Çark* (2019-2020)
The installation work consists of 6 videos, 3 objects and 2 digital print collages.
*Çark' means cruising (for sex) in queer slang (Lubunca). The literal meaning in Turkish is cogwheel.
The ongoing project Çark addresses hypocrisy at the intersection of street and sexuality and began in a way of urban observation in Istanbul's Beyoğlu** neighborhood during my time at Daire Artist in Residency Program Hasköy/Beyoğlu***.
In the beginning, I documented the sex worker and queer cruising areas that are primarily male-dominated in the city blind.
It was important for me to visualize in this way sexuality that is generally denied in public life in Turkey. Because of this taboo, "normal gestures" - such as normal looks, among other things - often become gestures of over-sexualization.
In my work, I play with this inversion.
In order to see the videos and collages, the pubic audience must assume certain positions reminiscent of sexual acts in the participatory installation, which consists of 5 videos, 3 objects, and 2 digital print collages.
** Beyoğlu is a politicly important and intercultural municipality in İstanbul:
*** The program is co-founded by the European Union and the Republic of Turkey. It happened in 9 different cities in Turkey.
All videos are shown in a loop. 3 of the 5 videos are preferably projected on a free surface. In an outdoor installation, the videos can also be shown on the screen.
The other 2 videos will be shown in the walk-in objects.
The preferably projected Videos are below:
Videos are shown as a loop.
Video I (Gezi)
“Gezi” is the name of a park in İstanbul that the cruising occurs.
Video II (Klorak)
"Klorak" means laundry bleach in Turkish
Video III (Sabun)
"Sabun" Means soap in Turkish
Object I:
The video can be watched from the small hole on the object.
This object is provided with two holes, behind one of the holes a video can be seen.
To observe is the mouth of a waiting person, whose gender is not recognizable.
The second hole I placed close to the top of the object. The hole, which is non-functional and difficult to reach, is intended to create a nervous sense of curiosity in visitors.
Object II:
The video can be watched from the holes on the object.
This object is provided with three holes. From all three holes, performative videos can be seen. The performances I made tell about a Turkish dessert and its production process.
The dessert seen on the video is one of the most popular street food in Turkey. It is called "Kerhane Tatlısı", which - literally translated - means "brothel dessert". It can be found in front of almost all brothels in Turkey. That is why it was named as such. It is rumored that people like to eat it to get energy before sex.
Object III (shed):
I took the form of this object from a small building* located in one of Istanbul's popular queer cruising areas. At night, despite the light of the street lamps, it is possible to find a hidden and unseen place in the shadow of this building.
In my installation, the audience can enter the building and at the same time also be observed from the outside through the non-functioning "keyhole". In this way, visitors are invited to a cycle of observation.
Due to the height of the object, it is not possible to act inside in an upright position. In this way, I would like to make the audience change their posture from observing to hiding.
*The building can be seen on Video I (Gezi).
Collages:
This collage(upper-left),
is consisting of two images that have been taken by me and a found image. Images are taken in Berlin in a cruising toilet that has a glory-hole. Thus, I wanted to emphasize my production process(Berlin to İstanbul) and the hole-metaphor of the objects.
With this collage(lower-right),
I tried to refer to the sex-working industry in İstanbul and it's memory.
Special thanks to Ilyas Hayta for the video shoots.