Meya Meya, 2023 (Public project)
Meriken Park, Kobe, Japan
December 2023
For the illumination festival Meya Meya, Esra Gülmen expands her ongoing exploration of language, perception, and the visual power of words into the public space—this time in the form of three large flags installed by the sea in Meriken Park, Kobe.
The flags read Mmmmountains, Wwwwinds, and Wwwwaves, each printed with rhythmic repetitions of their first letter—a continuation of Gülmen’s series that began with the works on paper Mountains, Trees, Rivers, Clouds, Waves (2021), and evolved into the contemplative video piece rrrrivers (2021). What we see is not an image of a wave, a wind, or a mountain, but the word itself—stretched into visual motion, inviting us to perceive the idea behind it.
Placed by the waterfront, the flag works feel both playful and deeply connected to their environment. Wwwwaves echoes the motion of the sea just below; Wwwwinds is carried by the coastal breeze; Mmmmountains evokes the grounding contrast to these fluid elements. Together, they create a quiet yet resonant dialogue between natural phenomena, linguistic signs, and embodied perception.
As part of the festival, Gülmen also presented two sculptural mirror installations featuring LED-lit text. One reads “It’s not you. It’s me.” while the other features the same phrase in Japanese. These mirrored works, while not directly tied to the flag series, offered a moment of emotional reflection—both literally and figuratively—as visitors interacted with them, posing and photographing themselves against a backdrop of humor, vulnerability, and soft irony.
