SHADES OF SURVIVAL/ AROUND ME # for AKM
The installation wanted to question the proposal and decision to destroy the AKM for having a shopping mall instead. During my first visit I was impressed by the indifference I felt in the art-scene and general public telling me the awful decision. I understood life was much more about surviving in Turkey and there was no metal room to get attention to this symbolic descision.
The installation proposed pictures from the building itself on the spot of the AKM self. The idea was similar when having a discussion: mostly the best option to take is : just sit around the table and reconsider all the elements before just going through.
The last weekend of the biennial I heard the building was saved and I received thanks for my installation. the A3 paper started to function as a debate about the feelings of the public about the building. I centralized an issue which was tend to evaporate in the daily political discussion running at that time in Turkey.
Els Opsomer installs a research table where she presents a slide show, images and books that question the faith of the AKM. At present the proposal to demolish the AKM is a controversial issue since it once stood for the utopia of modern Turkey. Opsomer is interested in how architecture captures the contemporary zeitgeist and how we deal with the idea of utopia today. Her approach bears affinities with the non-lieux described by sociologist Marc Augé, and she uses architectural images to explore the state of mind of a community.
The table in Istanbul symbolises the necessity of reflection and the need for sober analysis in difficult subjects. It enables the visitor to sit around the table and engage in free questioning. During her stays in conflict zones such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Palestine and Azerbaijan, Opsomer experienced how conflicts amplify the creative process as a last-ditch survival strategy. Paradoxically, hope and optimism were omnipresent although reality told a very different story. She associates leftovers from another time with the disenchantment of the present and looks if this can help to grasp a complex reality. Her visual essays provide comfort and comprehension in painful matters.