Gerco Lindeboom

Tur Abdin 2005

The Southeast of Turkey is an area with its own and unique history.
The area of Tur Abdin is characterized by beautiful landscapes, friendly people and a history where one literally and figurative stumbles upon.
Left churches and villages from different periods used throughout the rich history are everywhere to be found.
In the recent past the area was the stage of the Kurdish armed resistance and once the original place of residence for the Suryoye, the Christian community.
Although the area has been relative quiet for one and a half year our visit was primarily characterized by observation; not only did the entire population of certain cities knew we were there, also the military and police knew where to find some participants in backrooms of coffeehouses to check their visa.
The police was everywhere, many crossroads were surveyed by armored cars and clearly visible are the military bases on the hilltops in the surroundings, monitoring the area.

Both videos are a reaction on the same experience, but contextualized in two different ways. The ‘Monitoring’ video loops 4 registrations of different situations in a visual way which connects to security cams. This video was also exhibited on a monitor next to actual security cams of that location.
For the ‘Priest’ I used a much looser form; I tried to connect to a serious theme in a disarming way.

Priest (web version)

Monitoring (web version)

Gerco Lindenboom

2005



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