upside-down

2014 Video

Wide street view of a person performing a handstand on the pavement beside a tall corrugated metal barrier. Their body forms a narrow vertical line against the silver-grey sheets, with both legs extended upward. Yellow taxis and other vehicles pass through the foreground, while pedestrians stand along the pavement. Behind the barrier, exposed brickwork, incomplete building surfaces and a construction crane rise above the enclosed area; large advertising panels flank the street.

Wide view of a person performing a handstand at the base of a long pale concrete wall, their body small against a cluster of tall beige apartment towers. Both hands are planted on the ground and the legs extend vertically upward. Dry grass, weeds and rocky uneven ground fill the foreground, while fences, small trees and repeated rows of windows and balconies extend across the housing complex behind.

1. Video still from a video by Burak Erkil, 2. Photography: Burak Serin

upside-down is a reverse homage to the gentrification projects severely taking place in Istanbul, specifically but not limited to Tarlabaşı.

The performance consists of doing a handstand for as long as possible at a corner of the neighbourhood of Tarlabaşı, which was about to undergo gentrification, where sex workers used to work and where iron sheets now conceal the demolition behind them, and next to the wall of the Kayabaşı building complex, which was offered as housing to the residents.

Distant landscape view across open, uneven terrain beneath a cloudy sky. Two low detached houses occupy the foreground, surrounded by dry grass, scrub and rocky ground. Far beyond them, a dense cluster of tall pale apartment towers rises together on a hill. Roads curve through the open terrain, while electricity pylons and scattered buildings extend across the surrounding landscape.

Photography: Burak Serin

Credits

upside-down, by Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, video, 4'15" and 4'29", 2014

Acknowledgements: Ekin Yaşa, Seda Ergül, Tuna Erdem

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