When Pigs Fly, April 2023

Cansu Cürgen & Avşar Gürpınar

Ambiguous Standards Institute

In the project “When Pigs Fly”, designed by Cansu Cürgen and Avşar Gürpınar for Yanköşe, the Ambiguous Standards of Time appear on LED signs, which we all become closely familiar with from daily life. Time may be measured, expressed, and fragmented, precisely with tools such as chronometers and alarm clocks or more coarsely with hourglasses and egg timers. The relativity of time is not solely within the purview of the sciences but is contingent on cultural context; time can also be manifested through relational perception and cultural connotations. As Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar writes in The Time Regulation Institute, “The clock itself is space, its ticking is time, its setting is human. This shows that time and space coexist with humans.” (translation by the artists) Located in Kabataş, one of the busiest spots in Istanbul, the installation challenges the viewers to question their perception of time. In this bustling crossroad where different modes of transportation intersect and people and vehicles are constantly in a hurry, the daily fragments of time, whose mathematical translation is almost impossible, flicker, drift, flow, intersect, and flash.