The general idea for the installation is to design a conceptual “reading room” for Sabahhatin Ali’s novel, an ‘unconditional love” story, “Madonna in a Fur Coat”, one of the greatest novels in Turkish literature. The act of “reading” here refers to spatial experience, a juxtaposition of visual arts, literature and architecture.
Gallery 112 –the Bridge at the V&A, connecting medieval and renaissance galleries- is a distinct location in terms of using the advantage of passing through, granting the visitors a linear observation plan and an immersive experience.
The installation “Beloved” takes the form of a 13-metre-long mirrored black box, a physical representation to describe the themes of the novel with reference to the black notebook of the hero. Bridge works as a metaphor to describe the link between two dissimilar persons, a European new woman identity and an Eastern, timid young man in love, while bridging two cities, Berlin and Ankara.
Viewers peer inside through cracks in the surface, to witness the inner life of the main character using videos, text, light, and sound. Behind the slits in the shell, the life of the writer and the protagonist’s stories fragmented; moments of past and today, real and fiction are tied with an ethereal atmospheric soundscape. The slits of a lustrous object permits another way of seeing, indicating that the life of every person is fascinating, once “you look beyond the surface”.
The installation as a whole, is to celebrate architecture, design and literature, as well as the human condition, passion and intensity.
