Installation by Mathilde Melek An

Location: Ioakimion Girls High School

15.11.2024 – 30.11.2024

The Malle-Mobile project of artist Mathilde Melek An is a collection of interactive travel trunks.

Each trousseau serves as a collection of memorabilia, objects, sounds, and images—a time capsule that reflects a journey or a crossing. These collections trace the personal narrative of the artist’s travels and preserve the memory of her mobility. Each collection unfolds into a cabinet of curiosities, an immersive installation aboard which the spectator-passenger embarks on an expedition.

For this year’s edition of the Mahalla festival Memento, Mathilde Melek AN is unveiling the inaugural piece of her first Trousseau #1 in Istanbul, the city where her expedition began nearly a year ago.

Expedition I _ Istanbul – Paris _2023_2024 –

Archive #1 _ December 1972, Gare de Sirkeci, Istanbul.

It all begins with a few pages torn from a 1971 agenda, a logbook scribbled in pencil by my father’s hand. Upon his passing, I inherited his archives, including the handwritten autobiographical account of his first journey to Paris, beyond the borders of his country, Turkey. On the road to the unknown and new horizons, this journey would change his life and cultural identity. This archive incorporates my historical and artistic research around the form of the travel journal and its biographical character.

In December 2023, I embark on my own initiatory journey, following a different route than my father’s. A solitary crossing of approximately 3000 km by train allowed me to connect, for the first time overland, the cities of Istanbul and Paris. I traversed five countries and passed through three cities I had never known : Bucharest, Budapest, and Frankfurt.

Trousseau #1, marked with my initials M.A., consists of memorabilia and objects integrated into the trunk. It primarily carries textile creations, among which is a fundamental piece of clothing : a travel caftan.

This first work is a padded caftan that can be detached into several sections with snap buttons. Between a bathrobe and a sleeping bag, each panel of the caftan represents a night of travel in each of the cities visited during my expedition. Furthermore, the collection consists of two travel journals: one in the form of a textile scroll that unfolds amid photographs and excerpts from my logbook, and the other in a video edition comprising videos from the trip and radio recordings made in each of the cities visited. Lastly, a travel set comprising a backgammon game, an eye mask, and other travel accessories completes this collection.

(Mathilde Melek An)