Fugue

“Fugue is a poetic yet tragic reflection on the experience of being an Armenian artist in Turkey, where memory and identity are under constant threat of erasure. Conceptually anchored in the musical term “fugue”—from the Latin fugere (to flee) and fuguare (to chase) — the four-channel video installation in which a group, perhaps a family, moves in a repetitive loop, avoiding a ball they never engage with. The ball becomes a metaphor for historical accountability and collective responsibility, set in motion by unseen forces. This systemic evasion reflects a society where the rules are written and rewritten by those in power, and crimes are rendered ambiguous by design.”

Jury Statement

The video installation Fugue centers on the performance of perpetration and the confrontation with collective traumas that have remained unaddressed to this day. It takes its name from “fugue” — a polyphonic form in classical music derived from Latin, meaning “escape”, and characterized by repetition. This structure becomes a fundamental compositional principle within the work, both visually and sonically.

In the installation, the performance of perpetration—marked by the evasion of responsibility and the continual reproduction of the self through denial—is conveyed through the players game of dodgeball. In this context, the ball becomes a metaphor for guilt, denial, and the transfer of responsibility. The figures appear locked in a persistent effort to reject accountability, repeating the same stance across different spatial and temporal possibilities.

Each video channel consists of visuals and sound that share a common point of departure, but unfold at different times. This editing strategy refers both to the layered nature of the fugue structure and the temporal continuity of collective traumas, ultimately generating a form of testimony that becomes increasingly difficult to endure.

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Credits

This project was realized in 2023 with the support of the Ali Ismail Korkmaz Foundation’s Young Artist Fund.

Thanks to:

Antranik Bakırcıoğlu, Burak Kaçi, Elif Yenigün, Hilal Baki, Kristin Açıkgöz, Mahir Geçikligün, Sibil Arsenyan, Tara Demircioğlu, Tarık Oruç, Yeğya Akgün & Miran Manukyan

The presentation of the work is funded by State of the ART(ist), a collaboration between the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ars Electronica.