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Anna van Gerve

Our name


Since we launched our website, quite some people have been asking us about the meaning of Kaplum. It comes from the Turkish word for turtle, kaplumbağa. Alper grew up in Turkey. When he was twenty-six he left Turkey to study art in Amsterdam. For two years we were in the same class, even working in adjoining studios, but beside a few words we never actually talked to each other. Three years after graduating we met again at an exhibition where some of my drawings were displayed. We sat on a window-sill and talked for quite a while. Suddenly Alper asked me why I didn’t wear my necklace with the turtle anymore. ‘It was black with orange right?’ he said. I was of course quite impressed he remembered such a tiny detail and told him I replaced it with a necklace belonging to my late grandmother. Years later our son was laying on his belly on Alpers chest, lifting up his head like a little turtle.

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