It is believed that talismanic shirts protected people from diseases, from dangerous enemies, and healed them from illness. We came across talismanic shirts in the Turkish culture before the Turks accepted Islam as a religion.

There are many Talismanic shirts kept in Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul. In order for a talismanic shirt to serve its talismanic function there were certain rituals to be conducted during the spinning, weaving and embellishing processes.

Initially, the shirts were cut in to pieces then the texts and other embellishments were added before the pieces were assembled. The astrologer decided when to start the writing process according the “propitious moment”. The shirts were usually made of white cotton fabrics.

Talismanic shirts were divided into geometric figures such as, small squares, large squares, rectangles, rhombuses, circles, semi-circles, triangles and ellipses. They were embellished with the texts from the Qur’an, with the ninety-nine names of God, holy sayings, with poems, prayers, wishes, entreaties etc.

For this project women donated their own white shirts to show their support for women who are subjected to physical and/or sexual violence or abused. 65 women living in Izmir, Istanbul, Antalya, Hatay, Essen, Klaipeda, Kaunas and Vilnius supported the project by donating their shirts. The “talismanic shirts” were created from these donated shirts; these were cut in pieces and different sections from different shirts attached together following an order. The exhibition consists of 21 shirts. The names of the women who donated their shirts were written on the largest one. The other 20 shirts have their own story. The prayers, entreaties, and desperate cries of child brides, young girls and women were written on the shirts. Statistical data about violence against women in Turkey, in Lithuania and worldwide is also featured.

It is a known fact that 35% of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence, the cases of violence against women go unreported and more than 700 million women alive today were married as children. In Turkey 36% of women have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence and 44% of women never disclosed this. The societies prefer to deny this reality.

In fact the talismanic shirts can be described as a symbol of fear and despair throughout the ages of violence, savageness and darkness. Women in the 21st century have to live in a world where the violence and savageness are still prevailing. However is it possible for them to hope that the talismanic shirt will protect them from danger?

The exhibition entitled “DENIAL OF FEAR AND DESPAIR: TALISMANIC SHIRTS” is inspired by this idea and it aims to highlight the issue of women who are subject to violence.

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Coproject together with Elvan Özkavruk Adanır.