Zeynep Kayan’s 'sandalye ile ikinci kez' series revisits family memory through a wooden chair

Istanbul Modern has highlighted Zeynep Kayan’s 'sandalye ile ikinci kez' series, a body of work that centers on a wooden chair inherited from the artist’s grandmother and uses body and movement to rework memories of the past and family ties. The museum’s post frames the series as an intimate artistic inquiry built around an everyday object that carries personal history.

According to the museum, the chair is not presented simply as a piece of furniture but as the material point of departure for the series. Kayan returns to it as an anchor for recollection, with the work unfolding through bodily gesture and movement rather than through a straightforward narrative account. The result is a project that links domestic inheritance and embodied memory.

The source material does not identify a larger exhibition title, venue program, or installation details for the series, and it does not provide information on dimensions, number of works, or whether the project is currently on view. Even so, the museum’s description places the work clearly within a contemporary art context in which personal objects can become tools for examining family history and the passage of time.

Kayan’s use of a grandmother’s chair gives the series a direct connection to intergenerational experience. By making the object central, the work shifts attention to how memory can be carried through things as well as through the body, with movement functioning as a way to reassemble what has been remembered. The museum’s wording suggests a focus on the relationship between physical presence and recollected experience.

The post does not include an artist statement or curatorial commentary beyond this summary, and it does not mention related events, dates, or public programming. What it does establish is the conceptual frame of 'sandalye ile ikinci kez': a series grounded in family bonds, inherited material, and the act of reconfiguring memory through performance-like bodily engagement.