Exhibition dates: Istanbul Turkey/2014 – Heilbronn Germany/2019
Photographer Burak Bulut’s 4-year project “Ayaküstü” (which loosely translates to “On Foot” or “In Haste“), tracks the bizarre encounters during the everyday life of the city. The exhibition builds upon the ‘happenings’ of ballerinas that suddenly appear in various distinct locations of the city and intertwines concepts such as city and stage, urban and spectator; while making one think about the fluidity of perceptions such as location and time in the city.
In this performance-photograph project of Mr. Bulut, ballerinas tear right through the city as an awakening outcry, creeps into the usual and the mirror that they momentarily hold onto the city finds its meaning in astonishment, curiosity and nonchalance in people’s faces. With their elegance and glide in contrast with the ever-transforming historical places of the metropole, the ballerinas put a distance between the street and bypassers as an expression of alienation while reminding us again of the variable, transient and naughty soul of the street with all its rhythm, gestures, iconography and sounds. While the ballerina opens up into streets, subways, stations, shops and alleys from the stages and creeps into the usual; what melts within the flow of the city and becomes invisible, gains visibility for a short while.
80 x 120 cm, 5+1 Editions, Archival Giclee Fine Art Print
