Planetarische Bauern

Architect, artist and researcher Yelta Köm (born 1986 in Istanbul, now based in Berlin) presents a series of table-like landscape models – fragmented, layered, and dissected by infrastructures and borders – throughout the museum. Evoking surfaces from operating theatres or forensic investigations, each segment unfolds as a dispersed geography, inviting situated dialogues around land, memory and the commons. The Tigris and Euphrates, central to current debates on water scarcity and state control in Western Asia, form the focal point. Archival materials, field recordings and speculative maps – collected in south-east Türkiye around these rivers – accompany the models, transforming them into living, evolving cartographies. Resisting singular narratives, Köm’s work engages with ecological infrastructures, feminist counter-archiving, rural labour and spatial justice. His approach to counter-archiving aligns with Donna Haraway’s notion of “staying with the trouble” – embracing complexity while cultivating care, resistance and speculative reimagination.