Somewhere Between Destruction and Construction

The Canal Istanbul Project has been discussed and come to the fore many times since it was announced to the public in 2011. Although the construction of the project, which still remains uncertain over time, has not yet begun, the changes around its route and the atmosphere created by the uncertain situation can be seen and felt. This alternative waterway, planned to pass through the water basins, villages, agricultural lands and forests in the west of Istanbul, contains many different factors when examined in terms of the size of the project and its effects on the environment. Somewhere Between Destruction and Construction questions how a structure planned to be built, a possibility for the future, affects and shapes the present. It travels along the route of a non-existent waterway and presents the current situation of the region to the audience from an outside perspective. It aims to tell the reflections of long-lasting uncertainty with an intuitive language and focuses on the social and spatial transformations in the surrounding area. It travels around a canal that has not yet been built, and invites the audience to this route, allowing them to get an idea of ​​how a project that will perhaps never be built - a ghostly entity - has already left its mark. In an environment where the positive and negative results of the canal are still being discussed but no conclusion has been reached, it invites us to take a break from the ongoing political and economic discussions and look at the changing landscapes of the region. In a city like Istanbul, where everything is rapidly changing, deteriorating or being renewed, where we may be looking at a landscape for the last time at any moment, this study aims to keep a visual record of the current situation and to offer an alternative perspective on the socio-political history of this process in the future.