Above Ground

“Yerüstü”, Video, Süre 10′ döngü, 2009

“İ-adeyi Ziyaret”

In all the visited countries including Turkey, Zeren Göktan worked with ‘Pigeon raisers’, which is a hobby-like profession both many people are familiar, but also it is a very particular profession of this region as an Eastern phenomenon. The name of this project is ‘aboveground’ because this culture is only visible if you look at the sky. It also exists in United States, Europe and Asia but it shows huge cultural dis-similarities. Through these people whom she filmed and interviewed she focuses on the relations of these men with pigeons because it is a ‘man’ thing to do and also look for a woman which on some level she know she will never able to find. However, she choose to remain optimistic and persistently ask each man if they ever saw a woman doing this and then ask why they aren’t any. For these man this is a place where they can free their soles and genuinely love.  It is also a place where they can escape from the struggles of real life and “bad habits” like going to coffee houses and playing cards. In the end some form of ideology is created through an obsession based on pigeons.  This ideology seems to exist in a universe that is beside the realm of everyday life and not in it. The work is a poetic-editing from her research work.