Time To Sing A New Song
Video Installation, 2016
In 2016, I was invited to do a public video installation on top of Istanbul's centrally located The Marmara Pera Hotel’s video screen, YAMA.
To voice out a clear 'NO' to all violence, femicides, harassment and patriarchal forms of oppression towards women in Turkey, I decided to change the story of Adam and Eve and make a different ending.
In order to subvert the seductress and cunning identity imposed on Eve in religious mythologies, I created an alternative ending to her story, where she could finish the apple, instead of giving it to Adam.
My work, a short video-animation consists of a slogan that says “Eve, Finish Your Apple!“, followed by a red apple slowly turning into a woman's face, and winking at the audience.
Three day after my video was installed on the roof-screen of Istanbul’s centrally located Pera Marmara hotel, the municipality officers came to hotel to shut down the video, saying that it allegedly caused 'visual pollution'. Despite my efforts to get a legal answer for this censorship decision, my work remained shut down.
When I realised that there was no answer from the authorities to define what a visual pollution is, I decided to make a second performance. Together with my students, we created another story of Adam and Eve and called municipality live in front of the audience.
As much as I am opposed to any form of censorship, I also believe in the power of creative response through art. Below you may also find images from the work, as well as the documentation from my creative response performance called "Part 2: A Tale on The Benefits of Apple".
