Kerem Ozan Bayraktar (TR), Ahmet Rüstem Ekici & Hakan Sorar (TR), Ekmel Ertan (TR), Buşra Tunç (TR)
Duration: 7 February – 28 August 2026
Venue: Trenčín Castle (Gothic Chapel + basement / underground of the cannon bastion)
Project: Contemporary Castle
The Legend of the Well of Love is present at Trenčín Castle in the stones, in the silence of the courtyard, and in the stories people carry home with them. The exhibition Well of Love does not rewrite it with a “new plot” – rather, it opens it up as a space for perception: of echoes, layers of memory, labour, and myth that have settled into the castle over centuries.
Curated by Ekmel Ertan, the exhibition presents four site-specific works by Turkish artists in the castle’s historic spaces. The works engage with sound, light, holography, and material. This is not an exhibition that can simply be “viewed” – it is important to move through it, to linger for a while, to listen, and to observe how the space changes together with you.
How the exhibition is arranged within the castle
The exhibition is divided into two main parts – each with its own atmosphere and its own “mode of silence”.
1) Gothic Chapel
Ahmet Rüstem Ekici & Hakan Sorar – Palimpsest and The Whispers of the Well
Kerem Ozan Bayraktar – Beneath
2) Basement / underground of the cannon bastion
Ekmel Ertan – Echoes of Love
Buşra Tunç – Unspoken (interior version)
Works and artists
Ahmet Rüstem Ekici & Hakan Sorar – Palimpsest and The Whispers of the Well
The artist duo works with holography, digital interfaces, and contemporary technologies. In the context of the castle, the legend transforms into a “rewritten manuscript” – a palimpsest in which old layers do not disappear, but are overlaid by new ones.
Kerem Ozan Bayraktar – Beneath
The installation connects AI animation with a physical system of circulating water. Beneath the surface – beneath stone, beneath story, beneath everyday bustle – something is always happening. The work engages with what is hidden, yet present.
Ekmel Ertan – Echoes of Love
The curator of the exhibition also enters the project as an artist. In this work, he connects sound, space, and memory so that the “voice of the place” does not become decoration, but experience: here, the echo is not an effect, but a trace.
Buşra Tunç – Ooze (interior version)
The work reconstructs the voice and presence of Fatima through light and sound – as a stream of “unformed speech” that cannot be contained in a single sentence. It is a fragile, focused installation about what remains unspoken, yet shapes our stories.
Dramaturgy: Miran Bulut
Opening
6 February 2026 at 6:00 PM – amphitheatre by the Well of Love / surroundings of the well
Practical information
The exhibition is accessible during the castle’s opening hours as part of a visit to Trenčín Castle.
No registration is required (standard castle admission applies).
The Gothic Chapel is a more intimate space – during periods of higher attendance, a short wait may be necessary to experience the works in a calm setting.
Photo and video documentation will be made during the event and may be published later.
