“The most concentrated area in the city where we can easily observe collective memory is squares. If you look at their historical development process, you can also easily understand how the city has been transformed. But at the same time you know that squares are formed of personal memories. Squares are urban public spaces where the dwellers of the city gather, share ideas,criticise social happenings… they are the places where you meet for your first dates, or are places for protests. The city square is a concentration point of the public memory… The squares in these areas [Taksim-Karaköy, Büyükdere and Bab-ı Ali/Sirkeci] all had significant roles considering the public history of Istanbul… That is why I came to the point of depicting the memory of the city in photography by choosing a distant location where I can easily see everything together in one particular picture. It is like taking an x-ray of the square.”
—Serkan Taycan
Excerpt from Places of Memory / Hafıza Mekanları (Istanbul: İKSV, 2014): 23

Serkan Taycan
Agoraphobia, 2014
6 archival pigment prints, acrylic face-mount on aluminum composite panels
Each 150 x 185 cm