Adana Archaeology Museum 

Adana (TR) 

2018

I Searched For the Sun, to Look For More Light, I Went Far Too Deep, Ended Up in a Fight, finds its origin in a local news from Adana (2017), reporting a man shooting at the sun in a spontaneous attempt to reduce hot summer temperatures. After few episodes like this a public notice was released by the mayor of the city, making this activity illegal. Driven by the poetic potential of this story, that brings together the ordinary of the everyday and mythological references, the work  spans the symbolic and pragmatic role that sun plays in this area of the Mediterranean. Through an ongoing negotiation between physical encounters and ancient rituals an archive of stories, symbols and material elements produced by human activities in Adana was compiled. Conceived as a condensed accumulation of subjective statuses, the work consists of a rudimental sundial that, pointing at the sky, projects a shadow on a set of fragmented objects. Through a slow process, leftovers from CNC cut shop signs, leather discarded by shoemakers and test pieces coming from local woodcarving artisans have been subtly modified, becoming vehicles for past myths and customs related to the sun. The work, that functions as a time based installation, includes also five texts that, in form of short stories, are meant to be read at five different moments of the day, when the shadow reaches a specific element of the composition.