To listen to the drama as broadcast on Açık Radyo on September 11, 2018, please click here.
Ignorance is Bliss is a radio drama with five characters: the Taksim Mosque; Euro Plaza (a hotel near Taksim constantly changing owners where neo-liberal policies that now govern the city of Istanbul were discussed in the conference room in the 1990s); an unknown building (I claimed that this building hosted women’s groups before the women decided the building had fulfilled its mission and donated it to be used for another purpose.) and SALT Beyoglu (a former apartment building, owned by a Greek family, now owned by a bank and hosting a cultural institution, where the exhibition for which this work was commissioned was taking place). The buildings communicate through the resonances and vibrations of their foundations that I as the narrator have listened to through an ISKI (Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration) crack covered at an undisclosed location in Beyoğlu on June 25, 2018, 9:35 am—the day after a critical general election in Turkey. I then translated these resonances and vibrations into words, which became the radio drama.
The characters talk at each other, without engaging in direct, meaningful conversation. While SALT Beyoğlu uses stock phrases from local politicians, Ataturk Cultural Center keeps saying, “All fears are dulled by routine,” and Euro Plaza reads information from product packages.
Voiced by Kumbaracı50 actors (Burakhan Yılmaz, Ceren Sevinç, Dilan Parlak, İsmail Sağır) and Merve Ünsal
merve ünsal 