ebe sobe kollektiv is a collective for urban phenomenological experimentation. Through workshops and participarty practices, it creates a sensory index of urban space.
At this phase of the project we focus on playgrounds, and our target group is children between 8-12. As we grow, we would like to test our practice on other architectural typologies of play.
We are looking for venues we can recreate our format, make more workshops and reach more children. If you have a venue, or an event format that we can collaborate, please don't hesitate to reach us!
What does EBE SOBE mean?
Ebe sobe
[ˈeːbə ˈzoːbə] Turkish binomial pair / reduplication
Ebe sobe is an exclamation used when playing hide and seek. The word is a result of a specific grammatical rule in Turkish, which turns one word into a pair to make the meaning or the sound of the word stronger. The pair means that the people hiding are found by the catcher. The word pair indicates that the person caught by the "it" has been 'saved' by reaching the base before the "it" does. It is generally accepted that the French word "sauvé" evolved into "sobe" in Turkish through phonetic changes.
The pair carries a tension as well as a movement in itself by containing two actors: the runner and the chaser. The reason why we picked that pair as the name of the collective is mainly to recreate that movement in the public sphere. The participants of the workshops or performances become both the chaser of a 'game' that makes the dwelling in a space more curious, while being the runner from conventional, disembodied ways of experiencing space.
'EBE' in games: Represents the role of the person who "finds and catches those hiding" in games. In that sense, the meaning is based on the authority of the experienced/mother figure and the function of searching and finding.
'SOBE' in games: A term used in games like hide-and-seek and blind man's bluff to describe a player who saves themselves by reaching the base before the "it" player, or who tags the 'it' player (by shouting "tag!").
