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Virtual Reality / Body / Physical Space / Choreography / Fictional Reality / Sci-Fi / Folded Space / Communication / Language / World Wide Web / Capitalism Located on Cockatoo Island, the Embassy of the Real poses a question to which this Biennale repeatedly returns: if each era has a different view of reality, then what is ours? Using a variety of means, artists included at this venue explore a range of ideas, from how these increasingly digitised times have shaped and altered our sense of perception, to
the blurring of virtual and physical space. Alongside those who address the digital realm, whether explicitly or not, a number of artists also return to the physicality of the human body, and to the weightedness that comes with being and moving in the world. Nilbar Güres'
Open Phone Booth, 2011 (pictured above) examines the politics of uneven distribution of technology and infrastructure in a globally connected world. The locus of the work is a small village in the Eastern Anatolian region of Bingöl, Turkey; birthplace of the artist’s father. An area between Kurdistan and the Republic of Turkey that has been continually plagued by conflict, the residents of this remote mountain village belong to an ethnic religious minority who suffer systematic discrimination by the state. The antiquated switchboard that once connected the village land lines to the outside world was disabled in the 1980s due to clashes between the Turkish military and Kurdish rebels. To this day the
connection has never been reestablished. This lack of a means to communicate with the outside world forms the basis for Güres’ investigation. Many of the residents have mobile phones, but as their homes do not fall within a reception area they are unable to use them unless they trek out of the valley to a high point in the surrounding mountains. In
Open Phone Booth, Güres provides the viewer with a series of vignettes through which they are able to experience an alternate reality, sharing in the journey of the villagers as they wander the rugged mountain paths throughout the seasons, searching for a way to connect with the outside world. We are privy to moments of happiness, frustration, sadness and yearning as they speak to friends, relatives and loved ones who have moved far away. Other artists featured at Cockatoo Island include: Korakrit Arunanondchai, Lee Bul, William Forsythe, Chiharu Shiota, and Justene Williams. Find out more
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