Big Biedermeier Brother

As the Napoleonic wars left Europe in political disorder the Congress of Vienna drew plans for political restoration of Europe (in effect between 1815 and 1848). As a consequence public life was highly controlled by censorship prompting people to concentrate on the domestic and the non-political. Aestheticly the glorious and militaristic Empire Style made way for a domestic and bourgeois (floral) style, later named Biedemeier, ironically after the pseudonyme of a parodist of the time.

In 1948 George Orwell penned down his fears for a controlled society. Partly because of Orwell's warnings in the year 1984 it was still unthinkable that daily life would be monitored 24 hours a day. Meanwhile nobody takes any notice of CCTV and video surveillance anymore, accepting computer monitoring, biometric identification archives and GPS-tracking as a fact of life.

In Burçak Bingöl's series of sculptures titled Günebakan [F(ol)lower] closed circuit surveilance cameras are recreated as ceramic ornaments with floral decorations. They depict nicely the comatose bourgeois acceptance of 'Big Brother'-society.


Burçak Bingöl, 'Günebakan [F(ol)lower] III' (2011)


Burçak Bingöl, 'Günebakan [F(ol)lower] II' (2011)


Burçak Bingöl, 'Günebakan [F(ol)lower] I' (2011)

Showing until 14/06/2011 at Cda Projects in Istanbul.