In the Museum of the Third City, we met with people who had to leave their hometown, neighborhood, or village and came to Istanbul, and asked them about the images they remember from the place that is left behind and -in many cases- that was not existing anymore. After running interviews where they were describing or drawing the map of the place, the things they had, and mental images they have, Özge Genç, based on the information we had, drew these images while we also came up with a color scheme of the specific place. The project was trying to compose an archive based on the reflection of images of things that are described by a person who experienced them firsthand.

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Thus, this speculative archive was not addressing the question of firsthand remembrance and a consequent compensation regarding the things lost, but the speculative, elusive and performative tertiary image that is not belonging to the first or second subject position but that is constantly composed between us and always open to contest.    

 

So far we have interviewed five person: Muhsin Arvas (Bitlis, Zulül, Turkey), Aset Özdemirova (Yeni Engin, Gudermes, Chechnia, Russia), Al Hadj (Radoum, Darfur, Sudan), Alphonse Tolno (Bongöe, Gueckedou, Guinea), Azat Türkoglu (Paynap, Kashgar, East Turkestan)