“. . .
For the extreme long term, my plans include:
– Using recently developed digital encoding techniques on nanostructured glass, preserve the entirety of my work and my source documents in ‘memory crystals’ and have them buried at strategic locations across the world.
– Etching the copies of a certain number (depending on the available budget, 10, 20, 100, or more), of my ‘best works,’ on metal, and against potential scavenging of metal, marble plates and establishing a ‘relic set’ of selected works.
– Burying copies of this ‘relic set’ in my future grave plot, and resources permitting, several other areas, including caves, alluvial sites prone to fossilization, and other areas.
– Creating sculptures out of marble (an easily obtainable and non-recyclable material) as a separate body of work.
. . . ”

For C. M. Kösemen’s will, please click here.

C. M. Kösemen (b. Ankara) is an artist and independent researcher based in Istanbul. He holds an MA in Documentary Film and Media Studies from Goldsmiths College. Kösemen’s areas of interest include surreal art, Mediterranean history, paleontology, evolution, zoology, and visual culture. He is represented by The Empire Project in Istanbul. 

Vasiyetimdir* is a publication project that aims to explore how art works will subsist over long periods of time. Art works live in artist studios, private collections, museums, storage spaces, or simply in memories. But how far do the artists want to control what happens to their works when they are no longer? How do they want to exert their control? We directed these questions to the artists we are in dialogue with. We are accumulating their answers through m-est.org.

*Vasiyetimdir is a Turkish phrase that can roughly be translated into English as “It is my will that…” The phrase holds a tint of the melodramatic, mixed with a sentimental flair.

Vasiyetimdir was conceived by Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Özge Ersoy, and Merve Ünsal.