MARCH 20, 2021: A VISUAL NARRATIVE ON FEMICIDE is an installation that seeks to make visible the brutal reality of femicide, particularly in the context of Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on March 20, 2021. The project aims to raise awareness of gender-based violence, to underline the importance of international legal frameworks such as the Istanbul Convention, and to encourage collective reflection and action against violence toward women, not only in Turkey but across the world.

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At the center of the installation is a highly symbolic element: a table divided into two parts by a red line marking the withdrawal date, March 20, 2021. On one side are printed pages from the Istanbul Convention, made available for visitors to engage with. On the other side are real objects and materials used in cases of violence against women. This juxtaposition creates a stark confrontation between the Convention’s principles of protection, prevention, and justice, and the deadly material realities women continue to face.

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A key aspect of the installation is the integration of NFC (Near Field Communication) technology into the displayed objects. By scanning these objects with their smartphones, visitors are directed to a web page linked to each specific item. There, they can access detailed information, including the total number of women murdered with that particular object since Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention. The data is organized by year and includes the full names of the victims, arranged chronologically by month and year.

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This method does not simply aim to document or quantify violence. It also seeks to restore singularity to each victim, to move statistics beyond abstraction, and to make the political and human urgency of femicide more tangible for the public. By bringing together objects, data, and names, the installation transforms statistics into memory, and memory into a direct confrontation with a systemic reality.

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It is also important to emphasize that MARCH 20, 2021: A VISUAL NARRATIVE ON FEMICIDE is conceived as an ongoing project that will continue until Turkey reinstates the Istanbul Convention. At the end of each month, the installation is updated using the latest data published by Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız (“We Will Stop Femicide”). This continuous updating allows the work to remain anchored in the present, to respond to changing femicide data over time, and to sustain its political, documentary, and memorial force.

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The project was recontextualized on a broader scale in 2024 under the title Threshold; in addition to the data from Turkey, femicide data from France was also incorporated into the work. This expansion allowed the project to move beyond a single geography and become a more comprehensive space of research and visualization, addressing the structural continuity of femicide on an international scale.

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