The Golden Apple of Istanbul

2025, Golden Apples, R²

Self-residency in Istanbul

2025

Locations: Beyoğlu, Sultanahmet, Kadıköy, Galata Bridge
Medium / Format: Site-specific action, photography, ephemeral gesture

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

2024, 2025, Golden Apples, R²

2024-2025

Golden Apples is a series of site-specific gestures unfolding across different locations, cultures, and situations.

The project is centered around a simple object: a golden apple. A familiar image burdened with myths, promises, desire, power, and reward.

In these works, the apple loses its function as a trophy or possession. It appears, moves, is offered, released, or abandoned.

Each episode transforms the symbol through a different relation to place, time, and attention.

The project unfolds through temporary interventions, photography, participation, and disappearance.

The golden surface does not elevate the object, but exposes its fragility.

The work continues through traces, memory, and shifting perception.

The Golden Eggs

2002, 2003, 2004, 2013, 2024

2002–2024

long-term conceptual series

What is the sacred meaning of an old fairy tale about the golden hen known to everyone from early childhood? What was lost and what was gained when the egg broke?

The same questions are raised in many myths of the old and new worlds: about the original egg, the creation of the world, the legend of the golden age. Ideas of good and evil and what is
being done on time.

This myth is relevant at all times and at each new moment acquires new semantic shades.

Exhibition history :

2002 — Living the Simplest Thing, Art-Novosibirsk Gallery Festival, Novosibirsk, Russia
2002 — Shakespeare’s Testament, Ural Museum of Youth, Yekaterinburg, Russia
2004 — Tasting Ball, Pushkin House, Yekaterinburg, Russia
2004 — New Mythology, International Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Karaganda, Kazakhstan
2005 — High-Five, Elovoy House, Yekaterinburg, Russia
2013 — Art Objects on a Book Theme, Belinsky Library, Yekaterinburg, Russia
2024 — JELEN — JELENÉS — JELEN|ÉS, 4th International Land Art Symposium, Rácalmás, Hungary

AN OFFERING TO THE SPHINX

2024, Golden Apples, R²

site-specific intervention / temporary guerrilla sculpture

Zsolnay Quarter, Pécs, Hungary

Materials: apple, acrylic

A golden apple moved through the historical labyrinth of the Zsolnay Quarter, passing between exhibition space, street, ornament, reflection, and ruin.

For a brief moment, the object entered the official space of the Zsolnay Golden Age exhibition, then returned again to the open environment of the city.

The apple appeared among ceramic vessels, architectural fragments, roots, water, staircases, and decorative structures. Its movement through the quarter was documented as a sequence of temporary relations between the object and the surrounding space.

The journey ended near one of the ceramic Sphinx sculptures guarding the staircase.

The apple was left there as an offering without inscription, protection, or explanation.

…

…

…

After the action, the object remained in the space without control over what would happen next.

It could disappear, decay, be taken away, or continue its movement through the city.

The work existed as a temporary intervention between public art, rumor, object, and memory.

…

traces of the work

Wedding of the Tower and the Metro

2006, Happening, R²

2006

Format: public performance, happening, video documentation (44 minutes)

Location: Russia, Yekaterinburg city center and metro stations

Partners: State Center for Contemporary Art (GCCSA), ParaRam gallery

About the Project

Wedding of the Tower and the Metro is a multi-day public performance reimagining key landmarks of Yekaterinburg through the lens of local Ural traditions. The project creates a new living mythology for the city by symbolically uniting two urban giants — the Tower (he), an unfinished TV tower and prominent telecommunications structure, and the Metro (she), the city’s underground transit system.

The project unfolds as a ritual action reflecting deep archetypes and urban legends, expressing both the hopes and fears of the city’s residents. Through ceremonial acts and symbolic gestures, the performance seeks to harmonize unseen forces within the city and prevent potential catastrophe.

Background: The Question of the Tower and the Metro

Concerns about a possible earthquake in the Ural region have been growing.
For over 250 years, towers and underground spaces have been seen as the city’s main mythical and generative symbols.
Today, the unfinished TV tower is the city’s apex tower symbol, while the metro is its main subterranean presence.
These two giants effectively “meet” near the Circus area in the city center.

The Myth

The Tower and the Metro represent vast, intangible City Giants—beings with immense, mysterious bodies resting beneath the urban layers. Though currently still, their forces pull toward each other. Should they awaken suddenly or clash, disaster such as an earthquake could follow.

The myth is not just a story but includes ritual actions designed to control these forces and protect the city.

The Ritual — The Wedding

The Giants’ longing for union has reached a peak — the time has come to hold their Wedding.

If this ritual is not performed, the Giants may pass each other by, and the symbolic “Child” — the city’s future potential — will never be born. Alternatively, a chaotic union could bring disaster.

Additional Context

This myth draws from ancient, pre-Ellin traditions and familiar motifs of Titans and Titanesses. The Tower and Metro stand as symbolic Titans within the city landscape.

The myth partly explains the origins and roles of these urban forms and partly prescribes complex ritual actions that help channel and contain hidden powers, ensuring the city’s well-being.

The Performance

On August 25–26, 2006, Yekaterinburg witnessed a collective celebration of the Wedding of the Tower and the Metro.

This ritual involved local artists, residents, and guests, bringing the myth to life through a series of staged actions:

Public announcement of the upcoming Wedding (2006, August 18).

The solemn Wedding ceremony — a modern ritual binding the Giants (2006, August 25).

A communal feast — an ancient ritual that unites participants and seals the ceremony’s success (2006 August 25).

The Fertilization rite — participants crafted miniature Tower figures symbolizing the Tower’s “seed” (2006 August 26).

