Conversation with Gülçin Aksoy, Istanbul, 2005

Gülçin Aksoy, in a conversation held inside her car, explains that this particular project, “Artist Car,” associated with Art-Actually, involves picking up passengers—including those unfamiliar with the art scene—and offering them a unique experience with contemporary art. “I prefer to do something more ephemeral rather than something permanent and fixed.” She highlights how much time people spend in cars in a city like Istanbul and sees the project as part of everyday life: “It’s like an open window. When we bring a person who doesn’t know anything into the car, something really different happens…” At one point, the police pull them over, questioning the legitimacy of their activities despite municipal permission—ironically proving the very point of the project.

The installation Blind Window, which includes a video shown inside the car, contrasts mundane domestic settings with scenes of women expressing themselves freely. Aksoy describes a growing trend in Turkey: “Women come together and travel separately from their husbands and children. On these tours, they get so carried away. They lose themselves…they behave in a manner they would never do if a man was around. So, everything that is repressed comes out.”

Aksoy stresses that while she primarily speaks from an artistic perspective, her experiences as a woman inevitably shape her viewpoint. A recurring issue in her work is the gaze—examining how women are constantly observed and objectified. Aksoy critiques the dominant male-driven mentality “that is ruling the world right now. These wars, this violence, whatever…this issue of possessiveness, of possessing your child, which is also imposed on women…and somehow women exist in it, too, even become masculinized.” She envisions a more fluid world, free from control: “Maybe it’s utopian, but I believe that ownership should be abolished and that we should pass through this world and vanish…I am in favor of not being permanent.”

When asked why she doesn’t identify as a feminist, Aksoy replies: “I was really educated within the Western tradition…We always resort to a wall of knowledge…I feel like feminism is one of those bricks.” While acknowledging feminism’s necessity, she argues that rigid frameworks can become limiting. She also critiques the male-centered nature of language: “There is a gap, as if this language is also male…It seems to me that we, women, don’t have the conditions, the space, to express ourselves.”