Creative representations of urban memory: Rethinking the exhibition piece "RengAhenk Ankara" through audience experiences

In this paper, we share an exhibition piece that uses individual memories and recreates them in the form of collages, poetry and maps. We investigate how the creative representation of individual memories is experienced by participants who shared their memories and the exhibition audience. The piece was produced for the annual exhibition of the Ankara Chambers of City Planners, in 2022. The theme of the year was decided as “emotions”, thus the exhibition was named as “Duygular Coğrafyası Ankara” (The Geography of Emotions Ankara) exhibition. The exhibition piece, “RengAhenk Ankara” (Col'armony Ankara), was built around the idea of focusing on the memories of childhood and youth within the city. Thus, it aimed to reveal the emotions related to these memories and the city itself, in the tension between the past and the present by using creative representations. It is aimed to establish the narrative of the changing feelings about the city and the emotion brought by the transformation of the city through memory. The exhibition piece was created through a workshop process.

In order to explore childhood and youth memories as well as emotions in the city of Ankara, the workshop team conducted interviews with 15 people who had a childhood in Ankara. Additionally, an online survey was implemented for broader participation. Following the interviews, the shared memories were represented and reproduced through the methods of mapping, found poetry and collage. The results of the survey were shared in the form of an infographic and a poem. The infographic included a blank space that enables the audience to share their own memories and spaces that they associate with certain emotions. The exhibition was open for visitors between 13 September - 16 October 2022.

Now, after the completion of the exhibition, we would like to understand how our creative approach is experienced by two audiences: participants who shared their memories with us and those who visited the exhibition. In the following months, we are planning to conduct focus groups with these two parties. By doing so, we are aiming to discover the possibilities of such a creative approach for understanding entanglements between individual memory and collective memory as well as its relation to the city. During the conference, we will share the results of this study.

*These authors are equally contributed to this work.