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Year: 2015
Type: Film, Architectural Fiction
Project Team:
Neyran Turan, Mete Sonmez, William Trotty, Anastasia Yee, Melis Ugurlu.
Selected feature/review: Designboom
STRAIT is a geographic fiction. It is a silent film illustrated through a series of architectural drawings. The film tells the story of the biggest fictional oil tanker in the world getting stuck in the Bosphorus Strait. It was prepared as part of our recent STRAIT installation, which was on view at the SALT Beyoğlu Gallery (Istanbul) during May-August 2015.
The film depicts an instance in 2025 when Oilella, the biggest fictional oil tanker in the world, gets stuck in the Bosphorus. This incident not only blocks the passageway forever but also causes the Bosphorus to be transformed into a new land of urban development. In the story, while some structures on the Bosphorus turn into touristic destinations depicting archaeology of an oil-shipping landscape, new developments take advantage of this rapidly urbanizing land. For new construction, building codes get created by taking Oilella as a guideline for the most historical structure, and monuments get built to commemorate previous oil spills on the spots where they happened. Finally, the object of the STRAIT installation is presented as one of those monuments built to commemorate the original shorelines that dissolved after the infill.