The video installation Permanent Temporary deals with the tragedy of the huge body of humans who had to flee their countries because their life security had become endangered. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported at the end of 2016 that 65.6 million people worldwide have been forcefully displaced because of war, violence, and oppression and immigrated to other countries. These numbers indicate that this is the biggest wave of immigration since World War II, and show that there is a massive number of human beings in need of protection. The more tragic situation is that 75,000 children who travel alone or are separated from their families applied for asylum in different countries. It is highly probable that this number is below the actual number. Most of the refugees are housed in difficult conditions in camps, and each is spending his/ her time in this environment for an average of 12 years. In her video installation, Bengü Karaduman lists 3003 refugee camps which she researched from different sources, according to the countries where they were built, the cities they are in, and according to their specifications. In the two-channel video installation, as the names of the camps scroll, human silhouettes pass by in front of us in masses; while some of the people reach camps surrounded by high-installed barbed wire and secluded from the cities they are in, some of them are not able to complete the journey.
Text by Öykü Özsoy