A traffic accident as dramatic as a soap opera: INNOCENCE is based on the Susurluk scandal, a notorious car crash in Turkey in the 1990s. The supposedly everyday accident led to the discovery of criminal links between state institutions, the drug mafia and deep state relations. In INNOCENCE, Göksu Kunak reflects on the policy of concealing and erasing and explores accident and scandal as phenomena; as a moment in which technology reveals its potentially grave consequences. But also as a moment in which falsities and truths of our constructed reality come to light. INNOCENCE portrays the crash as a moment frozen in time in which relationships are crystallized: a traffic accident as a neutral moment, neither good nor bad, but as dramatic as a soap opera.
The Susurluk scandal as a grey area reveals the inaccuracies of a rigid East-West dichotomy and defies simple conclusions. For Kunak, the car as a fetishized object and the accident are metaphors for both the corrupted patriarchal political system in Turkey and the crash of Turkish modernization. INNOCENCE is an attempt at a genealogy of corruption in the country, the suppression of minorities and also sheds light on the atrocities inflicted by western imperialism upon Turkey and the Middle East.
After AN(A)KARA (2021) and Ajaib Mahluqat (ACAYİP MAHLUKAT)(2023), INNOCENCE is the third co-production of Göksu Kunak with Sophiensæle.
13.09., 17:30–19:00, Hochzeitssaal: Panel talk (English with simultaneous interpretation into German)
Artist Göksu Kunak, sociologist Ceren Türkmen and curator Çağla Ilk talk about the Susurluk scandal in context: How can the scandal of the 1990s be reflected from a contemporary perspective, especially against the backdrop of steadily increasing sympathy towards fascist structures such as the Grey Wolves in Turkey, Germany and throughout Europe?
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Concept, text, video, installation, light, performance: Göksu Kunak
With: Bilgesu Akyürek, Felix Beer, Buğra Büyükşimşek, Chima Okerenkwo, Leo Luchini
Light consultant: Annegret Schalke
Assistance stage, documentation: SynthTati
Consultation stunt: Sascha Girndt
Dramaturgical advice: Isabel Gatzke
Outside eye: Çağla Ilk
Production assistance: Ben Mohai
Production management: Florian Greß
A production by Göksu Kunak in co-production with Sophiensæle and DE SINGEL Antwerpen. Funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. Media partners: Berlin Art Link, King Kong Magazine, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.
Poster photo Ege Dandin
Photos Gino Henry José
