The Chair Remains Empty / But The Place is Set

Abstract

The Chair Remains Empty / But The Place is Set Jeremiah Day (bio) So you go down the hill and there is a channel and the ferries pass through there, all day, over to the island. And where you wait to get on the ferry there is a local bar, but McDonald's wanted to buy it and take over there. The town is kind of a hippie town and the hippies they didn't want McDonald's and so they fought. It took ten years. In Istanbul, there is a hill and a channel and ferries, but in Istanbul you go up the hill, up Istiklal Caddesi like the main artery into the center, to Taksim Square where the government wanted to put in a shopping mall. The people gathered there, all of them threading through the small streets and big arteries like beating into this central place, and they took it over to stop the shopping mall. Until the cops came and kicked them all out and they were pushed back out through the streets into the city into the night, alone again or in small groups. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Jeremiah Day, "The chair remains empty / But the place is set" (May 25, 2018). Performance still, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. [End Page 502] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. Jeremiah Day, "The chair remains empty / But the place is set (Letter To Turkey—Return To Sender)" (October 20, 2016). Performance Notation, Grüner Salon Volksbühne. Ink on paper, 54 × 72 cm. (slideshow plays of parks in Istanbul where the Forums were held in 2013) Just over the hill from Gezi and Taksim Square is Abbasağa Park. I heard it was the Beşiktaş football supporters, the fans of the club, after the police kicked everyone out of Gezi, who sent out the call: "Abbasağa is now Gezi: Gezi is everywhere." People gathered again in the parks all over the city and then all over the country to discuss what to do next—they called them Forums. They stayed all night to talk about what had happened and what it meant and what to do. Burak Delier, who was there, said the most important thing, the phrase he remembers most: "hey guys, kids, people—you are beautiful." Someone had to go first: answer the call, middle of the night, show up, first one. "I'm here." "I'm here." (singing) you are here we are hee-ar where do we go from here? what do we know from here? [End Page 503] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 3. Jeremiah Day, "The chair remains empty / But the place is set" (2013). Still from slideshow. Found archival photo of forum at Abbasağa Park. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 4. Jeremiah Day, "The chair remains empty / But the place is set" (2016). Still from slideshow. Abbasağa Park. [End Page 504] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 5. Jeremiah Day, "The chair remains empty / But the place is set" (2016). Still from slideshow. Yoğurtçu Park. —Yoğurtçu Park—this one is on the other side of the Bosphorus, and was known as the women's forum. When it grew cold, they squatted a house on the park to keep meeting. They made it through the first winter. round here no, I mean this town here what goes down round here and what comes around here the facts on the ground round here the way shit goes down round here who calls the shots around here? who picks the boss around here? and who picks who picks? who picks who picks? but I'm here but you're here we-aahr hee-aahr … [End Page 505] (slideshow plays of Marinehouse in Berlin) Kaliningrad, which used to be called Königsberg, is on the other side of Germany, where Kant lived and where Arendt lived. Hannah Arendt writes about the way that Kant observed the French Revolution from far away and observing this struggle the way he did, even from far away, was a kind of participation she said. I wonder if...