74 HALIL ALTINDERE AT MOMA PS1 Damla Koksalan Anger can be heard before entering the room. A gallery on the second floor of MoMA PS1 is exhibiting a one-screen video that illuminates the entire room. I sit down on the cold floor across the shifting images, keeping my distance from the screen—timid to get any closer to the angry faces I see in the video. Three young men run through a pedestrian bridge made of bricks; a romantically historic view contrasted by their harsh words. A Turkish rap song with a catchy melody reveals the young performers’ frustration with the government-inflicted gentrification of their neighborhood, Sulukule. The area is part of a historic district of Istanbul, and is mostly occupied by Romani communities. The harsh lyrics are piercing, the cinematography jumps between close-ups and panoramic shots. I realize I have been unconsciously keeping with the rhythm. Simultaneous to my foot tapping, a police officer onscreen explodes into flames. The fire surrounding his body is shown in slow motion while he runs for his life. He collapses soon after. I walked into the gallery in the middle of the video, but it captured me from the first moment. The work successfully transmits the ideology behind it—that of impotent rage in the face of cultural erasure—regardless of the point at which you enter its world. “We pissed on the foundation of the newly built blocks,” reads the subtitles as a young man raps with two of his comrades at his side. They are leaning towards the camera, closing in on us, as I, an outsider to their problems, direct my sympathy toward them. Their heads turn to the ground with sadness as they continue to rap, “Sulukule now belongs to bourgeoisie.” The artist, Halil Altindere, documents and gives the locals of the Romani community a voice through his dark work, Wonderland (2013), a music video for a rap song by the hip-hop group Tahribad-i Isyan (Rebellion to Destruction). A prominent figure in the contemporary Turkish art scene since the mid-1990s, Altindere’s work focuses on contemporary issues of belonging, belief and alienation. The music video comes to an end when the rappers are shot repeatedly in the torso by the police. They keep on singing as blood slowly bubbles and pours from their wounds. After the end credits, I did not move from where I sat down. With several other viewers, I watched the nine-minute video from start to end numerous times. A realization occurred when I heard a young man in the video, who had handcuffed himself to a construction vehicle, rap the words, “You say you understand the worries so give me an answer.” I left the exhibition room with a question on my mind: can this artwork actually incite action from Right: Installation view. Image courtesy of the author. Opposite page: Halil Altindere. Wonderland. 2013. HD video: color/sound. Courtesy the artist and Pilot Galeri, Istanbul. its passive viewers? Because surely, the work desires something more than simply the tap of one’s foot. Altindere’s work focuses on contemporary issues of belonging, belief, and alienation. 75