Subject + Object No.8 — Emre Eminoğlu
A cinema and culture-art writer. Ever since he turned his favorite thing to do (watching movies or TV series, writing about them, and traveling for film festivals) into his job, he has been a bit confused about what he does for what purpose.
Object:
Do you believe that items have a memory?
Emre:

There are items in my life that absorb my connection, relationship, and memories with important people. Until they get lost, broken, or ruined, they take over the task of storing my memories of that person from me. They lighten the burden of my memory. That rotary phone, which could easily be found at any flea market, takes the weight of longing for my paternal grandmother off my shoulders, and that pendant currently around my mother's neck lightens the longing for my maternal grandmother.

Object:
Which is more important to you: an object's function, its form, or its story?
Emre:

For me, what makes an object valuable is its story. Where I got it, who gifted it, which period of my life it belonged to me... Sometimes a meaningless object I found while walking down the street with someone can be more meaningful than an expensive gift, or a cheap promotion handed out at a film screening can be more meaningful than collectible figures worth thousands of dollars.

Object:
Has an object ever left a strong emotional or creative impact on you? A moment when an "item" transformed you?
Emre:

Dozens of objects come to mind that have had a very strong short- or long-term emotional impact. But I think what is truly transformative is when a person leaves my life without leaving behind any item with an emotional impact. Because then, a lot of work falls on my own memory, not the memory of objects.

Because then, a lot of work falls on my own memory, not the memory of objects.
Object:
Is naming an object an action that transforms it? - Do you have any object you've named? If so, what is its name?
Emre:

Başak. Specifically, it's the name of IKEA's BEKVÄM step stool. But in a general sense, for nearly 10 years, that has been the name for all step stools serving that function, for both me and those who know me. It takes its name from our friend, for whom we needed a step to talk to whenever she passed by the high window of our basement-floor (kot 1) apartment in Cihangir. To use it in a sentence: "Bring Başak over, I'm going to open the window."

Object:
Is there any object you collect as a collection item?
Emre:

Sea shells. They have fascinated me since childhood. I've always loved that they come in different shapes and sizes; I've always been moved by them coming from the depths or from afar and leaving a mark, but I was also deathly afraid of a living creature coming out of them. I've never grown tired of collecting them from beaches or buying them from stores. In fact, years later, my first tattoo became the sea shell on my left arm.

Emre Eminoğlu

SUBJECT + OBJECT — INTERVIEW SERIES