And discreetly placed them throughout metro stations and trains (2006 August 26).

Outcome

The action transcended artistic mystification, becoming a real and effective ritual. Just days after the event, news came that the long-frozen metro construction would resume.

Exhibitions and Screenings

September 2006 — International Festival Stop! Who’s Coming?, Moscow, special project of the Yekaterinburg branch of the State Center for Contemporary Art (GCCSA) StolpoTvorenie.

November 2006 — Video screening at the ParaRam art salon, Yekaterinburg.

2007 — As part of the StolpoTvorenie special project (Yekaterinburg GCCSA), nominated for the Innovation All-Russian competition award in the category Regional Contemporary Art Project.

2023 — Documentation of the project participated in the archival exhibition “Art without a ticket: the history of public art in Yekaterinburg” at the Ural Branch of the A.S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

Wedding of the Tower and the Metro

2006

Фото 1 (главное, крупное, по центру)

Лучший кадр со свадьбы — не башня, не метро, а момент действия: люди, ритуал, ощущение события.

A city does not exist only of stone, concrete, and structures.

It also exists through stories, beliefs, and invisible forces.

Телебашня в городе.

In Yekaterinburg, towers and underground spaces have long been powerful symbols of the city landscape.

Фото 3

Метро: вход, станция, тоннель.

At the beginning of the 21st century, two extreme manifestations appeared:

the unfinished TV Tower — the highest expression of the Tower,

and the Metro — the deepest expression of the Underground.

Фото 4

Общий городской план / район Цирка, если есть.

They came close to each other.

Almost meeting.

According to the myth, the City Giants existed before the city itself.
They were revealed to humans through the Tower and the Metro.

Фото 5

(фото, где появляется ощущение мифа, например участники или башня с людьми)

From this coincidence, a myth emerged.

The Tower and the Metro were imagined not as constructions, but as manifestations of ancient forces.

Фото 6

Любой образ с ритуальным ощущением / участники

According to the myth, these forces had existed before the city itself.

Perhaps even before the mountains.

The Tower and the Metro were not merely structures.
They were manifestations of vast and incomprehensible beings.

The Tower and the Metro were imagined as manifestations of City Giants — vast, incomprehensible beings revealed to humans through their visible forms.

Фото 7

Свадебный момент

Their attraction had reached its peak.

The time had come for their Wedding.

Фото 8

Участники

But their union required a ritual.

Without it, they could pass each other by, and the Child — the future potential of the city — would never be born.

Without a ritual, their uncontrolled encounter could bring catastrophe.

Фото 9

Объявление / газета

The myth became a public action.

On August 25–26, 2006, the Wedding of the Tower and the Metro took place in Yekaterinburg.

Фото 10

Церемония

Artists, residents, and guests became participants in the ritual.

The performance unfolded through several stages:

Фото 11

Объявление

Announcement of the Wedding

Фото 12

Церемония

The Wedding ceremony

Фото 13

Пир

The communal feast

Фото 14

Изготовление башенок

The Fertilization rite

Participants created miniature images of the Tower — symbolic seeds.

Фото 15

Метро, размещение башенок

The seeds were carried underground and placed inside the Metro.

The ritual was completed.

Фото 16

Фото после ритуала / участники / след

A fragmentary urban myth became a lived experience.

The work crossed the boundary between artistic fiction and reality.

Фото 17

Если есть публикация о возобновлении строительства метро

Days after the ritual, news appeared that construction of the metro, frozen for several years, would resume.

The work proposes a new urban mythology.

The work continues as urban mythology.

traces of the work →

Möbius Pretzel

2006, R²

August 19, 2006

Format: public performance, happening, video documentation (6:41)

Location: Russia, Yekaterinburg

Partners: State Center for Contemporary Art (GCCSA), Yekaterinburg bread factory Vseslav

The art project “The Möbius Pretzel” is part of a multi-stage process of creating an urban mythology.

It transfers a conceptual idea into public space, transforming the artistic act into a communal ritual. The mythologeme appears as an edible Möbius strip, and its consumption becomes a form of communion — a symbolic sharing of the city’s “body.”

The format of the project embodies a symbiosis of artistic performance, PR action, urban myth, and public ritual.

A record-breaking pretzel, made from a four-layer sponge ribbon (with a circumference of 4.5 meters, a height of 20 cm, and a weight of 52 kg), was generously baked by the Yekaterinburg bread factory Vseslav.

Ingredients used: Flour – 11 kg, Sugar – 8.7 kg, Eggs – 11 kg, Vegetable oil – 0.6 kg, Apricot confiture – 16 kg, Sugar syrup (for soaking) – 7.3 kg

Biscuit mass: 26 kg Exact dimensions: 1.5 × 2 meters Total weight: 52 kg
Length of the sponge ribbon: 4.5 meters

From the author:

A city is a multitude of layers — coexisting within a single whole, yet often not only disconnected, but unaware of each other’s existence.

A simplified model of the city might be imagined as a pretzel made from a multi-layered sponge ribbon, twisted into a Möbius strip — a kind of “pretzelization” of a mathematical ideal.

The Möbius strip possesses some curious properties: it has only one continuous surface, no “other” side, no inside or outside, and any object moving along it is gradually turned 180 degrees. In other words — it flips things upside down.

This leads one to think that perhaps our existence has no “reverse.” Everything — hellish abysses, heavenly gardens, mysterious depths of the spirit, and other dimensions — is already here, now, with us, on this side. That is to say: thisworldly.

To “absorb” the city, one must thoroughly chew the pretzel. This can be done extensively — gnawing on a single layer, or intensively — by biting through all the layers at once. Though in this case, of course, only within the limits of one fragment.