Text Sulukulu

Sulukule is a settlement of some 8,000m² within the historic part of Istanbul, inhabited by Roma since the 15th century and famous for a very distinctive form of music and belly dancing. Of this district, once famed for its festivals, there is now - we are talking 2009 - little left but rubble. The original inhabitants find it hard to find their feet in their new life and often wander around. Nomadic gypsies from Anatolia set up encampments and their trades there in summer. A few haunted houses endure and restoration is being considered here and there.

 

In 2010, Istanbul may hold the title of cultural capital of Europe. Some historical sites in Turkey's ‘second’ capital, have their place on the Unesco World Heritage list, including Sulukule leaning against Theodosius' wall.

However, Unesco has repeatedly expressed deep concern over Turkey's handling of this heritage, threatening to remove Istanbul from the World Heritage list and place it on the ‘in danger’ list. To avoid this blameworthiness in light of 2010, a fierce debate raged in Turkey in the summer of 2009 about dealing with heritage and partly about the future of Sulukule.

 

Sulukule is a very old settlement; the presence of Roma in camps on present-day Sulukule territory was recorded as early as the 11th century. In the 15th century, this became the first area in the world to be permanently inhabited by sedentary Roma.

Sulukule became particularly famous for belly dancing, divination, and a very distinctive style of music. This took place in the living rooms of the ‘devriye evleri’, so-called ‘entertainment houses’, where the public was received. The father made music with his sons and close relatives, and the daughters danced. The women brought fruit, snacks, and raki. Of Sulukule's original 5,000 inhabitants, there were 3,500 Roma who were all related to each other in one way or another, making it look like one big extended family. Street vendors also made the neighborhood largely self-sufficient.

This resulted in a demographic and cultural continuity from the Ottoman Empire until the 1990s.

Then these ‘entertainment houses’ were systematically closed down and since most of the residents depended on them for their income, the neighborhood fell more and more into disrepair....

In 2006, residents were informed about the urban renewal project ‘People First’ for the first time.

This project was drawn up by Fatih Municipality in cooperation with the Metropolitan Municipality of Istanbul and TOKI (Housing Development Administration of the Prime Minister of Turkey) and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on the basis of the aforementioned Law 5366.

Labeled by some as a fraudulent way of speculation by Fatih municipality officials to obtain luxury flats, by others as an attempt to make Sulukule more livable as a historical post, still others see it merely as an urban beautification or urban expansion project where the historical uniqueness is swept off the table.

Specifically, this led to a whole range of measures for residents, depending on whether they were tenants or owners. One of the options offered was relocation to Taşoluk, a new urban expansion area some 40km away.

However, this option soon proved unviable, not only because it was not financially feasible for most but also because the living conditions there were miles away from their habits.

Meanwhile, under the banner of ‘Locating Onsite’/ STOP, an alternative neighborhood rehabilitation plan was being worked on at the initiative of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (one of the most renowned in the country), the Chamber of Architects and Urban Planners and some NGOs.

They are working on a project management framework starting from a preliminary archaeological survey in the area and a revision of Fatih's original project with the main objective of uniting original and new residents.

 

State of play July 2009: some 80% of Sulukule has been demolished.

A few houses are holding up because pending court cases are stopping expropriation and demolition. A few have started renovations on their own.

Many residents moved to the surrounding areas but still hang around ‘their’ streets during the day.

The few houses that are still standing but completely dilapidated have been taken over by ‘new’ nomadic gypsies, mainly from Anatolia, who set up camp there during the summer months and organize their businesses.

The bulldozers not only laid the ‘material’ heritage in ruins and made the inhabitants disappear but thus also destroyed the intangible aspect of Sulukule's individuality.

 

In this series, I try to show what I experienced during the three weeks I spent in Sulukule.

The longer you look, the more you see. You have to give your eyes time. To be astonished, to doubt what you see, to be sometimes at your discomfort, to quietly gain confidence, to discover landmarks, to identify differences, to concentrate on fussing or just peering around.

The longer I walked around among the rubble, through what were once streets, the longer I looked at Sulukule, at its people, at its rubble, the more and different I saw. In the beginning, I observed from a wavering distance only to end up having tea together and trying to make sense of something and nothing with gestures and lots of smiles.

You can see big, then you see mostly debris; you can look smaller and you see the shard of glass becoming scissors. The debris is constantly shifting in search of a new balance, a new meaning or function. The debris has been domesticated by now, is floor, is view, is weapon, has become habit.

I used a 4x5inch field camera whose level of detail allows a dissection of the image, so to speak. This resulted in static ‘house portraits’.

To tell the story of these houses and of the people who - yet - lived there, I used a digital camera. These images complement and create a broader framework.