Ouroboro
Ouroboro, Karsi Art Gallery, Istanbul, 2007
Installation view
Ouroboro (in collaboration with Peter Höll)
The Snake bites its own tail. While the circular table surface turns, the model train moving forward (!) on the installed railways goes in the opposite direction. The head follows the tail, always ready to bite. Ouroboro detains its visitor with the expectation of a coming action. However, that action never takes place.
Choosing the symbol of modern life, industrial society and “progress” as the actor of the unrealized action is not in vain. The change that doesn’t take place is indeed the very promise of modernity; the new always renewing itself. Playing with the idea of circular time Ouroboro wants to poke its visitor about the question of recurring history. That’s why its humour is detaining, ironic and pessimistic. After all, the progress promised by the modern system is not possible in its essence.
Övül Durmusoglu