MORS / Audiovisual Performance by Kara

AWL MAG
Aug 28, 2024
4 min read

Updated: Aug 29, 2024

Kara will perform at the Şölen Gathering organized by Okul Kendini Bil and Petarya from September 12-15 in Fethiye Yanıklar Pastoral Valley. Merve Purde will accompany Kara in this performance.

MORS / Audiovisual Performance by Kara

Through my ability to reverse, I realized how irrevocably the universe operates at the moment I first listened to Berio's Visage. The contemporary composer Luciano Berio took an opera vocal tape, cut it at certain points, and reassembled it into a collage. The original record was completely transformed, making it the first sound collage in history.

In some of my works, I employ this technique. These vocal sounds are not a universal language. For instance, I record in Turkish. Later, it is reversed to take on a certain intonation. After listening to Berio's Visage, at the age of 19, I picked up a glass and dropped it on the floor. Near the spot where I dropped it, I placed a Mini Disc (MD) microphone and recorded the breaking sound onto the MD. I reversed the recording, fast-forwarded it, and played it back and forth repeatedly. There, the glass had shattered, but its sound before falling and its sound after the break was unified in my ear. In this way, reverse is like magic to the ear. For example, when listening to a recording of a lost loved one, you feel their presence even when they are not speaking, although they are no longer alive.

This was an extraordinary experience for me at that time. The first and most helpful thought in my journey to follow my shadow was that I could go back. If there was no reverse in this world, it meant parallel time existed. I had lived the opposite before. Here, there was death; shadow was infinite. The darkness was a lightless void that never faded. At first glance, darkness had no qualities except for being dark. This story is about my grandmother, Light. I am her grandchild. But she does not interfere. If you have set your mind to move toward the shadow, you are alone.

Then we recorded videos. The images could also be examined clearly in reverse. We multiplied these encouraging watches. We wrote, drew, tore, made noise, spoke, and remained silent; all was distorted but could return. The Mini Disc and video camera were truly miraculous in terms of reversal. The universe was no longer engaged in reversing what we could directly perceive as reality. We were already certain of this. I had become obsessed with this reverse matter; I didn’t know how it would turn out, but I was looking for what to do to try. Because the universe had begun to speak with us through recording technologies. It was during those days that an offer for an exhibition came. Mors first took place in the mixed exhibition named "Acid and Dust" in İzmir (2005).

Mors; is a prototype of a parallel time, an intimate room experience of luminous darkness. When in darkness, it is luminous; you see shadows in the world, i.e., when you are in front of the curtain. My dear curtain allowed us to eliminate almost all of our earthly characteristics, and my grandmother (Light) captured our images and recordings from within the projector, shining with sinusoidal luminescence, behind the curtain just like an illusionist (within the tradition of village shadow play, the imaginary curtain is referred to as the “hayal perdesi,” and those who play with puppets are called “hayalbaz,” meaning those who create illusions; my grandmother becomes the candle that plays with the illusion in the shadow of the illusionist). Our curiosity was different from mere illusion; we were friends with the unreal. For years, we worked, creating and breaking, reversing everything. Through art in perfect freedom. Technology became our guide; without my grandmother (Light), the shadow would not accept its dark essence.

One of the few recorded performances is Mors's Industrial Tasavvuf video performance (2012). In this video, I read verses from Dedecko (a compilation of Sufi literature). It was significant and meaningful for me to read and record the love of my ancestors. Yet the shadow revealed itself. I reversed the entire recorded text. Reversal erases all meanings. It cleanses whatever was embedded through language and existence, according to its own logic. You may feel again, but you cannot dualize. Duality is out of the question. It stalks incessantly like a trap that breaks—this is reverse.

In our age, the experimental genre has a revolutionary characteristic that distinguishes itself (it should be without a predecessor; there is no imitation or admiration for what has come before, it is not a previous version of anything). This is not just a thought; it is a mode of behavior. In fact, it is a milestone in its tradition—there is no hierarchy between humans and all other living and non-living beings, no profit motive, no religious belief, no separation between