Memory game consisted of 78 memory cards, Künstlerhaus Bethanien – Berlin, Germany
Memory Istanbul is concerned with Istanbul’s neoliberal development in relation to lucrative investments, increased gentrification and marginalization of the ethnic urban poor. Photo documentations of everyday situations in different public spaces in Istanbul are turned into memory game cards. Unlike the original memory game, where images of same motives match, Istanbul’s cards make a pair in an opposite connotation thus highlighting the discrepancies in Istanbul’s everyday life. The composition of the matching motives is done in a similar vein (distance, perspective, constellation of objects), which in turn makes noting a difference on a first glance more difficult. The audience is invited to play the memory game and through the act of pairing to also reflect upon the current social processes in the city.
The work is part of the “Import/Export” project, which was presented in 2010 at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.
