Is a kilim simply a woven surface or is it an art object carrying memory? Mike Berg’s 25-year journey into craft, which began in Istanbul, invites us to look anew at Anatolia’s weaving traditions through his exhibition ‘Innocent of Theory’ at Baksı Museum.
His journey began approximately 25 years ago, when he first came to Istanbul and encountered a craftsman in the Grand Bazaar. That meeting opened the door to a long and continuing relationship with craft. Over the years, embroidery, kilim weaving and other forms of making brought him into contact with artisans and workshops across Anatolia.
Two years ago, I met Mike Berg in Sultanahmet. What began as a conversation about the possibility of exhibiting his kilims soon evolved into a broader discussion about the position of textiles within contemporary art in Türkiye. Why is textile, and weaving in particular, still largely regarded as an ‘object’ in Türkiye? In Western art history, by contrast, textile has long been considered not merely a functional object but an artistic medium in its own right. Despite Türkiye’s rich weaving heritage, why does this distinction remain so pronounced?
That day, Berg told me about Hüsamettin Koçan’s efforts to challenge this perception. He described Baksı Museum, founded by Koçan in his native Bayburt, as something more than a museum: a cultural space where local knowledge and traditional forms of production could encounter contemporary art.
Two years later, Berg’s kilims have arrived at Baksı.
The questions we discussed then have found a physical setting in which to unfold. For me, ‘Innocent of Theory’ therefore feels like the continuation of a journey that is both personal and intellectual.
Founded in 2010 by Hüsamettin Koçan as a gesture of giving back to the land where he was born, Baksı Museum has become an important cultural center for Bayburt and its surrounding region. Through exhibitions, workshops and conferences, it has created a space in which local forms of knowledge and production are not preserved as nostalgic remnants of a disappearing past, but are brought into conversation with the present.
This is where Koçan’s idea of bringing ‘the local into the universal’ becomes particularly significant. Tradition, in this understanding, is not something fixed and completed. It is a living form of knowledge, one that changes and adapts new meanings as it encounters the contemporary world.
The nature and geography of Anatolia, together with its weaving traditions, create a space where his personal journey and artistic practice intersect. What we encounter in Berg’s kilims is not merely a reinterpretation of a formal heritage belonging to Anatolia, but the traces of a personal and temporal relationship that an artist raised in another geography has developed with this heritage. The opportunity to present this exhibition in Baksı is particularly meaningful for Mike because of the geographical resemblance between the landscape around the museum and the mountains and valleys of Oregon, his hometown.
Perhaps this is where the question we need to ask again today emerges: What transforms a kilim from an ‘object’ into a work of ‘art’? And, more importantly, where does the perspective that allows us to see it merely as a functional object come from?
Türkiye carries the legacy of thousands of years of weaving culture, yet the place of textiles within contemporary art has still not been fully brought into question. Kilims, however, are far more than objects. They are carriers of history, communal ways of life and individual stories.
For this reason, ‘Innocent of Theory’ invites us not only to look at Mike Berg’s kilims, but also to reconsider the way we look at the kilim itself.
The exhibition is on view until 30 October 2026.
