twenty minutes, if the sunlight is not available, it is a rainy or a snowy day, and it is kept in the caves for three days. Then the polishing is made by rubbing it with the ferrous metals. This polishing process is not difficult but it takes quite some time, based on an old Hittite technique. That is to say, these kinds of polishing processes were carried out in this way four thousand years ago. At that time, it would not be polished by ferrous metals but by pieces of wood and stones having glossy surfaces. After carrying out the polishing process, it is left for drying for four weeks in winter and two weeks in summer, and then it is taken into the furnace. It is baked at a temperature between 900 and 1200 degrees for ten hours in the furnace.

5. Tin Emrullah Doymaz Copper Master Gaziantep I have been dealing with copper working for around 36 years. I have two children, I am from Gaziantep. Engraving is not a kind of profession that can be learned within three to five years. You have to always refresh yourself, it takes a lifetime in that there are different models.We have learned this profession from our masters, have come to these very days and are still continuing, and we are teaching our children as much as we can. We take the copper in certain sizes, there are such various moulds as pitcher moulds, glass moulds, plate with cover, and pressers. These are taken to the engraving after having been shaped in the lathe. What I say as engraving is carving and decoration. We make carving and decoration with chisel and hammer. After completing that process, if aging is needed, we paint, if polishing is needed, we have a polishing machine with which we perform polishing. If tin plating is needed, we also perform this. Nickel- plating, silver-plating, gold-plating and black aging are available, we apply these one by one as per order. It should be looked inside the product to recognize the difference between the fabrication product and handmade product, if the carving can be seen both from the outside and inside, that product is fabrication. This is process which can be carried out with pressure, and if this pressure is forceful, the carving is seen from the back side, however; this is not possible for handmade works; the carving just remain on the surface and cannot be seen from both sides in contrary to the fabrication. On the one hand there is a five-lira product and on the other hand there is a fifty-lira product. In this case, people tend to buy the inexpensive products rightfully, of course they are not right. This time, our copper handcrafts have been started not to be sold, I think, hopefully, people will appreciate the value of these and return to handcrafts again.

6. Dust Süleyman Daştan B.1979, Master of Wood Carving Sivas I’ve been performing wood carving for around 15 years, however; I’ve been doing professionally for ten years. I have been in wooden products since my childhood. My father used to be one of the oldest lumbermen. We were born and grew up in wooden products, we are trying to shape the trees that our father once cut. Wood carving is one of our main handicrafts, nearly forgotten today, even hand-carving can be performed by few masters today. Wood carving is an art which dates back to the earliest times of the history. You will say how, the primitive people would have made their weapons, knives, arrows and bows of wood for the protection purposes, and their homes for the sheltering purposes. For wood is a raw material that can be easily found and obtained in nature, people have always shape woods, using their weapons, arrows, bows, and homes made of wood. As far as I am concerned, the most ideal raw materials used in wood carving are walnut and beech trees. Of course, there are other types of trees such as ayous, limba, teak and ebony, however; they are very expensive, but we can supply them upon the request. In this period, we make pulpit and altar workings intensely, try to decorate our mosques as they have been in the world art history. When looked at it, you see the most beautiful artistic masterpieces comprised of the places of worship, churches, cathedrals and libraries. Magnificent artistic creations around the world have found body in these places. In that sense, I give reasonable care to mosque workings a little bit more, elaborating on these so as to decorate our worship places in the most beautiful way. Apart from that, we work on decoration works, mirror, wall lamp and ceiling decoration, that’s what we have been working on, and the small objects, three-dimensional small objects, trinkets, that is to say, we try to transfer wood into every aspect of life, and this can only be carried out upon request. One piece a week that we can make by hand can be made as hundred pieces a day through machineries. In this respect, the mechanisation has been endangering. But, hopefully, the artistic consciousness of the people began to re-emerge, saying, so we have a beautiful mirror or chest in my home, or a beautiful altar or pulpit in my mosque. In that sense, the artistic consciousness began to emerge which fills me with hope a little bit more.