Toplumsal Hafızanın Karanlık Dehlizine Sızan Işık: “Alyazma Anıtı”
The Light Throughout The Dark Tunnel of Socıal Memory: The “Alyazma Monument”

Author(s): Lütfiye Bozdağ
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Social history, Gender history, Studies in violence and power
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Femicides; Alyazma Monument; Social Memory; Meriç Hızal;
Summary/Abstract: This paper contains research on the traces left in social memory by a monument built in public space by the sculpture artist Meriç Hızal in order to express the reaction that she felt against femicides. The “Alyazma Monument”, which was built in cooperation with the Antalya City Council's Women Assembly and the Muratpaşa Municipality, was opened on 07 March 2012 in the Palmiye Park in Muratpaşa district. This monument, built on the concept of femicide, represents women killed by male violence. The artist who designed the “alyazma” form using the concept of a red metal pyramid in order to symbolize the women who were killed in Anatolia, carved the names of women who had been victims of violence and thus let the light leak from the holes of the characters. The fact that the light passing through the female names carved on Alyazma falls on the people entering the monument creates an intense state of emotion for the people who experience this artwork. The audience, upon seeing these names, shivers and feel a confrontation with these murders. Thanks to the light that leak from these names, the names of female victims are reflected on the ground, and visitors do not want to step on the names reflected on the ground.The aestheticization of a social pain in a pyramidal monument form invokes a thought-provoking, questioning feeling within the viewers. When it rains, the raindrops that slide from the cavities are identified with the tears of the deceased women. Can a work of art leave a trace in social memory? Is art merely an area of aesthetic pleasure experience? The paper will be developed on these questions and an evaluation will be made in the conclusion section.

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