Mert Serbest

Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, also known as Mevalana, was a 13th-century poet, Dervish, Hanafi faqir, Islamic scholar and Maturidi theologian calling out to humanity with words such as "Come back, no matter what you are", to free humanity from discrimination, guiding it towards universal unity, friendship and tolerance. Such powerful borderless thoughts were the starting point for Turkish designer Mert Serbest, who also looked at the traditional Turkish Yorgan quilt. His project mixes references to eastern and middle-eastern traditions with references to the European Union and its borders. He developed a kind of surreal immigrant character, wrapped in a coat-like Yorgan quilt that opens up to become a blanket. About to cross the border between Italy and Slovenia, between Nova Gorica and Gorizia, he takes off his Yorgan coat as an act of friendship, opening it up for the border police as a blanket to rest on, since they have no borders to patrol in 2025.