Raziye Kubat’s “Çağrılmayan Yusuf” exhibition book has been published in English for 250 limited editions under the name “The Story of Yusuf” by Dada Publications in the format of a “special artist book”. The book will be saluting its viewers and readers on the opening day of the 4th Çanakkale International Biennial on September 27th,2014 Saturday .

As Emrullah Efendi noticed the little boy on his lap, he felt his body shiver and the evening sun dance in his eyes. Esire, a little away from him, was standing there like a stranger. Just at the same moment, he saw the slave trader walking away. It looked like he was asking to himself: “When for god’s sake did I talk to this man and buy this youngster?” As he looked at the sky, he realized that it was getting dark. “It was only noon or mid-afternoon when I arrived here…” he muttered.

The Cherkess Exile occurs at the beginning of the 1860s. As a result of “forced migration”, Gupse sets off for a journey. We see her on one of the boats carrying the Cherkess people sent on exile. The boat runs aground in Kefken – Adapazarı. Gupse, overcoming numerous difficulties on the road, finally succeeds in reaching Istanbul. She is desperate and at her side has Yusuf, her son from Hain. Feeling herself exhausted, Gupse sells Yusuf, at a slave market in Beyazıt, yet immediately regrets it. The tragic moment she cries out that she has “changed her mind”, is the moment when Gupse revives to the “present” day.

It was historical fact that people coming with these ships -to fight against hunger- had to sell their children in slave markets. The baby on the ship, was sold in the slave market. But to whom? Being a person freshly lost in the story, that moment I said: “The baby is bought by a good person, Emrullah Efendi, the herbalist”, and so in a way opened the door for the story to come into my life. Again, just one week later, as the sentence “Let Yusuf be happy” occurred to my mind, Yusuf became the name of the infant sold.

“The Story of Yusuf” tells us about the adventure of Yusuf and his breed . While we attend to this journey, we also witness in the background the downfall of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the new Turkish Republic.