Silence can be full of words
and words full of silence

Suzan Meryem Kalayci
(PhD Candidate, European University, Florence)

Reminiscent of John Cage’s 4’33, Suzan Meryem Rosita will read a blank book in complete silence for 19 Minutes and 15 Seconds (19’15). We will be reminded that sometimes silence speaks louder than words. After the reading, the book will be passed around and the audience will be able to fill its pages, or leave them as empty and silent as they are.

Suzan Meryem Rosita will also tell us about her The Silent Book initiative which revolves around the premise that “silence can be full of words, but words can be full of silence.” She believes that the absence of voices can offer a powerful space for atonement, redemption and grief in the context of national trauma.

This initiative distributed blank but marked books (that is marked with page numbers) with the title [armenian genocide] to private and local libraries or educational initiatives and aimed at encouraging their readers not only to participate in discussions about the Armenian Genocide but also to challenge common notions of reading and writing — the way we read and accept certain ‘truths’ presented within published texts. The project was censored in Turkey but nevertheless gained momentum locally and internationally as an anonymous movement of reading and writing about the genocide. Reading and discussion groups were formed, student exchanges (with Armenian and Turkish students) organized and art exhibitions curated.

http://civilnet.am/2015/04/18/armenian-genoside-silient-book-suzan-meryem-rosita/#.Vq-d_2QrJxi
(Report by Civilnet about the publication of the first official silent book)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2T3MN1w2T0&feature=youtu.be
(Video of the “The Silent Book”, Performance at the Gazing Through Memory Festival, 22. April 2015, Cafesjian Center for the Arts, Yerevan.)

Suzan Meryem Kalayci: biography

Poster: 06. TT16 AGBU KALAYCI

This is the sixth lecture in a series sponsored by the Armenian General Benevolent Union, London Branch. The series commemorates the Armenian Genocide begun in 1915 and celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of the Calouste Gulbenkian Professorship in Armenian Studies at Pembroke College, University of Oxford in 1965.