I Have a Dream of a Different Army was one of two pieces made during a two-week residency in Sinop, alongside the a short essay film, Thunderstorm on a Clear, Bright Day. Both works inhabited the central stairwell of the prison’s children’s wing. Following a study of the prison’s architecture, the visual relationships between its inside and out, interviews with people who had been imprisoned there in during the 1980 military coup d’état, which targeted intellectuals and student activists, and a visit to the prison that has since replaced it.

“I Have a Dream of a Different Army” included a ceiling projection of sky projected up from the floor, which appeared to break open the ceiling. This view of the sky and the edges of ruin that frame it were found in an older section of the prison whose palimpsest layers begin with the ancient prison and fortress, onto which this most recent prison had been built. Three speakers were set into the walls along the staircase playing interviews and a poem by people imprisoned during the coup. The result was a way of allowing the architecture to speak and undo itself.

Link to: Thunderstorm on a Clear, Bright Day