Burçak Bingöl's Unit Terrenum Rosa (2025) is on view at Frieze Sculpture in The Regent’s Park, 17 September 2025 – 2 November 2025.
Unit Terrenum Rosa is a materially rich, site-specific sculpture by Burçak Bingöl, shaped as a one-cubic-metre block of rammed earth, embedded with ceramics. The work is formed from Cappadocia soil from Türkiye and soil collected from the Regent’s Park, which was found to contain clay. The resulting ceramic elements incorporate the images of real roses collected by the artist from her neighbourhood Beyoğlu (Istanbul) – including the Garden of the British Consulate (Pera House) and the Galata Mevlevi House – and roses from Queen Mary’s Rose Garden in the Regent’s Park. In this way, the rose, an important motif in Turkish decorative arts, transforms into a cross-cultural connection. The work rethinks culture and nature through the material of ceramics, its decorative elements, and its connection to earth.
The sculpture’s geometric form – a perfect cube – offers a striking contrast to the organic irregularity of the surrounding landscape. It disrupts the natural terrain, acting both as a monument to place and a kind of cross-section through the earth. By remaking the park’s flora from a blend of various soils, Unit Terrenum Rosa speaks to ideas of origin, displacement and layered histories, inviting us to reflect on how borders and environments are reassembled, reimagined and transformed—highlighting the artistic and material links across geographies.
Bingöl’s practice reflects a deep engagement with the relationship between ceramics and the environment. In earlier works, she has used Cornish and China clays collected from landscapes across the UK. In this work, she continues that inquiry into place, material and transformation.
Text and image courtesy of Frieze Sculpture.
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https://www.frieze.com/article/burcak-bingol-frieze-sculpture-2025