THE GOLDEN CAGE, 2022

Research, Installation, Performace

The Golden Cage (2022) is an installation based on the northern bald ibis (a.k.a “kelaynak” in Turkish), the most endangered migratory bird in the Middle East. When Palmyra fell to ISIS, the kelaynak colony, which migrates from Northeast Africa to Birecik (a small town near the Turkish-Syrian border), faced total extinction. In March 2016, the Birecik Kelaynak Reproduction Center decided not to release the birds from the confinement cages to protect them—the center has been keeping a semi-wild population since the late 1970s. The Golden Cage refers to a set of confinements amidst the never-ending catastrophes in the region; it is a poetic examination of artifacts, ruins, water bodies, and organisms spread across a highly nationalized terrain. As the embodied symbol of the state, the cage is enacted through a text translated into multiple languages to create new associations about borders, migrations, entrapments, and untranslatability.

AGA KHAN MUSEUM, TORONTO
Curated by Michael Chagnon
June 11–November 13, 2022
1st Floor Exhibition Gallery
https://www.agakhanmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-golden-cage

MOUSONTURM, FRANKFURT
Bodies, un-protected Forum
Curated by Sandra Noeth and Anna Wagner
https://www.mousonturm.de/en/festivals/bodies-un-protected-teil-2-forum-zu-koerper-kunst-und-schutz/

PERFORMERS:
Isaak Kudaschov,
Ozan Koparan,
Dorsey Bushnell,
Lussineh Schahramanyan,
Sarya Atac,
Fady Merey.

EXHIBITION AT AGA KHAN MUSEUM, TORONTO

For the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto  immersive exhibition, I worked on a five-channel video installation with sound, text, and artifacts. The Golden Cage explores the impact of human intervention on the life of one of the most endangered bird species across the highly nationalized terrain of the Turkish-Syrian border. The Golden Cage is a part of the Museum’s Birds rotation — a deep dive into the Museum’s Permanent Collection focusing on the fascinating sights and stories of the avian world and the art they’ve inspired throughout history.

PERFORMANCE &  EXHIBITION AT MOUSONTURM, FRANKFURT

For this iteration of the Golden Cage project, besides the installation of a two-channel video installation and artifacts, a script was performed in Arabic, Armenian, English, German, Kurdish, and Turkish by amateur actors composed of mostly migrants during the exhibition.

The Golden Cage is about storytelling; as the embodied symbol of the State, the cage ( or, a refugee camp) is enacted through an epic text. Since the birds cannot speak, the State tells the story of the bird to the bird while creating a series of contradictory associations about borders, the nation-state, migrations, entrapments, and untranslatability. The story will be performed in Arabic, Armenian, English, German, Kurdish, and Turkish, and the flow occasionally breaks down with untranslatable sounds.

For the exhibition booklet, an experimental text written by Jason Pine, titled “Ottoman Ibis.”
The catalog introduction essay is written by Sandra Noeth.