Liberty Park – In God We Trust is an 8-channel video installation tailored to the venue that deals with the rapid transformation of the urban texture of peripheral global cities like Istanbul. The work was conceptualized and named before Istanbul’s breakneck urban intervention and their social effects came into effect, giving the work a brand new meaning in this context.
The exhibition’s entrance reflects the parody of an immaculate and white exhibition area. A single, vertical video displays Melhus as a Turkish private security guard who mumbles quotes from Hollywood movies, right next to a “SOLD” neon sign. Visitors then proceed to a gritty, former manufacturing area where images are projected on life-sized stand-up figures. These figures and banners act as an iconic tableaux vivant on Turkey’s and Istanbul’s recent urban transformation.
