Üç Usta, Bin Kepenek

Notes from the Erkus Brothers Workshop

Üç Usta, Bin Kepenek opens at 5533 and İMALAT-HANE Project Space, following its first iteration in Paris, bringing together Théophile Peris and the Erkuş brothers’ workshop, alongside videos by Ellis Kaan Özen.

Curated by Alara Villa

In Afyonkarahisar, a city shaped by felt production since the first Turkish migrations to Anatolia, Théophile Peris meets the Erkuş brothers’ workshop as part of a project initiated by Alara Villa. This craft, passed down by master felt-makers Mehmet, İsmail, and Kemal, unfolds through the repetition of bodily pressure, the rhythm of tools, the breath of machines — the hand extending the mechanical movement. From this encounter emerge co-produced works, alongside pieces nourished by the artist’s personal practice. Felt thus becomes a space of intertwining between history and imagination and, through the documentation of Ellis Kaan Özen, reveals the exchanges that form its guiding thread.

Supported by ADAGP, in partnership with Confort Mental (Paris), İMALAT-HANE Project Space and 5533 (Istanbul).

Coordinator: Can Küçük
Graphic design: Serra Şensoy
Exhibition photos: Barış Özçetin

Théophile Peris
Théophile Peris is an artist based in Marseille whose practice is rooted in ancestral methods of production, working with materials gathered from nature and his immediate surroundings. For him, everything can become sculptural matter. In recent years, wool from shearings — often underused or discarded — has become a central element of his work, structuring his practice around the successive stages of its transformation.

Alara Villa
Alara Villa is a curator and researcher based in Paris, with a background in Fine Arts and History from the Sorbonne University, the University of Bologna, and EHESS. Raised between Turkey and Italy, she focuses on exchanges in oral history, material and visual culture in the Mediterranean. Her interests range from the transmission of beliefs and rituals, symbols, and craftsmanship, to the production of new knowledge within the accelerated mobilities of the cosmopolis.

Erkuş Kardeşler – Mehmet Erkuş, İsmail Erkuş, Kemal Erkuş
In Afyonkarahisar, Mehmet and İsmail Erkuş have carried on their grandfather’s craft for nearly half a century in the same workshop, preserving the artisanal tradition of feltmaking in the region. Later joined by Kemal Erkuş, who began as an apprentice, they specialize in making traditional shepherds’ cloaks (kepenek) from wool and have gradually expanded their production to include carpets, door curtains, prayer rugs, back supports, hats, slippers, and seamless felt bags. Today, they raise concerns about the lack of apprentices and the uncertainty surrounding the transmission of their craft.