Seçil Yaylalı

Creativamente Roero | Santa Vittoria d'Alba, Italy

SAHA provides support for Seçil Yaylalı's project for Creativamente Roero, held on 26 September – 12 December 2021. Creatively Roero was established with the aim of building a network meant to enhance the historic villages of Roero and places tied to creativity involving national and international artists and to promote cultural activities of high value. Seçil Yaylalı is hosted in Santa Vittoria d’Alba, her project is made of three public installations, two permanent sculptures, and one temporary installation.

''Emotional botany'' is a project that investigates the forms of imaginary plants that live near the sea. The starting point is the notebooks of the botanist Carlo Bertero, a native of Santa Vittoria d'Alba, who lost his life at sea between Tahiti and Chile in 1831. His passion led him away from home to discover new species of botanicals. The plants that Bertero never discovered and the emotions connected to them are the center of the project that involved the pupils of the IV and V classes of the Primary School of Santa Vittoria d'Alba. The students drew imaginary new plants and associated them with an emotion. From these drawings, the artist has obtained a series of logograms that take the form of three installations: the first is a multitude of silk-screened flags in the shape of a sail; the second is made up of a series of steel objects on the wall of the Town Hall; the third is a colored greenhouse with botanical engravings in the garden of the church of San Rocco.

Creativamente Roero involves the creation of a network in the Roero area aimed at enhancing some historical places linked to wine and creativity: a network of artist residencies for national and international artists with the aim of integrating the tourist offer with a permanent program, capable of promoting a cultural vision of high value for the territory and at the same time being an additional element of attraction for visitors.

Seçil Yaylalı was born in Istanbul in 1984. She is a visual artist/educator with a background in City planning, Industrial Design and Arts. She works in the field of socially engaged art and realises participatory art projects with different social groups. In each project, she creates an environment that supports collaborative production according to the specific needs/wills of participants. Shared time and relations experience lead the group to reach a common aim as a product. She is also the co-founder of the PASAJ artist initiative based in Istanbul.