Seçil Yaylalı

Love to Love

200-2010

molasses, plastic bags, envelopes

in the context of Love Difference Pastries, a project by Love Difference

with the support of Fondazione Pistoletto

workshops supported by AsiloBianco, Open Studio Days Galata, arttransponder, Berlin, and Gudran Association for Art and Development, Alexandria

Mulberry molasses (fruit skin) is a strong, sweet syrup of Middle Anatolia made with organic white mulberry, a delicate fruit rich in beneficial properties. In many villages of the region, its production represents the first collective work of the year that brings together all family members at the beginning of the summer. It is handmade and mainly produced for personal use, even though some small farms sell their excess product in small quantities at local markets or online. Among its several purposes, mulberry molasses is used to produce layers of molasses that are the base of typical Turkish sweets preparation.

Molasses making dates back to very ancient times; likely, it was already part of the food culture of the civilization of Hittites, which was in power for more than 1000 years between BC 18th - BC 8th through a huge empire that included north-central Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and north-western Syria. Their language was discovered only 3000 years after they disappeared; they used different kinds of characters, among which quite symbolic hieroglyphs. One corresponds to the word “love” and the action “to love” and consists of two persons facing and looking at each other.

With Love to Love, Seçil Yaylalı produced her versions of mulberry molasses, which integrated traditional ingredients, such as lemon and orange crusts, as particular elements of the Mediterranean region. The mulberry molasses layers, each differently flavoured, were cut with a particular mould to produce sweets shaped by the Hittite “love/to love” character. 

Love to Love candy was designed as a thin and light sweet that people can package, envelope, and send as a present around the world to spread loving messages.

A Turkish proverb says, "tatli yiyelim, tatli konusalim" (“eat sweet and talk sweetly”), expressing the power of sweets as both an excuse and a means of good communication.

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