Eleni Kamma shows work in the exhibition New Acquisitions (2014-2017) of the EMST Collection. The work Play it, Emin: Walking along the Russian Monument at Ayastefanosuses is acquired by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST). EMST presents 39 new acquisitions by 33 artists that were included in the Museum’s collection from 2014 to 2017.
Play it, Emin: Walking along the Russian Monument at Ayastefanosuses
Two channel HD video projection, 14min 19 sec, color, stereo sound, NL, 2014
The work Play it, Emin: Walking along the Russian Monument at Ayastefanos uses serves as a point of departure for the actual historical event which signified the official start of national cinema in Turkey in 1914 and whose filmic documentation is lost. Kamma commissioned Karagoz master Emin Senyer to animate the demolition act of the non-preserved film, based on the following existing information-material; three photos documenting the demolition and a description of the event by two different sources; the lieutenant-demolisher’s personal memoirs and newspapers’ announcements. On the left screen, the camera moves along the actual location (Florya, Istanbul suburb) where the destruction of the monument took place 100 years ago. On the right screen, the process of the building up and the rehearsal of Emin Senyer’s shadow theater reconstruction of the demolition act takes place.