On November 23, I received an invitation to curate this edition of aashra, waking me from a dream visit to Hagia Sophia. Bathed in the contested Byzantine monument’s glittering acoustics, I was being carried away by the wet reverberations of its sounds. It felt free. Like many generations before me, I never experienced a choir practicing liturgy on the site, as musical performance had been banned since the 15th century. When I awoke, I was once again confronted with the reality that this ban wasn’t likely to be lifted anytime soon; a reality which I continue to find excruciating.

in chorus is inspired by the choir I encountered in that dream and its liquid sonicity. This selection of ten films and videos thus holds out space for artistic and political practices and legacies that articulate, cherish, and grieve autonomous and beautiful lives—and all the tragedy lived through their wake or absence.

Each intervention constitutes an integral member of a choir that disrupts the hum of conformity. Their exercises in being–together invite us to take a dip into the extravagant acoustics of the living. Against the constructed dichotomies of our times, they allow us to radiate in a frequency that we are not yet attuned to, and are patient with our errings. They endure our reactionary doings, but are not complicit in them. They offer us one final melody, as we all, slowly but surely, sink in the quicksand:

If the void is our stage, don’t you think it’s worth singing along?

Aykan Safoğlu received his MFA in Photography from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, New York. Safoğlu was an artist-in-residence at institutions including Akademie Schloss Solitude, Ashkal Alwan, and Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten between 2014–2018. He received the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen at the 59th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2013), and Birgit Jürgenssen Prize (2021). Safoğlu is currently a PhD-Candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

With moving image works by Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Leylâ Gediz, Kadir Kayserilioğlu, Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau & Nadia Granados, Agnieszka Polska, Pilvi Takala, Rojda Tuğrul, and Joey Twins & O. Naphtali.