Gesichte

Whether because of his background in architecture or just for the reason that he lives in a city, Can Altay writes on his most recent works, he is in any case interested in how urban space attains meaning and how this meaning is created via uses that are not predictable through the architecture. His method is that of strolling, or rather restlessly rambling through the territories that are created by his own society, i.e. his class and the social sphere he belongs to. His concern is not to discover what is foreign and unknown, but rather the boundaries between places that originated from the needs of his own collective and other systems and their communities.

There are indications of that which does not appear in the space defining itself as public – the streets of the bourgeois city. Can Altay documents these indications in different ways, in photos, videos and diaries. The gaze exhibited here is not scientific, but rather the gaze of someone who is surprised at the potentiality of his own desire and who is not sure of his intentions.