Istanbul Istanbul by Miru Kim
4 min 46 sec, color video, 16:9, 2010.
Full-length available for download in the store.

Istanbul is an overload of senses. The crimson color in the evening, the smell of roasting mackerels by the river, and the chanting for prayer five times a day.  The streets bustle with life–crowds moving about, cats searching for food, and cars fighting for lanes.  Despite this concentration of inhabitants, Istanbul has a hidden layer rarely visited.  The forgotten urban ruins–abandoned factory complexes, desolate rooftops, decrepit cisterns and tunnels–form the subconscious of the city, where collective memories and dreams reside.
Manmade structures abandoned for decades become reclaimed by nature; crumbling bricks are covered in vines, pigeons perch on rusty beams, and green weeds cover the domed rooftops.  The interiors become exteriors, and artificial spaces become natural spaces.  As I momentarily mingle with the wilderness of these forgotten places, they are transformed from strange to familiar, from dangerous to ludic, from harsh to calm.
I become an animal, a child.  And suddenly, these solitary places are no longer only remnants of the past, but a potential for a possible future.
-Miru Kim