Bloody Hamam

Perhaps we could arrive at a different understanding of what orientalism entails today: It is not just the act of physical travel and motion between the past and present, but rather, the erosion of the idea of place as a whole.

In Bloody Hamam, we can experience this motion between places less as a trajectory and more as an interruption. The artist translates its experiences, emotions and ideas into pictures, performances and objects; what is happening there is not that she tries to destroy or obscure the purpose, but changing or removing the context, sometimes humorously, adds unexpected layers. By translating her experiences and knowledge, Ayla takes us on a journey from east to west, from past to present and tries to display what it feels like to undergo orientalism today.