‘Trilogy of the Deserted City’ | 2014

by Tayfun Serttas

Trilogy of the Deserted City is an experiment dedicated to problematize the consequences of the loss of its population and the periodic emigrations from Istanbul – one of the most crowded cities in the world – as much as the internal migration that it received, on its cultural memory.

The aim is not to be relieved of a sense of guilt evoked by the city through putting pieces of unorganized data next to each other. It is to call upon the souls that have remained hanging in its ominous history, disabling the unconscious, confronting the abnormalities, revealing the repressed through skepticism.

In the three consecutive layers of fake investigation and misdirection, the “desertedness” that is sought, followed, watched, evidenced, researched, interrogated is internalized. Thus the exaggerated urban metaphor becomes a game through a one-person search against the city and collective memory by the individual.

Publishing House : GSAPP Books
Book Languages : Turkish – English
Translation: Merve Ünsal
ISBN : 978-1-883584-96-2
Book Properties : Coated Paper, 22×23 cm.
Edition Date : 144 pages, 322 Illustrations, 1st edition, January 2014
Design: Melis Bağatır