Conversing and other spatial practices

Construction sites, temporary yet lengthy occurrences in urban landscape, are sites of both production and performance. While resting on a complex set of regulations, planning and finance, construction embodies the collective consciousness in its most solid form. Each building material - the economies of its production, flows or labour required to put it up - can be scrutinised through the lens of its political agency. At the same time, the repetitive sounds and actions inherent for construction can be seen as urban choreographies directed by the economic forces at work. 

İnşaat (Construction) is a venture into building sites across Sinop and a collection of artefacts and narratives embedded in them. On one hand, it aims to open a discussion about the conception of the material world, i.e the material culture of the region, and on the other to offer a feminist perspective on this labour intensive, exclusively male industry.

We started our research by reading the local newspapers, which were reporting on the stop of the construction due to various irregularities and the overall negative impact of the 2016 urban plan. This action was initiated by a group of citizens led by an activist Hale Oğuz. Once we arrived to Sinop, we spent couple of days mapping and visiting several still ongoing construction sites, where we got to know both the local construction methods, still fairly unmechanised and thus heavily reliant on human labor. With the help of translators, next couple of days we conducted several interviews with construction workers. We were asking about the work they have been doing as well as about the working conditions, especially with regards to the recent construction stop. We presented our findings on a table improvised from the local materials and in a booklet that was a collection of intimate stories about the everyday on a construction. 

2016’da eski belediye başkanı, milletvekilleriyle bir araya geldi ve şehrin imar planını oluşturdu. Yarımada’da kendi babasından kalma tarlasına konut izni verdirdi. Cezaevinin orada iki denizin arasındaki yer 300 metre. Yarımadaya 25.000 kişi daha yerleşirse biz bu şehirde nasıl yaşarız, şehre nasıl giriş yaparız?  Planın tamamı imar yasasına aykırı. Ve bu plandan menfaat sağlayacaklar 5 kişiyi geçmiyor. 5 kişi milyoner olacak, Sinoplular sefil olacak.

- Hale Oğuz, eylemci

In 2016 the former mayor of the city, with the parliamentarians, gathered and formed the construction plan of the city. The mayor registered his own fields on the peninsula to be marked as urban areas. The distance between the two seashores is only 300 meters. If 25.000 more people settle in the peninsula how will we live in the city, how will we enter it? All of the plan is against the Construction Law. And only five people will benefit form this plan. Five will become millioners and Sinopeans will be miserable.

- Hale Oğuz, activist

"Years ago, I am not that old but I know it from my father, we had a 100% gain. We charged 200 Lira for a job of 100. Now our gain is only 25%. I believe if the economy changes for the better, everything will work. We do not have any troubles about materials. But, for example, the dollar is rising, the cost is rising. You give a price for a job to a customer. You do not give the expenses of the materials, but put them on the account. You do not charge the customer in advance. Then the retail shop does not give you the price on the day you got the materials, but on the day you actually pay. Then you lose money.

                                                                                       . . . 

The stop of the construction means that the jobs of masons, plumbers, and carpenters also stop. We do not only to restorations. We also do furniture and boards. We are trying to balance ourselves that way. New construction means new jobs for us. Not only me, for all my colleagues. I have a child. How can I provide for him? Everyday gets harder. We wait for it to get better everyday, but it is becoming worse."

Gökhan the carpenter, 33