Measurement:

Variable Dimensions

Osman Bozkurt e Didem Özbek

Flashbacks of a Fool

2009

 

 

 

 

FLASHBACKS OF A FOOL

Is it possible to grasp the perspective of the present by archeologically excavating the movement of the immigrant? What potentials can this perspective carry? What significance can Istanbul’s Italian community have in a socio-political context? What causes amnesia in relation to the recent past? And how can this amnesia be overcome? These are the questions pondered by Osman Bozkurt and Didem Ozbek’s project Flashbacks of a Fool.

As a city, Istanbul fielded great waves of immigration during the Ottoman Empire thanks to the Terms of Surrender enacted in1867 which granted Europeans the right to buy and sell property. Therefore, any European citizen was free to live and work on Ottoman land. At the command of the Sultan, European migrants were given permission to settle around the Pangalti district of Istanbul. At the beginning of the 20th century, ninety percent of the population of the district used to be European and non-Muslim. Today, the number has dropped to just a few Levantine families.

Flashbacks of a Fool reflects on the presence of the Italian community around the Pangalti district during the Ottoman Empire. Excavating the region, as much as allowing themselves to chance upon situations, gave an opportunity to the artists to tap into buried layers of history, both personal and collective: and they were confronted with imprints of the minority community such as schools, cemeteries, food stores, workers’ associations etc. mainly hidden behind walls.

In terms of content, Flashbacks of a Fool consists of a three-video installation, a visual installation, a slide projection and printed material. The three-video installation Napoli takes place at a grocery store in Pangalti, which was opened by an Italian in the 1950s and subsequently turned over to Turkish owners under the same name. Even though the name of the store inspired their interest, Napoli is not about the store’s history but its contemporary incarnation and the daily interactions of consumers with the owners. The subject matter of their daily conversation varies from politics to sports and from economics to popular culture. Moreover, the conspicuous absence of the store’s Italian past within the dialogues is a sign of the amnesia of the shop owners in particular, as well as signalling the amnesia of the neighborhood of its European past in general.

Flashback/Flashforward is a slide projection composed of 40 portraits of the immigrant members of Societá Operaia Italiana di Mutuo Soccorso in Istanbul. Societá Operaia Italiana di Mutuo Soccorso was founded in 1863 by Italian immigrants living in Istanbul. Based on their archive, there were approximately 30.000 Italian workers registered at the association, one being the famous Giuseppe Garibaldi in the 19th century. By now, the number of members has dropped to forty. The work brings together a selection of archival portraits of these Italian immigrants.