Do Rivers have Memories? A Talk by Architect and Researcher Merve Bedir

Description

Merve Bedir is an architect and researcher based in Hong Kong and Rotterdam. In this talk, she introduces her curatorial work on the Maritsa River—the longest waterway that runs through the Balkans, crossing Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. She will discuss how different archives about the Maritsa River were lost or displaced once it was used to define national borders.

In her research, Bedir explores borders, migration, and urban transformation. Her work examines the vocabulary of hospitality—refugee, immigrant, migrant, guest, host, ghost, and hostage—and identifies the forms and spaces of solidarity among different communities. For this talk, she extends her queries to AAA, an archive and research organisation, and to art’s current models of ownership and publicness.