The Last 148 Days
HD Video, 40″
2020—2021
During 2020 and 2021, discussions around the "New Normal" largely revolved around the financial consequences of the post-Covid-19 era. In Turkey, Istanbul was among the most affected cities, where the economic downturn became increasingly visible in everyday life. The lack of maintenance and deep-seated infrastructural issues transformed the cityscape into a decayed urban environment. Closed shops, neglected streets, and a growing sense of economic hardship shaped a visual landscape of decline—one that felt both unsettling and strangely static.
Last 148 Days is a frame-based video work composed of 296 photographs taken during those two years. Rather than a continuous motion picture, it builds a fragmented visual rhythm, where each still acts as both an independent record and part of a larger sequence. The work does not follow a traditional narrative but instead creates a cumulative effect, echoing the repetitive and drawn-out nature of the crisis. By assembling these static moments into a structured timeline, the work highlights the tension between movement and stagnation—an essential characteristic of the period it captures. The intervals between frames mirror the uncertainties of daily life at the time, where change was slow, and each passing day seemed indistinguishable from the last. In this way, the video operates less as a linear story and more as an evolving archive of urban atrophy.
The work was screened as part of "Yapçak Bi’ Şey Yok!", an exhibition held in conjunction with SENKRON: Synchronized Video Exhibitions. The event took place between April 16-30, 2021, in Darağaç, İzmir, a neighborhood known for its independent art collective. By situating the work within this context, the exhibition provided a space for reflecting on how crisis manifests visually, leaving traces not just in personal memory but also in the very fabric of the city itself.
