The Madrasa

Living in big cities, our inner energy and motivation are being exploited by the enslaving daily chaos. As a result, we unconsciously turn, day by day, into people less willing to look, less willing to talk and less willing to demand. All the same, imagine a place at the foot of a mountain, in which you do your study, your research inhaling forest air and also some people else can become a part of it as everybody becomes a part of the space. Even now, you start to remember some things that you've forgotten, don't you? In November 2011, in the village of Sirince located close to Selcuk district of Izmir province, a construction, Madrasa, was given a start under the leadership of the members of a theatre group named Seyyar Sahne. They were aiming not only to create a space to do research themselves but to construct an available place for meeting, researching, learning, teaching and creating for performers, researchers and academics that may come from all around the world as well. Having started their journey with such a dream, the group has already began to host visitors this summer as the first floor of the Madrasa has already finished. After the decision of building the Madrasa, many cities such as Diyarbakir, Mardin, Kapadokya were visited but in the end Sirince was chosen following the invitation of Sevan Nisanyan, the actual architecture of the Madrasa. In this beginning part of the process, members of Seyyar Sahne gave the shirts off their back for the realization of the project. They invested all they earned from the plays, in the construction. They shared their excitement first with their acquaintances, and then with their colleagues and other artists. Within those people, the ones who got also excited tried to contribute to the process as best as they can. Many theatre groups performed plays in aid of the Madrasa. Started in June 2012, the theatre camps will continue non-stop until mid-September. I was also there to breathe the air of the Madrasa. And I saw that these people have gone beyond their objectives. Because it would be unfair to simply reduce all the work done there just to a completed first floor. Both people who attended the camps and who took initiatives to study on their own projects in their own fields, have noticeably given form to the space regarding their needs. The idea of "Let's do it altogether and let it live" has penetrated even the bricks of the Madrasa. The bases of common life have been laid, the daily works from cleaning to preparing the breakfasts were divided. The conversations have become intimate, games have been played, songs have been sung, artistic works have deepen... Despite its deficiencies, the Madrasa has already achieved the soul needed.