Hakan Savaş Mican

The motto of Atatürk’s ultra-modernist ideology that established the Turkish Republic was to “reach the level of contemporary civilisations” and it was the dream that the local industry would be capable of producing its own Turkish automobiles that became the symbolic goal along this route. Today, the governing ideology in Turkey is at odds with the foundational principles of the Republic but the obsession with Turkish cars has not faded. Mican’s work looks at these continuities, not only through the motif of the automobile but also through a focus on historical crimes buried deeply below the official narratives.

The project originates from an initial production that took place at Ballhaus Naunynstraße in the frame of § 301 - Die beleidigte Nation realised by Kultursprünge e.V.