State of being
The third issue by docu:mentalKLİNİK was ‘Hal’, the Turkish word for ‘state’ as in ‘state of being’. On the first page there were 7 colours from Pantone and on each one presented were the different definitions of ‘Hal’ in Turkish. ‘Hal’ is a word that refers to a concept that holds a broad range of different meanings. Although one cannot translate them exactly into English, one might still attempt to translate them as 1.condition 2.manner, attitude 3.strength 4.(used figuratively) discomfort 5.exuberance of the dervishes 6.the moles on the skin 7.here and now, at the present. On the following page was a text by Birhan Keskin (a Turkish poet) introducing ‘Hıdır’, who is a messiah figure for the narrator. The narrator recounts an ironic conversation she had with ‘Hıdır’, referring to every meaning of ‘Hal’, using the word with multiple definitions in the context of the conversation. The main topic of the conversation is the states of being of humanity trapped in the here and now. Thus Hıdır is represented as both a messiah and a character. As seen on the following page ‘Hıdır’, although a religious figure, a ‘mesih’ (Turkish word for messiah), is a toy robot made by Esat Başak. On the last page the narrator counts different ‘states of being’ for humanity, such as ‘mean’, ‘romantic’, ‘modest’, ‘melancholic’, ‘hypocritical’, ‘heroic’, etc. The text ends by repeating ‘amnesiac’ (‘unutkan’) almost as the final stage. The ‘Hal’ issue also contains a sticker of ‘Hıdır’ in different states, distributed as an insert in the magazine. Since at the time being Trendsetter magazine, in which the ‘Hal’ issue was published, was a free magazine distributed at the cafes and public spaces around the city, the figure of ‘Hıdır’ became ironically almost a brand name.
