Gelde İçme Birahanesi

MY FEELINGS TOWARDS THE SOCIAL SPACE OF A TRANSVESTITE BAR

Gelde İçme Birahanesi is a small bar located at the edge of Tarlabaşı in Kamer Hatun Sokak, very close to the Nevizade area. It even seems to be one of the ‘borderposts’ at the felt frontier between the two areas. Apparently it forms one of the most important meeting points for the local transvestite community. On the weekends and in the evenings it is usually quite crowded, however its guests all belong to the community. They form a distinct, parallel society that does not seem to interact much with the mainstream society which is having one of its main party areas just a few metres away.

I pass the place very often, since it is located on my way home coming from Istiklal Street. And it has been fascinating me right from the start. Firstly, because of the place itself, i.e. the physical appearance of the bar. Its interior design, the furniture, the lighting, the decoration and especially the wallpaper create an atmosphere which seems appealing to me. It shows history and identity, irrespective of fashion. Visually it looks just like one of the places I like to go in. Yet, I have never stepped inside Gelde İçme. Every time I pass the place, I look inside, feeling like a voyeur. And I feel an (un)defined border quite impossible to surpass. This border is, however, a social one constructed by the way the transvestite community presents itself and separates itself from the mainstream. And certainly by the mainstream society, and their rejection and insecurity towards differences and different lifestyles.

This combination of two feelings I have regarding Gelde İçme, the attraction towards it, and at the same time the feeling of a border impossible to pass, evoke a tension in me. It feels distant and near at the same time. No doubt, there is an ambivalent poetic.

Lefebvre approach to a new seeing of space was to interlink the traditional dual gap between the mental space and the real physical space, thus introducing the concept of social space.

I see my two spatial feelings towards the Gelde İçme just in this way. And I can clearly feel the two dual spaces: the real physical place and my feelings towards it, and the mental space constituted by a border I feel I cannot pass. These two form the social space of Gelde İçme, and my perception of it.

To be continued once I dare to visit Gelde İçme Birahanesi