Seçil Yaylalı

small pains, great songs

2024- ongoing 

The book fair I Never Read, Basel (12.05.2024-15.05.2024)

PASAJ @ Barın Han (29.12.2024–8.02.2025)

border_less ARTBOOK DAYS (9.05-11.05.2025)

Gümüşlük Akademisi, Bodrum (30.07-10.08.2025)
Thryst Art Fair, Los Angeles (11.06-13.06.2025)

Singapore Art Book Fair (31.10-03.11.2025)

Tohum Art Space, Urla (17.12.2025-24.01.2026)

Maison Magi, Datça (02.04-15.04.2026)

border_less ARTBOOK DAYS (15.05-17.05.2026)

Museo Tornielli, Ameno (19.05-24.05.2026)
Indiecon Hamburg (04.09-06.09.2026)

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Conceived by Seçil Yaylalı, “Small Pains, Great Songs” is a collection of artist books drawn from the artists’ personal struggles and the fractures in their inner worlds. Each of these mini-books, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, contains a distinct and unique world. Great creative works born from the artist’s inner pain take shape in a tiny object. Each book possesses its own distinctive aesthetic language and emotional depth. The project encourages artists to use small books as a form of free expression and to make their practices visible through them.

 

The project’s title is taken from the section “Small Pains, Great Songs” in Theodor W. Adorno’s book *Minima Moralia*, which was inspired by Heinrich Heine’s poem “I make small songs out of my great sorrows.” Adorno argues that art’s deepest and most powerful forms emerge through the artist’s reckoning with their inner pain. In this context, “Small Pains, Great Songs” explores how great pain transforms into small works of art that bear the traces of artists’ inner struggles.

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In *Minima Moralia*, Theodor W. Adorno altered Heine’s line “Aus meinen grossen Schmerzen / mach’ ich die kleinen Lieder” (“From my great sorrows, I make little songs”) at the beginning of Chapter 137, changing it to “Small sorrows, great songs.”

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Aus meinen grossen Schmerzen

Mach’ ich die kleinen Lieder;

Die heben ihr klingend Gefieder

Und flattern nach ihrem Herzen.

 

Sie fanden den Weg zur Trauten,

Doch kommen sie wieder und klagen,

Und klagen, und wollen nicht sagen,

Was sie im Herzen schauten.

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Aus meinen grossen Schmerzen German source: Heinrich Heine

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Out of my great sorrows
I make little songs;

They raise their resonant wings

And flutter to her heart.

 

They found their way to my dear one,

But they come back and lament,

Lament, and will not tell me

What they saw in her heart.

 

Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)

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Artists:Abdullah Güler, Alannah Robins, Arzu Arbak, Beatrice O’Connell, Eda Sarman, Ekmel Ertan, Elvan Erdin, Esin Turan, Eser Epözdemir, Gülşah Bayraktar, Günseli Baki, Nergiz Yeşil, Seçil Yaylalı, Selin Atik ve Züleyha Altıntaş, Almıla Yıldırım, Anıl Özge Avcı, Aslımay Altay Göney, Ayşecan Kurtay, Betül Akzambaklar, Başak Karafaki, Ceyda Oskay, Deniz Varlı, Desen Halıçınarlı, Elif Bursalı, Elif Köse Akdemir, Erkan Nazlı, Ferahi Mengeş, Giorgio Caione, Giulia Gentilcore, Hatice Şencan, Hatiye Garip, İpek Kay,, Loya Kader Öztürkmen, Meryem Koç, Özce Coşkun, Özge Enginöz, Şükriye İnan Çalapkulu, Türkan Akkulak Koç ve Zekiye Nazlı