About the Exhibition
SOUNDS LIKE HOME
Longing and Comfort Through Lullabies
The Exhibition
Songs and tales have long been used as a tool to preserve cultural memory, reproduce cultural norms and social ethics across borders and time. Linguistic and musical memory are encoded differently in the brain with music as one of the most important stimulators for the formation and recall of memory.
Inspired by their own family lineage's experience with displacement from Greece to Turkey, SOUNDS LIKE HOME curators Bengü Gün and Duygu Gün uncover how lullabies can be a source of comfort when longing for home and place, challenges its subliminal messaging that reproduces oppressive power structures and affirms that culture is fluid.
Featuring visual artists, musicians, folklorists, and researchers across fields of study, this multidisciplinary exhibition demonstrates the universality of lullabies. We can find cultural patterns and values when we trace the historical lineage of a lullaby to a specific site or region. Lullabies archive the perspectives and experiences of caregivers as storytellers. As a form, lullabies become vehicles for cultural memory, exchange, and identity formation.
"Is there a connection between lullabies across languages and cultures? How does the way we exchange these messages change over time?"
SOMArts Curatorial Residency
SOUNDS LIKE HOME was realized through SOMArts' Curatorial Residency program — a 9-month incubator that offers emerging and mid-career artists and curators mentorship and support to execute a large-scale exhibition in SOMArts' 31,000 square foot gallery in San Francisco.
The program is a response to the ongoing displacement of Bay Area artists, the closure of nonprofit art spaces, and the loss of local art schools and curatorial MA programs, which contribute to an increasingly homogenous and culturally inequitable arts landscape. Prioritizing the voices of historically underrepresented artists and curators, residencies are awarded each season through an open call.
Artists and community-based organizations contribute to the resilience of communities by creating space for people to come together, share their stories, celebrate beauty, mourn community losses, and transform their thinking. The residency is designed to offer curators the tools to further their curatorial practice and explore timely social issues.
The Curators
Duygu Gün and Bengü Gün are identical twins born and raised in Turkey. While Duygu now calls San Francisco home and Bengü is based in Manchester, they continue to pursue a shared creative vision — occasionally collaborating on artistic productions through their joint venture, Dia Eterna.
Curators Duygu Gün (left) and Bengü Gün (right)
Duygu Gün
Duygu Gün is a creative producer, musician, artist, filmmaker, and curator passionate about preserving folk culture and fostering intercultural connections through the universal language of the arts.
She received an SFAC artist grant in 2023 as the creative producer of the 'Balkancisco' documentary. She performs around the Bay Area, covering folk music from the Mediterranean Sea in Turkish, Ladino, Greek, Griko, and Italian with her band 'Duygu & Friends', Klezmer with 'Krekhts', leads Sufi music collective 'Sherbet Collective', and interfaith music sessions with 'Sacred Music Collective' as well as serving on the board.
Duygu was awarded Turkey's 10 Outstanding Young Persons' Cultural Achievement prize in 2022.
Bengü Gün
Cultural heritage management specialist. Her M.A. thesis focused on Musical Instrument Museums Collection Management Policies at Koç University.
Consulted the Dubai Culture Foundation. Director and co-founder of the Mixer Arts Gallery in Istanbul since 2012.
Teaches 'Gallery and Exhibition Management' at Yeditepe University. Director of Gate 27 Residency Program in Istanbul and Ayvalık, Turkey.