Mesopotamian Dramaturgies / Journey to the Moon (installation version)

2009

Lentos Art Museum, Linz, Austria, 2009

Commissioned by:
The Arts Council England, UK
Borusan Foundation, Turkey
The British School at Rome, Italy
The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, UK
Francesca Minini, Milan, Italy
The Henry Moore Foundation, UK
The ICA, UK
Lentos Art Museum, Linz, Austria
Linz 2009. European Capital of Culture
MAXXI - National Museum of the XXI Century Arts, Rome
UniCredit Group, Italy
Vehbi Koc Foundation, Turkey

Journey to the Moon is a two-channel projection, consisting of two screens side by side.

The first screen is a story reconstructed with supposedly found black and white photos, and narrated by a recorded voice supposedly from a real interview. It is a faked attempt to document a rumour, the story of a village in Eastern Turkey which tries to go to the moon.

The second screen consists of established Turkish intellectuals, scientists and journalists who offer their readings of the documentation above, based on their various academic disciplines.

The piece not only recreates a fake history completely made up by the artist, but also validates its reality, by demonstrating that all history is man made, therefore fake.