Bread with Roses, Roses with Bread

Handan Kaygusuz, 2013 | MODE Istanbul (Turkey)

”As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men, For they are women’s children and we mother them again. Our lives should not be sweated from birth until life closes; Hearts starve as well bodies; give us bread but give us roses”   ‘Roses with Bread, Bread with Roses’ by Handan Kaygusuz (1988), Turkey, is about seasonal worker families of Arab origin, who every year start out their journey on a tractor from Urfa to Eskisehir and try to hold on to life in an area covered with almost 2500 tents. Women and children carry the biggest burden of this migration. These workers remind Handan Kaygusuz of her own family, which was crushed under the heavy burden of migration years ago. Through this perspective she focuses on the women’s experiences.   Produced by MODE Istanbul, Turkey in 2013 for Remapping Europe, a Doc Next Network project remixing prevailing imagery of migrants. This work is part of Doc Next Network Media Collection. For more information visit .