Erdem Taşdelen
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Site-specific photographic print Demagogues is a provocation to question the authenticity of what is visible in the public realm. Each iteration of the work, whether a billboard or a framed print, is a photograph of the very site it’s displayed in and features the following sentence translated into the local language: If a man tells me something I believe to be an untruth, am I forbidden to do more than congratulate him on the brilliance of his lying? Taken at face value, the image seems to document the presence of this text at the site at some point in time. But in fact what’s displayed is fake, as the text has been inserted into the photograph via digital manipulation. |
![]() Demagogues: 3, AKA artist-run, Saskatoon, 2020. Photo by Derek Sandbeck. ![]() ![]() Demagogues: 5, presented in Burning Glass, Reading Stone, Blackwood Gallery, 2020. Photos by Toni Hafkenscheid. ![]() ![]() Demagogues: 1, Kunst im Fluc, Vienna, 2018. Photos by Alexandra Berlinger. ![]() Demagogues: 6, presented in Two Truths and a Lie, Oakville Galleries, 2021. Photo by Jordyn Stewart. ![]() Demagogues: 2, Müze Evliyagil, Ankara, 2018. Photo by Can Akgümüş. |