Beeline  2014

Looking out of the windows of the exhibition space on Samos, one sees the Turkish mainland. Aladağ brings the exact distance in metres from the building to the Turkish coast into the gallery as fishing rope wound onto wooden reels. The reels are presented as chairs, allowing visitors to sit on the actual distance in metres and look out over the perceived distance to Turkey. Here, Aladağ approaches the border-specific problem of measurement and the question of distance. While the length of a borderline consists of a single, measurable unit, its width is not specified. It is no more than an immaterial, cartographic mark. Often it is the perceived social and cultural distance that defines the imagined amplitude of the divide.

(text by Nico Anklam)