Bünyamin Atan

Black Box

The first non-architectural piece exhibited by Bünyamin Atan, “Black Box” is a simulated persuasion room stylized and reshaped with various symbols. The experience of the room now requires an observation from outside, witnessing it in various perspectives through two narrow windows to the extent that’s allowed to the viewer.

The piece demonstrates the main physical elements of a real persuasion room with a megaphone representing the powerful, and pieces of metal foil scattered around the room with the sound coming out of the megaphone representing the person whose presence in the room is obligatory. The flashing light of the recorder, overlooked and remembered less over time, is enlarged to a massive degree, turning into a giant red patch of light.

Atan describes his installation as follows: “Black box” brings back the psychological violence experienced inside persuasion rooms. The piece re-examines the rooms, explores their time and space and creates a representation which shows the attitude and perception of people in those rooms. On one side are those who impose a singular look on everybody, on the other side are those who preserve their looks due to religious concerns…”