The Material Memory of Decay: Hysteresis at Büyükada Rum Yetimhanesi 

What is care? 

My working definition of care extends beyond protection, empathy, or repair. In this project, care is a relational practice: the effort to read the trauma, cellular degradation, and accumulated stress embedded in a material’s memory. This project examines the decaying timber of Büyükada Rum Yetimhanesi not as a lacklustre material but as a cellular interface that conceals spatial, political, and historical systems. 

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Rather than treating timber as a neutral heritage object to be restored, I approach it as evidence. The cellular degradation in this Romanian-imported timber does not record only time-bound ageing; it reveals layers of dispossession, abandonment, structural trauma, and the conflict between spatial configuration and functional use. Here, caring involves uncovering these ‘dirty’ histories and micro-stresses, histories that are often erased when buildings are turned into museums. 

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Display Strategy 

The display consists of three sections. The first, mounted on the wall (Interface), is a board that maps the orphanage’s macro-scale spatial configuration and functional program, helping visitors navigate the material on the horizontal surface (the second section). The second section (Evidence Field) functions as a forensic surface, organized with reference grid. This area showcases microscopic analyses, cellular degradation maps, and wood-section studies, inviting visitors not only to look but also to compare, cross-read, and connect microscopic decay with the orphanage’s macro-scale traumas. The third section (Dirty Archive) is a cabinet containing important documents related to Romanian timber imports, records from dispossession, and fragments of theoretical texts supporting the concept of “hysteresis”. The items in the open cabinets and alignments from the board to the evidence field establish direct references between microscopic decay images and political seizure documents; the archive remains an ongoing, unresolved space. 

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How the display produces care 

The display fosters care by structuring a particular form of attention. It does not offer immediate comprehension. Instead, it requires time, sequence, and physical engagement. Visitors need to look through the first layer, closely examine the evidence field, and open cabinets to access additional material. This sequence asks visitors to stay with the exhibit long enough to realize that what appears to be decayed timber is, in fact, the result of prolonged neglect, political motives, and the influence of nonhuman actors such as fungi, moisture, and time. 

The display organizes several types of relations. First, it transforms the orphanage’s timber from a mere aesthetic ruin into evidence. Second, it establishes a bodily connection that requires visitors to navigate multiple layers of information and adjust their perspective. Third, it links human histories to nonhuman processes, such as fungal colonization, moisture ingress, and cellulose hydrolysis — and frames care not as an exclusively human ethical category but as a spatial and infrastructural relation distributed across multiple bodies and timescales. 

 

What the display excludes 

The display does not suggest complete visibility, as some materials are challenging to examine. It intentionally avoids quick viewing and "ruin fetishism." The research doesn't aim to create a comprehensive archive; instead, it highlights how the building’s political history and the timber’s cellular memory are shaped by uneven and contested visibility. 

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How the display repositions the visitor 

Visitors are repositioned from passive observers to active witnesses and forensic examiners. They are encouraged to look, lean in, open containers, and compare details, transforming observation into an investigation. As they engage with the evidence, such as descending into the field, opening cabinets, and cross-reading layers, they become witnesses and, through careful examination, may also become examiners.

 

Display as a Three-Layer System 

The display is structured as a three-layer system: an interface at the top, an evidence field in the middle, and an archival cabinet at the bottom. These layers work together to convert the timber from a decayed structural component into a layered system of investigation and material testimony. 

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TOP LAYER — Interface 

transparent surface/frames, filters, overlays, partially obscures 

The orphanage’s spatial configuration and functional layout are mapped on a board. Visitors’ reach to the material in the middle layer is framed and mediated through this surface. 

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MIDDLE LAYER — Evidence Field 

forensic surface / inspects, isolates, marks, cross-reads 

Microscopic analyses, cellular degradation maps, and wood-section studies are staged for forensic inspection. The grid organizes material for comparative reading — micro to macro. 

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BOTTOM LAYER — Dirty Archive 

cabinet/perforation, leakage, alignment, cross-reference 

Import documents, dispossession records, and fragments of “hysteresis theory”. Perforations allow a microscopic decay image and a political seizure document to reference each other vertically. 

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