Towards Elementalite: Celil's Story
I first stepped into theater during my university years — but don’t imagine an ordinary student club. At Istanbul University’s central campus, together with a director who had graduated from Akademi Istanbul, a group of young people set out on a journey that would last for years, with the aim of interpreting and transforming the world. I was part of that journey.
Our purpose was never just to stage plays.
To know yourself,
to discover your body,
to face your emotions,
to listen and to speak,
to read between the lines,
to analyze a character,
to create a character,
and to understand relationships.
And then, with the self, body, and emotions you had come to know — to truly listen, to truly speak, to be aware of what is said and what lies beneath — and to connect your created character with others. That was what theater meant to us.
Since childhood, even though I was always surrounded by people, I often found myself returning to books. Because the world inside books —even fantasy— felt more meaningful. The characters were much easier to understand than those in real life. Life was rushing forward; sometimes understanding and living at the same time simply wasn’t possible.
But even before books, the greatest world of my childhood was play. I would spend hours inventing games on my own, creating imaginary characters and stories. Play, for me, was never just entertainment — it was a way of making sense of the world and of expressing myself. Years later, when I stepped into theatre, I realized I had found the more conscious, deeper version of what I had once discovered through play. Theatre was play carried into the adult world.
Theatre became a bridge between these two worlds for me. Acting practice played a vital role in how I perceived myself, other people, and the world. The effort to unite those two worlds remained my main motivation.
Over the years, I took on many different roles both on stage and behind the scenes. I worked in nearly every department of the performing arts. I explored the schools and traditions created by the great directors, actors, and dancers of history, and while interpreting our contemporary world, I drew inspiration from their methods.
Yet, while the performing arts may look dazzling from the outside, the network of relationships it demanded eventually became unbearable for me. I chose to step away. In a new country, with a slower pace of life, I immersed myself in sociology, philosophy, and psychology.
And I realized: what I truly needed was to return to where I had started. On the path of trying to understand myself, others, and the world, I had wandered into side streets. Now it was time to return to the main road.
Today, the relationship people have with themselves and with the world around them is more troubled than ever. The dominant capitalist system has estranged people from humane living conditions. The conditions it creates are the true source of many physical and psychological struggles. Yet the same system shamelessly whispers to us that we are “not enough.” Within this cycle, people are forced to chase the illusions of personal development, only to become more “qualified victims.”
On top of this, countless “gurus” and “healers” exploit people’s confusion, twisting concepts such as psychology, energy, and quantum theory, and turning them into profit-making tools.
It was under these circumstances that I began to gather the different experiences I had accumulated over the years into one project. Theatre had been my first healthy contact with myself and with the world. It was time to repay that debt.
And the road once again brought me back to play. Because play is not something we abandon in childhood. Play is one of the oldest ways of discovering who we are, of touching our emotions, and of connecting with others. Since ancient times, play has been at the center of rituals, celebrations, and learning. Play liberates us, restores our balance, and prepares us to encounter the many faces of life.
By placing play at the core, and building upon it with the methods of art, the work of psychology, and what I have absorbed from humanity’s millennia-long heritage, I came to believe that we can protect ourselves from the damage modern times inflict on us — and even, in time, become healthier individuals.
It was at this point that, as Ipek and Ceren also describe in their writings, our paths crossed. The elements provided a symbolic framework perfectly suited for what we wanted to build. Mentality had always been at the heart of our efforts. And thus, Elementalite was born.
We did not think the same things, nor did we believe in the same methods. But that did not prevent us from standing side by side. Because we agreed on the most essential point:
We are not enlightened beings, and we are not selling wisdom. Nor do we expect you to share our ideas.
What truly matters, at the end of the day, is to know yourself.
To find balance within yourself, with your surroundings, and with the world.
Because no one can walk the path for anyone else; everyone must walk their own way.
And this is why:
This is not a doctrine.
This is not enlightenment.
This is not an awakening.
This is a journey.
A journey taken together, where the road itself and the fellow travelers become the teachers.
Are you ready to walk this path with us?