Silva Bingaz has approached multi- layered micro-geographies laden with history and recorded ephemeral and precarious life-stories at marginal regions. In her series titled ‘as’ and produced in Balat, Bingaz again focused on the human-space relations in a coastal urban area, like she's done before in Yeşilköy, Marseille and Tottori. A historically central district, Balat today is just another part of Istanbul where the century-old residents are being replaced by a new cosmopolitan crowd and where the ancient historical elements could only be revealed by an attentive touch. The portrait works that compose the majority of the exhibition both capture its subjects’ spontaneity while they are unaware of being photographed and record them during moments of self-surrender. The visitors witness how Balat is ever building-up its new identities, after loosing numerous old ones, through Bingaz’s camera’s odd relationship with its subjects.
Tankut Aykut, 2015