The panel titled “To Carry Stones with Tonguç: Village Institutes and İsmail Hakkı Tonguç on the 52nd Anniversary of his Death” was held on Saturday, 23 June at 6:30 pm at the Pera Museum Auditorium on the occasion of the Mindful Seed, Speaking Soil: Village Institutes of the Republic 1940-1954 exhibition opened at the gallery of the İstanbul Research Institute on 18 April. It was moderated by the curator of the exhibition Ekrem Işın, with the participation of speakers Engin Tonguç, Pakize Türkoğlu, and Firdevs Gümüşoğlu.
Village Institutes are among the leading institutions that built the Republic. Based on the principle of Populism, these educational institutions were founded in 1940 under the leadership of İsmail Hakkı Tonguç. The objective was to train the village population, 80% of which was illiterate, and pave the way that would lead to an ideal democracy in the new Republic. 52 years after the death of their founder, Village Institutes once again became a current issue with all their different aspects. The panel discussion is thus designed as an invitation to understand the Institutes through the eyes of close witnesses and, in Sabahattin Eyuboğlu’s words, “to carry stones with Tonguç.”
Those who missed the panel can watch it here (the panel language is Turkish).