What triggered Tunaboylu in starting this performance was his come across to a visually impaired lady in an underground station on his way home. The observation of how she found her way to the underground and the emerging wonder of the following questions made him experience a whole month of not seeing. What happens when one cannot see? How are other senses affected when the sense of sight is impaired? How are visually impaired people positioned in society? What kind of a transition do people go through and how does that affect their daily life habits?
In the age of gaining our consciousness of mind, we are all taking different paths in doing so. Tuna made quite a peculiar choice to acquire that state, causing a lot of controversy and questioning in his direct environment. I find it interesting how bald and uncompromising he is in performing his way of breaking through, although maybe it was not his initial purpose for this experiment. During this slowly passing yet concentrated period of time he finds himself being confronted with his ego, society and takes these obstacles full-heartedly. In the end he intuitively ‘fights back’ with the main surviving tool of our upcoming age: love.
Georgina David
Performers: Tuna Tunaboylu
Duration: 30 days
He documented this performance by the video diaries he recorded almost every day during this one month, the drawings he made in the meanwhile, and the documentation by his neurologist he saw twice a week. Tunaboylu then opened his eyes with a ritualistic performance in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.