The Golden Apple of Istanbul is a site-specific project unfolding through photography and a performative gesture. It explores how symbols travel through cities, histories, and bodies, and how meaning shifts when an object moves from being held to being released.
A real apple, coated in gold paint, appears across historical and everyday locations in Istanbul. Photographed against the textures of the city (streets, bridges, water, architecture), it becomes both an object and a mirror, reflecting ideas of power, desire, value, and transience.
Photographic exploration
The first stage consists of a series of photographs made across different parts of the city. The golden apple is carried, held, placed, and framed within Istanbul’s layered urban landscape. Neither staged nor theatrical, these images register quiet encounters between the object and the city, moments of pause, attention, and subtle displacement.
The apple functions here as a wandering symbol. Once associated with conquest, imperial ambition, and ultimate reward, it is reintroduced into everyday space as fragile, temporary, and exposed to weather, touch, and time.
Performative gesture
The photographic sequence culminates in a simple action. From the Galata Bridge, the golden apple is released into the Golden Horn.
This gesture transforms the apple from an image into an event. No longer possessed or displayed, it becomes an offering to the water, to the city, to history itself. Floating briefly among fishermen, boats, and passing gulls, the apple drifts without destination.
The act was carried out privately, without announcement, during a period of heightened artistic activity in the city, remaining outside any official framework. Passersby became incidental witnesses rather than an audience, encountering the action without explanation.
Conceptual context
Historically, Istanbul has been described as the “Golden Apple of the World”, a metaphor for power, desire, and the ultimate prize of empire. By releasing the apple into the Golden Horn, the project gently dismantles this image, shifting it from possession to passage, from monument to movement.
The golden apple ceases to function as a trophy. Instead, it becomes a message without an addressee, a symbol set free and allowed to drift, disappear, or transform.
Process and documentation
The project is documented through photography, preparatory images, and a series of photographs from the performative action. Video documentation will be added as an extension of the work. Together, these materials form a narrative that exists between image, gesture, and memory.
What remains is not the object itself, but the trace of its journey, a fleeting intervention connecting city and artist, myth and everyday life, holding and letting go.
Golden Apples is a series of site-specific projects exploring transformation, ritual, and perception. Through subtle gestures, objects, and photography, ordinary spaces are turned into stages for ephemeral interventions.
2025 The Golden Apple of Istanbul2025 Aranyalmás Rácalmás2024 An Offering to the Sphinx
The golden apple—symbol of desire, knowledge, and exchange—becomes a catalyst for attention and meaning. Each episode engages the environment, participants, and the artist, creating fleeting narratives that exist in memory and image.
The series works as a conceptual principle, allowing the idea of “golden apples” to unfold across locations and forms, while each episode remains unique.
Anatomy of Cities explores the city as a living organism. Through listening, color, memory, and movement, each project acts as a sensory instrument, tuning attention and inviting participants to notice what usually goes unseen.
The city becomes a field of subtle discoveries, where perception itself is the medium and every encounter opens a new layer of urban life.
Shoot for ColorPanGorMonium
If PanGorMonium tunes attention through inner listening, Shoot for Color tunes the eye and body through color, texture, and light. Together, these approaches explore different ways of experiencing the city.
Published in “Yugra / Real Estate” Magazine, Issue 3, May 2008 Section: Architectural Impressions. Personal Dimension By Marina Razheva and Dmitry Razhev Photography by the authors
This early publication captures one of our first joint reflections on space, presence, and the surreal logic of landscapes. The article, though significantly edited and abridged by the publisher, offers a glimpse into the layered perception of place that would later evolve into our method of Betweenness. Cappadocia’s dreamlike terrain, full of voids, traces, and transformations prompted a personal and poetic response that blurred the lines between architecture, memory, and myth. This was one of our first attempts to “write from inside the landscape,” sensing the echoes beneath the surface.
R² is a collaboration between a researcher and an artist. We have been traveling together for 36 years — through both the physical and virtual worlds.
Along the way, we seek what slips through the cracks of simplified reality — what escapes direct sight but lingers in textures, shadows, the trembling of air, the persistence of echoes. We are drawn to traces of absence, moments of incompleteness, and quiet suggestion.
When observing natural or human-made environments — landscapes, buildings, structures — we often sense a kind of unfinishedness. These places feel like scattered fragments of a hologram, inviting us to complete the visible with a ghostly, multidimensional presence. Not through imagination alone, but through deep attention.
Sometimes this leads to artistic actions, temporary installations, or the uncovering of a message — a riddle embedded in the object itself.
We call this approach Revealed Realism — a practice in which reality is not replaced, but extended. This is not mystification. This is a method of attentiveness.
During travel, there are moments when traditional descriptions fail to convey the full complexity and strangeness of a place. Emerging paradoxes and inconsistencies create a sense of inner dissonance, prompting a search for ways to harmonize one’s perception of the environment.
By turning to historical sources and engaging with metacultural models, we can construct a hypothetical image that complements and clarifies the mysterious aspects of the observed reality. This approach allows for a deeper understanding of a place and helps restore internal coherence in our perception.
