Elif Kamisli’s work defterler / τετράδια / notebooks is a narration written in the form of a diary. The text investigates the personal story of a young mother, while recording a chronicle of Turkish and worldwide events from October 2015 until September 2016. While getting entangled in thoughts, feelings, dreams, and memories, the author embraces multiple personas from the past. According to her, this archaeology of stories creates a shelter amid the turbulent atmosphere.Simultaneously, her connection with art and literature strengthens her bond with life, although the world around her seems to fall apart. She depicts life in Istanbul, a city that has been home to different cultures over the centuries, in detail and with a sense of melancholy. Records of her walks in several cities become a contemplation on witnessing. She includes extracts from books that leave a trace on her and talks about artworks she is researching for her work.Kamisli writes on her computer at night, like many women before her who found refuge at night in unfolding their universe. The peace of the night establishes for her “a nurturing bed for flourishing ideas.” At dawn, before her daughter wakes up, she handwrites the previous day’s diary entry, transcribing it into a notebook like a ritual.
Kamisli’s original text was written in Turkish and translated into English and Greek. After writing the original notebook in Turkish, she passed the translated texts to other people familiar to her, who handwrote the notebooks in two different languages. They followed the same process and ritual, their handwriting adding its rhythm and personal mark to the text’s flow. The production of the three notebooks took place between 2017 and 2020. The book was commissioned by the NEON Foundation and published in 2021 as part of the exhibition Portals.