CANAN TOLON "LIMBO"

Limbo, a new large-scale installation by Canan Tolon, commissioned by Contemporary Istanbul Foundation

“Life is built on a system of cycles, all those who live know this. We are born and die, caught in a repetitive pattern, in the rhythm of years, seasons, days. Knowing this, we live with the expectations of this information and the fear of these expectations. Despite knowing all this, we act with the instinct of avoiding repetitions. We do not want to do the same things, hear, see and feel the same things every day, and we struggle to escape from being trapped in this cycle. This power enables us to erode our rigid limited framework of life, to get out of that cage, to make us forget our convictions and live. Play is also the only activity that helps us forget… it distracts us to the point of callousness. Fişekhane, like all words in Turkish ending with “hane”—such as prison (hapishane), hospital (hastane), factory (imalathane), etc., these places most often house all sorts of repetitive activities. I installed Limbo—its title defining a state of suspense—to remind us how often we get caught in dangerously attractive games in order to break away from  our daily repetitive chores, while ignoring too quickly and often destroying the delicate repetitive cycle of our natural surroundings.”—Canan Tolon