Border (Hammock)
Murat Gök · 2010 · Mardin, Turkey, on the Turkey–Syria border
Photo: Murat Gök’s performance photograph, which is the work itself, as published on Street Art Utopia (13 June 2013).
A section of a border fence has been taken out to make room for a hammock, and a man lies in it, calm in the sun. Murat Gök staged this brief art action in 2010 in Mardin, Turkey, on the border between Turkey and Syria. Source Source Checked
Gone 2010 — this was never a permanent installation. The Institute for Public Art says that because of the danger at the location the public performance was brief, and the work exists and circulates mainly as a photograph. Source Checked
💡 5 things to know
- An action, not a sculptureBecause the site was dangerous, the performance was brief; the work lives on mainly as its photograph. Source Checked
- A fence section made way for the hammockIPA describes one section of the severe border fence removed to make room for the hammock and its reclining figure. Source Checked
- A joke about the news cycleCurator Simon Rees called it “a humorous reflection on the blind spots of the global news cycle as it relates to peripheries”, as quoted by IPA. Source Reported
- Swinging between two countriesCurator Şener Özmen wrote that as the hammock rocks, the man swings between one side of the border and the other, as quoted by IPA. Source Reported
- Shown in Vienna in 2013The photograph was in Signs Taken in Wonder: Searching for Contemporary Istanbul at the MAK in Vienna, courtesy the artist and PILOT Gallery, Istanbul. Source Checked
📍 Where it is
On the Turkey–Syria border at Mardin, Turkey. The exact spot has not been published, so the button opens a map of Mardin. Source Source Checked
🗓️ Sightings
- 2010
Brief action at the border, Mardin
- 201330 Jan
Listed: photo on aluminium, 80 × 120 cm
- 201319 Feb
Domus: in the MAK Vienna show
- 201313 Apr
In “Signs Taken in Wonder”, MAK Vienna
- 20137 Sep
Artforum: show opens in Hannover
Green stamps mark dated photographs; amber stamps mark records or reports; red stamps mark loss. Publication dates are not camera dates.
🗞️ In the sources
“The image shows a figure on a hammock that has been hung exactly over the border fence that divides Syria and Turkey.”
Melissa Canbaz, translated from German by Diana Reese.
“a humorous reflection on the blind spots of the global news cycle as it relates to peripheries”
Curator Simon Rees, quoted by IPA.
✅ The facts
- Place
- Mardin, Turkey, on the Turkey–Syria border (IPA); Artforum: “hung exactly over the border fence that divides Syria and Turkey”; exact site not published Source Source Checked
🔗 Related
- Wait, People Built This? (8 Photos) — Street Art Utopia
- Border Hammock by Murat Gök — Street Art Utopia (2013)
- All Artwork Files
All sources & image credits
- instituteforpublicart.org: Border (case study by Jessica Fiala)
- e-flux.com: Signs Taken in Wonder, MAK Vienna (13 April 2013)
- viennarightnow.com: Murat Gök (30 January 2013)
- domusweb.it: Istanbul at the MAK (19 February 2013)
- artforum.com: Signs Taken in Wonder, Kunstverein Hannover, by Melissa Canbaz (7 September–10 November 2013)
- Image: Murat Gök, Border (Hammock), 2010, as published on Street Art Utopia (13 June 2013); a 16:9 share image was made from it.
Last checked: 1 November 2026. How we verify art