This exhibition does not take place inside a gallery. It begins on a path. We walk deep into a gorge — a space shaped not by human hands, but perceived as an exhibition. Nature here is not a backdrop, but a co-author. We enter a narrative where every step is part of the installation.
This is an initiation route: collapsed trails, a stream that speaks with the voice of the past, fallen trees composing an invisible script. We must slow down, lean on overhanging roots, walk “not in our own shoes.” Through embodied participation, we become part of the exhibition.
At the journey’s end is a round rock niche — a stage, a theater of memories. Within it lies a mirror, buried beneath dust. Clear it away, and you will see yourself. Or rather, who you have become by walking this path.
Key “exhibits” :
Embracing Transition — the moment when the past ceases to define the route.
Working with Absence — where emptiness becomes the theme and medium.
New Tactility — discovering the world’s textures as an artistic language.
The “Reflection Hall” — the journey’s climax. Nothing is added here except the mirror beneath the sand. We are the main exhibits. Yet the way back is closed: the only exit is upward — a vertical ladder, stairs, daunting but leading to liberation.
We have walked this path together. Will you walk it with us?
From November 26 to December 16, 2024, the mini sculptures traveled along the route: from Budapest Airport, where they paid tribute to the Liszt monument, to Thailand, where they visited the Golden Temple of Ganesha in Chiang Rai, and Wat Huai Pla Kang with the giant Guanyin, the ruins of Wat Ruesi Chewap in Chiang Mai, in Bangkok the 0 km marker, the royal palace and cultural center with an exhibition of the Bangkok Biennale, and Koh Tao island. At each location, searches were conducted to find a spot for installing the mini monument. The site fitting was accompanied by photographic documentation.
During heavy rain on Koh Tao, they began to soften and bloom. They were sent to the spirit house near Ao Leuk beach to negotiate for good weather. Not in vain — the next day the weather improved. They were left in that spirit house.
The project, developed in collaboration with Dmitry Razev, is dedicated to exploring the phenomenon of deer stones — both ancient and contemporary, archaeological and symbolic, real and imagined. In our work, we combine artistic and scientific approaches: we research, document, interact with, and interpret these stones through the method of Revealed Realism.
What Are Deer Stones?
Deer Stones (Mongolian: Буган чулуун хөшөө) are stone stelae, often featuring anthropomorphic traits, with depictions of flying deer and other carvings. They range in height from 1 to 4.5 meters. These megaliths were created by ancient societies that existed between 1200 and 700 BCE in the territories of Mongolia and adjacent regions of Siberia.
Deer hold a prominent place on nearly all deer stones. The image is based on the Siberian subspecies of red deer (Cervus elaphus sibiricus). Early stones show very simple depictions of deer; over time, the drawings become more detailed. A gap of 500 years leads to the emergence of complex images of flying deer. The deer are depicted specifically as flying through the air, not merely running on the ground. Their antlers become elaborately decorated, featuring extensive spiral patterns that can cover the entire deer. Sometimes the antlers hold a solar disc or another sun-related symbol.
Deer stone, Khovsgol Province, Mongolia fromDeer stone complex at Uushgiin Uvur from
The tops of the stones are usually rounded or flat, often carved at an angle. Human faces appear much less frequently. When present, they are sometimes represented symbolically by a few neat diagonal strokes (//, ///).
Deer stones were part of the sacred rituals of ancient societies. Although the specific forms of megalith usage in rituals of these ancient cultures have not been fully established and may have varied across regions and throughout the 500-year period, there is no doubt that they played an important role in mediating the interaction between the human world and higher powers. The use of deer stones in religious ceremonies was known up until the early 20th century. [12]
Modern “Deer Stones” of Hungary
It is remarkable that Hungary is home to contemporary sculptures that closely resemble ancient deer stones in form, content, and symbolism. As part of our project, we explored several such monuments: photographing them, researching their creators, contacting local information services, documenting our findings, and engaging with the works on a creative level.
“Tree of Life” (Életfa)
Artist: Péterfy László, with the collaboration of Szerdahelyi Károly Year of Installation: 1980 Location: Zalaegerszeg, Petőfi utca 39.
The sculpture was originally installed in 1980 in the square in front of the Zalaegerszeg Town Hall. In 1989, with the placement of the equestrian statue of Zrínyi in that same square, the Életfa was relocated to a small park at the corner of Ady Endre and Kisfaludy Sándor Streets. However, this would not be its final site. On May 5, 2022, the sculpture was moved once again—this time to its current location at Petőfi utca 39, in the courtyard of the Zala County Regional Organization of the National Hungarian Hunting Chamber and the Zala County Association of Hunters and Hunting Enterprises. After restoration, it is once again open to the public.
Description: Carved from an 8-ton sandstone block that tapers toward the top, the sculpture is covered with animated scenes of life. Mythical and folkloric figures of humans and animals intertwine with gently swaying plants and trees. On the front side, a stag is depicted with a solar disk between its antlers. [12 ]
“The Conquest of the Homeland” (Honfoglalás)
(Also known as: “Deer Stone” (Szarvaskő))
Artist: Harmat Ferenc, with the participation of Piszter Péter Year of Installation: 2003 Location: Balatongyörök, Kossuth Lajos u. 29
This sculptural group is situated in a small park within the courtyard of the municipal building complex.
