Seha Nur Sarı
A GÖKBÖRÜ ROSE OVER DOLMABAHÇE
Oil on canvas, 100 × 150 cm, 2022
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s face is replaced by the Gökbörü. The wolf image that merged with Fatih Sultan Mehmet in the first work of the series reappears here in a different historical moment. One figure is associated with the foundation of an empire, the other with the foundation of a republic; both become carriers of the same collective image across different periods of history.
This connection continues not only through the figures, but through the settings as well. Fatih Sultan Mehmet appears at the Çinili Köşk, built shortly after the conquest of Istanbul, while Atatürk appears at Dolmabahçe Palace, one of the emblematic structures of the late Ottoman period. Beginning and end, empire and republic, are connected through two different historical thresholds.
The deeper continuity, however, lies neither in the historical figures nor in the political structures, but in the image that continues to live beyond them. Emerging from ancient layers of Turkish mythology, the Gökbörü resurfaces through changing times and historical ruptures. The empire comes to an end and the republic is founded, yet the image carried within collective memory persists through another face and another place.
The series thus returns to the image with which it began: the same Gökbörü, another face, another story of foundation.
