Betül Aksuinterrogation room
2022
Installation
390 × 123 cm
Part of officialese series, produced at School of Commons residency
The work explores how official language shapes public space, regulates identity, and produces systemic violence. It moves between personal narrative and institutional experience, from walking along İstiklal Avenue to conversations with the UK border police. Citations from writers such as Judith Butler, Olivia Laing, and Audre Lorde appear alongside personal notes and family histories that reflect on displacement, belonging, and the pressure to conform.
The title refers to spaces where people are questioned, watched, and evaluated. It speaks to the way bureaucratic systems demand clarity while denying complexity. The installation speaks from the position of someone expected to explain, translate, justify, and prove themselves.