Thorn in my foot.= Ayagimdaki diken. [Exhibition catalogue]. Edited by Eda Sezgin. Texts by Nussret Polat. Translated by Mehmet Emir Uslu.

Paperback. Large 8vo. (24 x 20 cm). Bilingual in English and Turkish. 167, [1] p., color and b/w ills. Thorn in my foot.= Ayagimdaki diken. 1500 copies were printed. [Exhibition catalogue]. Edited by Eda Sezgin. Texts by Nussret Polat. Translated by Mehmet Emir Uslu. Catalogue of an exhibition at the Baksi Museum, 2017. "It was my uncle who went out first, later followed by my father. He had told me of their journey on horseback that took days. It was from him that I learned their stories of the passengers of Cetinkaya - Erzincan railway line. And this journey has not ended, ever since it began. As such, in my seventy-one years of life, I've mostly had stories of leaving. Perhaps that's why I chose to title my exhibition after a childhood memory of a thorn that pierced my foot, lodging itself there, giving me itches and later leaving me. Grand fissures in human lives also have grand reflections. Great oscillations, relocations, leaps through classes, or careers -these certainly affect life deeply. But in my life, as I look back upon it, it was not these memories but those who were the most innocent and most personal that left the greatest marks. This is why "The Thorn in My Foot" has collated the innocent, simple and idiosyncratic experiences of my intense and multifaceted life that wanted step forth. My childhood memories; my primary school diploma, which is a testament that I wasn't a very bright child; our supper table; our chair, which was the centre of daily lives with its covering drape; the fantastical shadows of fairytale heroes that wrought havoc in our household; the dissolute images of the sunlight, the silent guest of Baksi Museum, for whose foundation I worked tirelessly; tremendous forms crafted by master blacksmiths for centuries; and the Huy Kesen Tree, a gateway to hope - they all wanted to seep through the profound silence of time and reach out to the spectators. I too followed this path. With all these interrelated and even contradictory elements, I wanted to create a dreamy silence for the spectators, within the reality of Baksi. Is it possible to reconstruct innocence with today's language? Perhaps this exhibition is a purification act chosen by an artist, who has created to understand and speak about other lives, on the way to introspection and re-encounter.".