Photos by Emirkan Corut and Ali Berkay Bilge
Angelus Altera
7 hours
Salt Beyoğlu
As part of “90s on stage” exhibition
Curated by Amira Arzık
2022
“His face is Our faces are turned toward the past. Where we you perceive a chain of events, he sees we see one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his our feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. We, actually go there, summon the ghosts, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. We have taken the storm blowing from the heavens into our wings and it is so powerful that these wings will never close up. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. In the storm and with the power granted by the ghosts from the pile of debris rising to the skyward, we are now building the future.”1
1 Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History”, Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn, New York: Schocken Books, 1969.
Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu & Natis fka. Hasan Aksaygın
Taking its departure from the 90s archive of Turkey’s performance-art-history, Angelus Altera addresses the relationality between the notions of heritage and future. To understand ever-changing borders and boundaries of the 90s, the performance first looks to the 80s and navigates by drawing analogies between Turkey’s general socio-politics, Queer history, and the performance art history.
From a Queer perspective, Angelus Altera investigates the hegemonic history, past and present by focusing on the notions of visibility & invisibility, (op)pressure & ease, (en)closure & opening/coming out through the body and opens itself to the future.
A reflection of Angelus Altera written by the artist published in “Protodispatch” by Protocinema can be read from here.
The two channel video of Angelus Altera was shown at SALT Beyoğlu until the end of the exhibition “90s on stage” on 02. 04. 23.
Costume designer: Mert Yemenicioğlu
Advisor: Simge Burhanoğlu
Realized in collaboration with Performistanbul and with the support of monoco.io