Hello friends,

I am a statue mostly out of metal with a few pieces, living together with my companies. We are almost the same as each other except for our length. We have a defined square open area next to a building in the port. I have a very long cylindrical metal piece, there is some numbers on it, with two plane rounded metal parts on the top of it, one is smaller than the other. At the bottom, a plastic conical piece stands and my roots are going down through the plastic part and the concrete floor. Beyond that, a big plastic barge swims as the sea comes through under the concrete floor. Additionally, I have a very nice view of Bosporus and pebbles are lying under me. I have some other companies standing nearby me that are combinations of tires and a piece of yellow fabric. Two pieces of tires are added up and another tire piece stands in front of them. But some of the tires have earth in the middle hole and melissas are coming out.

The big plane metal piece on the top of me makes a shadow place. And around my roots, the height of the tires seems comfortable enough to sit on them, and the visitors sit on them already. The designers should have wanted us to be moving, in order to be playful I guess, that is the reason we have barges in the water. Lightness of the barges lets flow to stir us, and so we usually swim during the day time. Sometimes the flow is stronger, so we all swim togetirether but sometimes there is almost no flow to make us move. This may be because of the big cruise ships that put over and spoil the view at the same time. In some days my place is crowded; some visitors come and sit on the tires, watching the city or the sea, chatting with friends. Since we all have metal roofs, the sun shine reflects all around and makes nice patterns on the wall close to me. It is wall of a building, written ‘İstanbul Modern’ on it, and many different types of people are coming there every day.

So as the wall says we are in İstanbul, and the opposite shore is close to the port that means we are in the European side of the city and the sea along with us, is the golden horn. We are in Karaköy side since, in the view there are a few mosques and an old building that looks like Topkapı Palace. The building close to us must be a public place because people come, spend some time and leave. So it may be a school, hospital or maybe a museum. Probably I was designed to be a part of a resting area, to make people feel comfortable and relax with the city view, fresh air and little melissa plant around me. Moreover the idea of movement is a part of playfulness, so I may be designed for kids as well. Another idea is, I maybe a big sculpture about an anniversary, and maybe the number of us as a group is to symbolize something. 

Bilge Merve AKTAS