“Today is Sun/Monday”, video 2005, 6:20”

Situated at the downtown of Ankara, The Maltepe Market was initially called the Russian Bazaar as after the collapse of the “Soviet Union”, in the early 1990’s travelers coming from ex-communist countries would sell here their belongings and objects they had brought in their suitcase. Afterwards, this was transformed into the “Maltepe Market” (the name of the quarter) where all sorts of merchandise were to be sold without invoice and VAT under the management of local tradesman.

Gradually, another fruit and vegetable bazaar (hawkers’ market) was to take place on Mondays only, located on the same place. That is why, The Maltepe Market entirely consist of wheeled-portable stands. From Sunday night onward, “the pullers” carry the stands to the nearby auto part to make place to the fruits and vegetable bazaar by pulling and pushing the stands/trolleys.

“We Speak Through The Sound of Junks” 2006, video, 7:25”

The video demonstrates several workers who are dealing with junks-scraps in a small workshop named “Sahinler Metal” in Ankara. A container, which we see sometimes and being used by these workers, in this video, averages 60 kg large block from each material a day. The blocks later on are transported to the main factory in İstanbul from Ankara in order to be used in recycling. That is why the workshop was fairly noisy all day long and the workers Recep, Turan and Duran had been working for ten years in this small workshop and speaking through the sound of junks. What was astonishing that the worker were reminding us that as if they were struggling with the junks, with regard to their production style, as some protagonists like Cezar, Warhol did. In this sense, it did not seemed strange to perceive the enviroment and the workers like an artist’s studio.

According to Sahinler Metal’s information (junk-iron dealer), the purchase prices of each item per kg are following:

Copper: 9 TRY (New Turkish Lira)

Brasses: 6 TRY

Aluminum: 2.5 TRY

Zinc: 4TRY

Lead: 1 TRY

Chromium: 1.50 TRY

Tin cups: 1.80 TRY

Scraps: 0.20 TRY