Mirrors 2023

A Topography of Memory

Burak Çevik | 2019 | 30'

SYNOPSIS

Combines CCTV footage of urban Istanbul with audio of a family heading to vote in the controversial June 2015 Turkish general election. As talk ranges from domestic matters to political affiliations, shots of the city’s skyline, coastal architecture, and religious landmarks captured the day after the election slowly scroll past. Underlying these eerily serene images is the knowledge that in a follow-up vote five months later, the right-wing government would regain power.

BIOGRAPHY

Burak Çevik

Burak Cevik (1993, Istanbul) founded Fol Cinema Society and curated experimental and arthouse film screenings. He was lecturer on Non-Fiction between 2018-2020 at Istanbul Bilgi University. His films The Pillar of Salt (2018), Belonging (2019) and Forms of Forgetting (2023) premiered at Berlinale Forum. His video works have screened at various festivals, such as Locarno Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, FID Marseille and New York Film Festival.

Multimedia

Critical text

We observe the ghostly night of a lonely Istanbul through panoramic views recorded by security cameras. Meanwhile, a family discusses voting options in view of the imminent elections. The intimate and political intertwine in this particular urban portrait that, under its apparent calm, hides a disturbing view about the control of democracy, social alienation, and the inevitable tragic becoming of a nation that five months later would see Erdoğan’s AKP party regaining the parliamentary majority. JAVIER H. ESTRADA

Technical Sheet