GMU:Re-enchanting the field/Öykü Türkan

How Long to Fill It Up? How Long to Empty?

(An exploration on borders, time, and queer ecologies.)

The Narva River draws a line.

People are stopped

While birds fly, wind moves,

and seeds scatter across.

I start walking.

Not with the flow, but against it.

Moving upstream becomes a way of thinking about time.

I scoop water into a vessel, carry it, then pour it back in — a small loop.

Not to change the river, but to listen to it.

To feel how it holds, but also leaks.

This land has been filled before —

With machines, noise, and smoke,

and turned into ash mountains.

This is not just about a place.

It is about the systems we build to separate, control, and claim.

And about what happens when those systems collapse —

When rivers keep flowing,

and orchids bloom where no one is looking.