BEDRİ BAYKAM
“8 SECONDS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD”
November 22, 2013 – January 19, 2014
In 1963, during a political propaganda trip to Dallas together with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy, JFK had been killed on Elm Street by a bullet that heavily wounded his brain on top of his two other wounds. 50 years later, the question on who might have killed Kennedy or organized this complicated conspiracy remains an unsolvable mystery under dark shadows. Few hours later, Lee Harvey Oswald who had been arrested, charged with the murder on the same day of police officer J.D. Tippit, was chosen by the Dallas authorities in an unprecedented speed as the “lone nut assassin” that had killed the President. When two days later Oswald who had denied all charges, was eliminated by Dallas club owner Jack Ruby, those accusations against Oswald had full opportunity to spread at a faster pace without any obstacles.
The JFK Assassination, which had been subject several times to dense efforts for being solved- or rather dense efforts for being left unsolved (!)- like those of the Warren Commission or the one of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), looks like an abyss and that has been the subject of countless books and films.
Baykam who had lived himself the shock of the assassination in 1963 when he was 6, has been an amateur researcher on the case since then. The artist who has traveled twice to Dallas and New Orleans, has gone through dozens of books and videos, has met the directors of the 6th Floor Museum and independent international experts on the case such as Robert Groden or Don Miller.
Baykam’s exhibition comprises canvases, 4D lenticular works, installations, soundtracks and videos. The artist also will have two videos on display at the exhibit. The first one is an 8 hour long video where Baykam talks about the “case”. The second one is an hour long “abstract visual collage” video about the assassination. The Turkish version of the long video is about ten hours. During the exhibition, there will be film showings and panel discussions about the JFK Assassination at Piramid Sanat.