Description:
The sculptural ensemble consists of three large engraved sandstone monoliths arranged in a semicircle. The eastern stele features a depiction of a warrior in the style of the steppe balbal stone statues. The central figure bears the image of the mythical Turul bird. The western stele is surrounded by small stone plaques inscribed with the names of legendary chieftains of the Hungarian tribes. One side of this stele displays the Orion–Nimrud constellation. On the other, rows of deer are engraved, ascending upward in a dynamic, ritual procession.
Frottage as a Form of Artistic Interaction
We conducted a series of frottages from these monuments in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2024. Materials: paper and wax crayons.
In this context, frottage is not only a method of capturing texture — it becomes an independent artistic act. The original sculptural idea merges with the material and gesture of the artist. The relief, surface, and traces of time enter into dialogue with the drawn line and the hand of the one making the imprint. [Instagram 12] [youtube]
These works were exhibited as part of the international art and educational exhibition project “DeerLand“ [Instagram 123]
“Field of Deer Stones”
Location: Approximately 5 km south-southeast of Nyirád, in a forest-steppe landscape on the grounds of a long-abandoned military installation.
Author & Date: Created by time, people, and nature.
On a gentle hillside, we discovered rows of concrete posts embedded in the ground at an angle. While their original function is unclear, they are likely remnants of military engineering — possibly barriers or training obstacles from a former late-20th-century training ground.
The layout and shape of these structures may be accidental. Yet visually, they evoke strong associations with megalithic alignments — menhirs, deer stones, and ancient stelae. This resonance becomes even more pronounced through artistic processing.
We documented these forms as “found artifacts” and digitally enhanced the images to emphasize their resemblance to ancient monuments. Thus emerged the Field of Reindeer Stones — a visual reconstruction of a myth arising from the intersection of nature, forgetting, and incidental form.
The project draws on the traditions of Siberian and Ural-Altaic deer stones — ancient burial markers carved with weapons, antlers, and symbols connecting different realms. Here, in the Hungarian landscape, a modern echo appears — perhaps unconsciously, perhaps by chance. Yet in this field of frozen forms, the ancient motif of the mediator between worlds seems to reawaken.
This is a powerful example of the “archaeology of the present”: utilitarian structures with lost meaning come to be seen as new archetypes, generating myth.
The series reflects the aesthetic of Revealed Realism: the object is found, but the meaning is overlaid. This corner of the Hungarian cultural landscape became a naturally found site for reinterpreting history, memory, and form — perfectly aligned with our method.
Conclusion
By tracing the echoes of ancient deer stones across time and geography — from Bronze Age Mongolia to the Hungarian cultural landscape — our project reveals how symbols survive, resurface, and transform. Through the lens of Revealed Realism, we seek not only to document but to awaken dormant layers of meaning in the world around us. Whether carved in granite or cast in concrete, the image of the deer continues to mediate between the visible and the invisible, the historical and the mythic, the past and the present.
The golden apple embarked on a journey through the historical labyrinth of the Zsolnay Quarter — between time and space, history and modernity, art and the street, matter and reflection.
The apple entered the exhibition space for a moment, becoming part of the “official” history of the Zsolnay Golden Age, then stepped beyond its boundaries, dissolving into the real environment.
Its journey was documented in a series of photographs: the apple reflected the sun, glided across textures, tasting the matter of time. Each frame captures a moment of choice between motion and stillness, disappearance and presence.
The offering took place beside one of the two ceramic Sphinx sculptures guarding the staircase. The reflection from the golden surface altered the expression on the Sphinx’s face. Was it an illusion, a play of light, or the past come to life, accepting the gift?
The project invites reflection on how values, both material and immaterial, move through time, transforming meanings and leaving a trace in our perception.
From the authors: “We left the apple there, by the Sphinx. What happened next? We don’t know, but we can imagine several scenarios.
Perhaps the Apple disappeared—someone took it. Maybe it was a passerby who saw value or mystery in it. Maybe a tourist took it as a souvenir, or a child believed they’d found a magical artifact.
Or the Apple remained in place but changed—rain and wind began to wash away the gold, revealing the living matter beneath the surface. It began to decay, becoming part of the urban environment, vanishing somewhere between art and nature.
Perhaps the Apple became part of the Quarter—someone moved it elsewhere, continuing its journey. Maybe it appeared by another sculpture, or ended up inside one of the Zsolnay ceramic workshops.
We like to believe the Apple turned into a legend—even if it disappeared physically, its story remains. Someone will tell it again, someone will search for its traces, and someone might catch a fleeting glint on the Sphinx’s face and remember this moment.
In this context, the Apple is a temporary guerrilla sculpture—installed without permission, yet altering the perception of the space. It intervened in the environment of the Zsolnay Quarter, entered into a dialogue with the Sphinx, and disappeared, leaving behind only memory and photographic trace.
This offering was a fleeting gesture, but it sharpened the boundary between presence and disappearance, art and everyday life, the material and the symbolic.”
