In the Middle
July 2023 - April 2024
ANKARA
The In the Middle installation approaches the brain-drain issue from the out-of-the-ordinary perspective of the burden of staying (inability to stay) and by producing spatial depictions of being unable to leave/stay, it aims to articulate this state of being stuck in the middle, an issue which impacts a certain part of the society.
The circumstance creating the state of being stuck in the middle is a state of alienation and an encounter of the instinct of leaving, which has become “obligatory,” with inaction. By localizing this individual entrapment, In the Middle [Middle Room] aims to turn the state of being stuck in the middle into a space of experience. The state of being stuck in the middle, the existence of which is merely an abstract phenomenon, would thereby be transformed into an object and space that can be contacted in the human scale and become visible, arguable and actionable.
The In the Middle [Middle Room] installation transforms and takes on new definitions by opening and closing depending on the context it is in, just like an individual swaying back and forth between the states of inability to leave or inability to stay. The best expression thereof would be by leaving the installation in two spatial formations -the exhibition venue and the public space- and follow up its motion throughout the process. Being planned to initially be placed inside the exhibition venue in its closed state and transformed into a confined space/exhibition object, the installation aims, with the platform it defines when opened, to define an interface of sharing, solidarity, discussion, activity and culture-art between different sections of the society. Thereby, as a temporary and nomadian dialogue space, it desires to provide individuals who are “in the middle” grounds for an encounter in a social scale and enhancing their potential.
