Arazi Olmak*
1.Escape, Bunk, Decamp, Sneak Off, Fade, Take to the Woods, Head for The Hills, Cut and Run, Get Away, Duck, Evade
2.Evade, Dodge, Avoid a Duty

Arazi*
Terrain, Land, Plot, Ground, Territory, Field, Landed Property, Landscape

The Turkish expression “Arazi Olmak” originates from the military context, bringing together the idea of camouflage and territorial deployment, as well as strategies of evasion during mandatory military service.
As such, and in common use, it stands for an act of disappearance, a disappearance into the ground, or the landscape, in order to avoid an unwanted encounter or an unwanted duty, it’s an act of evasion by way of making oneself invisible against the backdrop of a surrounding landscape or environment. When translated literally, it means, “being the land” or “becoming the ground”, or possibly, “becoming one with the landscape”.

Drawing upon the multiple translations/meanings of the word “arazi”; and of “arazi olmak” as both expression and literally; this is an experiment in deploying spatially, a curatorial research, which takes as its subject matter how infrastructural and intangible forms of violence become embodied through landscape and built environment. It asks whether and how a curatorial research might take up space and be communicated visually through a space; and whether this spatial deployment might become the ground upon which collaboration takes root. It is carried out through a temporary retreat from visibility into a space for work, research and production, while at the same time, it observes what it means to withdraw from visibility in times of ongoing trauma, as a strategy of escape into latency.