Participants: ADA, Ali Kanal, CANAVAR, Cem Sonel, Göksu Gül, FRZ, İN!, KAPTAN, PAPYX, PİON, RGA, Suatilyus
Daragaç_Volta was held in 20-27 June 2019. Until the last meeting, we couldn’t find a name to the project but the decision was made when Ayşegül said “Let it be Volta!” For the image to be used in the event poster, we spray painted a wall of the old Sümerbank Factory which is next to the neighbourhood and resists to collapse, in a manner that suits the event very well with the help of Ali. Despite the scorching sun of Izmir, it was a very enjoyable process.
While Fırat Bakkal was applying the mortar that he mixed on the weathered walls of the neighborhood with PİON and my old friend Çağdaş from Ankara; I, Cenkhan and Ali were walking around the neighborhood door to door, asking for permission for new walls to paint and trying to get support for the equipment to be used.
The day before the event, we went to welcome our young brother from Diyarbakir, PİON, with Fatih. As soon as he saw us, he asked, “I cannot believe that I’m here brother, am I dreaming?” In the following days, the team was completed with artists from Ankara, Izmir and Tabriz, and the artists from Istanbul who arrived after voting on the evening of the repeated local elections on June 24.
Nobody could work under the sun, at temperatures that were much higher than expected during the day time so everybody got to know each other and exchanged ideas in small groups, in areas that were relatively cooler. As the noon heat decreased, we were eating the delicious food prepared by Tuğçe, Ayşegül and Hilal altogether. As the scorching sun went down in the evening, everyone slowly took their place at their walls. For the artists who would continue to work whole night, Cenkhan and Ali and I were illuminating the walls of the darkening neighborhood with the extension cables we pulled from the houses nearby. While Ali and I were hosting the guest artists, we were also working on our walls which were on the same street facing each other. Fatih was sharing the ongoing work on our social media accounts simultaneously. In the evenings, the Apeiron Soundsystem was playing DJ sets in the neighborhood for the artists and the audience.
Artists were giving their final touches to their work as we got closer to the closing party on the last evening of the event. The neighborhood was getting more and more crowded. Everyone was drinking ice-cold beers that Veli Bakkal and Fırat Bakkal stocked in the fridges the day before. The festive atmosphere that has become traditional in every art event organized in the neighbourhood, had already spread to the streets. With the works of Göksu Gül, Canavar, FRZ, İN!, Kara Gözüktü Kaptan, PİON, RGA (Owl, Rikid, Hemon), Ali Kanal and I who were invited to the event, and the works of ADA, PAPYX and Suatilyus who joined us voluntarily during the event, a total of 17 wall works were presented to the audience. People were wandering on the streets of the neighborhood all night long and having fun with the DJ sets of Steph B2B Emre Can Swim, King Kiwi and Maner. The most memorable moment of the closing night was when Mother Fatma, the official headwoman of the neighbourhood who was sitting on her chair that she placed at the door of the studio where the party was held with all her majesty, said to the police team that came to check what was going on; “As the headwoman of this neighborhood I’m taking care of the kids. You go and take care of your own business.”
Good to have you, Mother Fatma, good to have you, Darağaç!
Cem Sonel
