Video, 2:20mins
March 2007
This video was made in front of a former prison building in Diyarbakır, Turkey whilst visiting that city as part of the Here as the Centre of the World project with the Dutch Art Institute in March 2007.
The building had served as a prison until relatively recently, as part of a complex of buildings including a military garrison at the edge of the city, just adjacent to its ancient walls. When the Turkish authorities abandoned the building, the interior was completely demolished so that there remained no further possibility of it being used. Much of the rubble from this destruction remained piled up in front of the prison, forming a relic, a literal jigsaw puzzle, of the loaded past of this area, which is also the epicentre of the area claimed by Kurdish separatists and of much unrest in recent years. This work represents my attempt to make sense of this troubled history and these desolate surroundings.
Building a perfect prison