rename diyarbakır

Rename Diyarbakır understands language not as a means of communication but as a sphere in which the symbolic and the discursive orders become materialized. By renaming objects in the public sphere of the city of Diyarbakir, the project aimed to highlight the domination and violence inherent in the symbolic order and to react against amnesia, marginalisation and exclusion through symbolic force.
Rename Diyarbakır was conceived as an open and communal movement and sought to turn the city into a picture book.

In spring 2007, an errorist and a local activist were arrested by Turkish anti-terror special forces in Diyabakir and questioned and intimidated for 4 hours. The offence: to mark objects such as traffic lights, benches, rubbish containers, trees and others with paper signs in different mothertongues spoken in the region (Kurdish, Armenian, Arabic, Zaza or Assyrian). Further pursuit of the project, as well as its publication, were abandoned out of respect for the local activist.