In Fuar Matbaası (Fair Press) Workshop which lasted 11 active days, Izmir Fair with its remarkable impact on the memories of Smyrnian culture discussed. The aim was to reach collective memory.
To elaborate on the culture, we read and created a data visualization of the pre-collected memories of Smyrnian people about Izmir Fair. Then, each participant created their own “memory sentence” going through from the personal memories to a collective memory that could represent Smyrnian people’s feelings on Izmir Fair. My memory sentence was “her gün gözümüze kestirme-diğimiz o koridordan geçiyoruz” which could be translated into English as “each day we are passing through that corridor that we overlook”. Seeing Izmir Fair as a corridor, the sentence metaphorically represents the situation of the Izmir Fair being used as a shortcut by Smyrnians. Therefore, in Turkish “gözümüze kestirmediğimiz” means “overlook” and “kestirme” means shortcut. There is a pun created via “kestirme” word.
The design of the postcard was completed by old-fashioned pressing techniques in three-stage: Letterpress, linol, and stereotype printing as it refers to the most glittering years of the Izmir Fair. 100 postcards were printed in Fuar Matbaası and exhibited in two municipality-supported exhibitions to reach Smyrnian people.
