And the Iron Curtain Fell on His Library

Description: And the Iron Curtain Fell on His Library is a sound installation that explores the experience of censorship and repression during Turkey’s 1980 military coup. The work centers on the artist’s father’s library, which contained banned books that were buried in secret on the night of the coup. In this piece, the artist and her father read selections from these banned books together. The recording of their reading was then buried beneath soil in a gallery, inviting the audience to lie down on the earth and listen to the voices silenced by the regime. The installation was activated through an endurance performance titled If You Listen, I’ll Remember.

Materials: Red Cedar Wood, 2 x 8inch woofers, 10 meters speaker wire, Sony STR-DN850 receiver, media player, soil. Sound: readings of selected text.

Image Description: Sound installation views, ‘Hande Sever: And the Iron Curtain Fell on His Library’, New Wight Gallery, 2017. Photo: Aleksey Kondratyev