“Oriental Panopticon: Deep State Nightclub” 2020
White Toros* car with Infinity Mirror windows with led lights. Life-size.
*White Toros: Renault/Toros brand black windowed white cars which were used for surveillance and kidnaping by secret sevices during the 1990’s in Turkey.
The White Toros car is one of the vehicles that started to be used in the 90s when the Government changed its strategy within the scope of the Counter-Terrorism. The black glasses of the White Toros, like the panopticon, allowed the watcher inside to observe without being seen from the outside. The people around would especially avoid eye contact with these vehicles, pretending that these vehicles were not there and trying to continue their routine (lawful) lives. This may correspond to the autocontrol mechanism of the panopticon on individuals.
Since the inside is not visible, it is not known who and how many people are, and when it is known, these vehicles arouse the feeling of dehumanization, as they are the harbinger of inhuman actions. Also, when this -without license plate-is combined with the abstraction of the state, which is the abstract concept represented by vehicles and persons, it invites a darker and deeper dehumanization.
The White Toros is a highly functional tool that could contain the features of many other surveillance and control mechanisms. These tools were literally turning into a complex by performing operations such as surveillance, transmitting information to the center, taking action in line with the data processed from the center, identifying the criminals, interrogating, applying criminal proceedings and removing the corpse.
These vehicles had almost turned into a city monster by creating legends in the region that did look like bad mythological characters. When you encounter these tools, if you cannot disappear, you need to tidy up your actions. You need to be even less conspicuous than a normal, ordinary citizen. If there is a White Toros in a place, someone is either being watched or about to be taken, if you are sure that you are not the person being watched, you should not communicate with as few people as possible, or even with anyone if possible, because you can enter that pot.
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