Güneş Cinema, 2021
Art Intervention
Diren Demir
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Located on Kürkçübaşı Külhani Street in Aksaray, Güneş Cinema had been publicly screening erotic films from the very opening date. The seats of Güneş Cinema had been used by gay men as a place for sex work and cruising. As a consequence of the raid on September 7, 2008, of the police vice department upon receiving notice about the homosexual affairs taking place in the cinema theatre, those gay men who were having sexual intercourse at that moment and the cinema workers were arrested (29 in total) after the police “forced to suddenly turn the lights on”. The police teams seized erotic films, and the cinema was shut down. After the erasure of the territorial memory of Güneş Cinema, the place turned into a heterosexistically recoded billiards-and-hookah cafe called As Cafe. Diren intervenes in this place by means of shimmering/exaggerated colors and tools in their “Güneş Cinema” artwork. By displaying a “conspicuous” expression of the texture and atmosphere of the “fluid” place that is about to be forgotten under the forced memory destruction, Diren invites us to get to know the conservative side of Aksaray and the location of Güneş Cinema, Kürkçübaşı Külhani Street, in all honesty.
Diren Demir 