Halil Kaya Grave Competition

Mourning of Birds
A stranger passed away they say,
Three days passed away, they say,
They washed him with water so cold,
Such a lonely soul, they did not care

It didn’t take three days, it was heard on the same day that Halil Kaya is dead, he is murdered. After him, thousands poured into the street like freckles, like flocks of birds. Dozens of lives were injured. Dozens of lives were lost.

Halil Kaya, about whom we still do not know much, unknowingly pioneered one of the most painful events of the 90’s. Would he want his name to be known like this, would he want to give his life and drag people after him, would he want dozens of lives to fall after him? He probably wouldn’t. Why did he come from Malatya, was he a ‘dede’ (religious leader), where was his family? Who knows, had he seen the Malatya massacre? Maybe that’s why he didn’t talk to anyone, maybe because of a love, maybe nothing. He was a outsider on his own.

He seemed as a pioneer to us, but appearently he passed away as an outsider, his grave remained outsider. Some of those who lost their lives in Gazi were gathered in a ‘’martyrdom’’. But Halil Kaya was buried in a void between two walls, at the end of the Gazi Cemetery, which resembles a bird flying into the sky, at the very edge of the cemetery. In the commemorations, everyone’s grave was visited, his grave probably not. But his place is such a peaceful, lonely, near the forest, shaded by trees and ‘’outsider’’…

A stranger here has passed away
Birds, in mouring, seek their way.

It is not known whether there is anyone who watches his way, his news, or mourns his death. But no doubt, the birds mourn this outsider man. Years will pass, and after generations, not a single skin will be left to mourn Halil Kaya. But the birds will mourn forever.

For the tomb we designed for Halil Kaya, we imagined birds flying from the ground to his headside. We wanted these to scatter from one end to the other, mix with the grass and reach the soil, like both its visitors and the thousands that a soul drags after it. We thought that a drinker parallel to its name at the headside would really give relief to the birds that come to visit. Who knows, Halil Kaya comes to his own grave with something, just as Abdal Musa had a marala rib and Ahmet Yesevi got into a crane’s pants.

We imagined the tomb to be massive, made out of slightly veined white marble. We placed the name tag next to the drinker, the birth and death dates.

Although the tomb at the headside seems empty in the records, we felt as if another outsider was lying there. If there is no grave, a small space can be set for the souls who come to visit him. A simple seat, a drinker next to it, and a simple pebble floor on the floor…