Earth Science News
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
For quake survivors, art brings healing in Turkey's Antioch
For quake survivors, art brings healing in Turkey's Antioch
By Hazel WARD
Antakya, Turkey (AFP) Feb 6, 2025

At first glance, it's a happy image -- hundreds of smiling faces torn from newspapers and pasted into a frame. But these are ghosts, victims of the 2023 earthquake in Turkey that claimed more than 53,000 lives.

The montage was put together by a local artist from Antakya, whose life was among the thousands upended when the 7.8-magnitude quake devastated huge areas of southern Turkey in the early hours of February 6, 2023.

"I don't know who they are but I 'know' every single one of them," said artist Emel Genc 43, who says she wept as she added each face.

"When I put people's memories into those frames with all that emptiness and despair, they see their own lives. There is sadness but also happiness that someone is trying to keep those memories alive," she told AFP.

No place was worse hit than Antakya, the site of ancient Antioch, where 90 percent of the buildings were lost and more than 20,000 people died in the town and the surrounding Hatay province.

"We lost an entire city," said Genc, who uses objects salvaged from the ruins -- old photos, trinkets, fragments of concrete -- in her art, which expresses "the utter emptiness and despair of losing absolutely everything".

- Artists as city's 'memory' -

Many of Genc's works are on display at Antakya's Art and Culture Market, an open-air complex of wooden booths which opened on January 1 and showcases the work of more than 70 local artists.

"During the earthquake, many of the city's cultural and social venues were reduced to rubble," explained Hakan Boyaci, head of Hatay's cultural association.

The aim was to create a space that would bring back local artists, many of whom had left, offering them somewhere to show their work and creating a social meeting place for the community.

"The main idea was to bring back the artists, who are the memory of the city. You can rebuild homes and buildings but that alone won't put a city back on its feet," he told AFP.

On a quiet Wednesday afternoon, only a handful of visitors were there, peering into the windows and chatting with the artists, some of whom offered workshops.

Outside one, a young girl stood proudly holding up a piece of paper marbling art she'd done, her smiling family snapping photos.

"Many people are still living in container cities and they needed somewhere to go out. This place provides space for social gathering and healing through art and culture while the city gets back on its feet," Boyaci said.

Another initiative involving quake-hit restaurants opened in September.

The Antakya Gastronomy Market showcasing the city's rich culinary heritage, much of it inspired by Syria's Aleppo, just two hour's drive east.

- 'Healed' by making mosaics -

For 10 years, 47-year-old Eser Mansuroglu had made traditionally themed mosaics of ancient historical artefacts.

But since the earthquake, she's copied images that deeply moved her.

One is of an iconic image of a man in an orange high-visibility jacket sitting by the rubble holding onto his 15-year-old daughter's hand, a photo taken by AFP photographer Adem Altan.

"He didn't let go of his daughter's hand until the morning even though she'd died. That affected me very, very deeply because I also lost my mother and brother," Mansuroglu told AFP.

She said she created the mosaics in order to process that pain.

"After so much death we were in a very, very bad place. For a while, I stopped making art but then I threw myself into it to heal.

"It felt like therapy," she said. "I healed by doing mosaics."

Funded by the governor's office and the Eastern Mediterranean Development Agency, the initiative has provided "a breath of fresh air" for both artists and residents, Boyaci said.

Outside the complex, two artists were painting bright friezes on the concrete sidings.

"Art is a way of documenting history," said Mehmet Ercin, a 27-year-old graffiti artist who iss being paid to paint scenes showing the city's rich history.

But it will omit one key event.

"We're not going to paint the earthquake because we don't want to remember it," he said, his gloved hands splattered with acrylic paint.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Pentagon chief visits Mexico border as Trump cracks down on migration
Washington (AFP) Feb 3, 2025
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the southern US border with Mexico on Monday as President Donald Trump carries out a hard-right agenda that includes boosting the country's military presence to combat illegal immigration. In his first trip as Pentagon chief, Hegseth met with US troops - who have been surged to the border region under Trump - and then traveled to the frontier itself. "This is a new era at the southern border, a new era of determination, a new era of cooperation. And at th ... read more

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
NASA radar imagery highlights expanding landslide activity in Los Angeles

Seven Iraqi pilgrims killed, dozens hurt in road accident

Trump blames deadly Washington air collision on 'diversity'

UN says Gaza needs remain 'immense'

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Ahead of Super Bowl, helicopter security flights will measure radiation in New Orleans

Generative AI's environmental impact in figures

Data centres chase water, energy savings as AI race ramps up

South Korea, Ireland watchdogs to question DeepSeek on user data

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
How atmospheric winds influence ocean weather patterns

Portugal lawmakers take step toward deep-sea mining ban

Dead Sea an 'ecological disaster', but no one can agree how to fix it

Philippines and New Zealand in talks for defence pact

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Climate change increases risk of successive natural hazards in the Himalayas

Greenland glacier accelerates each day with weather and tide changes

First major chunk breaks off world's biggest iceberg

Greenland ice crevasses escalate fueling further rise in sea levels

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
French cognac exports to China slump as tariffs bite; Scottish whisky makers fear return of Trump tariffs

Ancient agricultural strategies unveiled as pre-industrial societies adapted to climate shifts

Study examines how African farmers are adapting to mountain climate change

Revolutionary Irrigation System Unearthed in Amazon Linked to Neolithic Revolution

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Flooding in Sicily as month's rain falls in four hours

Greece on high alert as quakes shake Santorini island

Global data networks elevate seismic detection through new algorithm

Rising floodwaters force evacuations in eastern Australia

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
At least 56 killed as fighting grips Sudan's capital

Italy PM named in complaint over freed Libya police head

Sudan army says retakes key southern city from paramilitaries

France hands over last base in Chad amid withdrawal

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
New play takes on OpenAI drama and AI's existential questions

Trump signs order to get 'transgender ideology' out of military

How to Design Humane Autonomous Systems

Three million years ago our ancestors relied on plant-based diets

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.