The project developed for the Pavilion of Turkey is titled as “Lapses”.  A lapse in the linear and continuous flow of time implies either a sense of disorientation or a disconnection with our personal surroundings. Only by recognizing (après coup) such a lapse do we realize our ability to restructure memory in the space and time continuum through an uninterrupted flow, with afterimages that recur by narrations and our senses. This is a subjective act. However, in societies dependent on the credibility of everyday media, huge visual archives operate as the collective memory.

In this context, "Lapses" consists of projects that demonstrate how the perception of "occurring events" can vary and lead to differing narrations of history because of lapses in collective memory - which is composed both by the media and by other surrounding environmental data. The project will be realized through the works of two artists: Banu Cennetoglu's "CATALOG 2009", and Ahmet Ögüt's "Exploded City". Both projects reveal the possibility for diverse memory formations – or diverse narratives - conceivable through lapses.

The project is accompanied by a book series of three volumes: the first volume is on the conceptual framework, the process and the spatial design; the second volume functions as the source, inspiration, reference for the entire project, consisting of philosophical articles; and the third volume discuses “lapses” through four case studies.

Basak Senova