Mutant Time, as presented in the 17th Istanbul Biennial in 2022, is a survey of Akin’s body of work and research over the past ten years on radiation and archaeology.
Over the last decade, Akın has been researching radioactivity, nuclear history and spaces, in his long-term project Mutant Space. For the Biennial, he advances the project with a one-channel video and outdoor installation. In his new work Mutant Time, by way of activating the industrial archaeological character of Gazhane, Akın creates a lens into the deep nuclear time. The project contemplates the nuclear as a time-space interface, surveying the historical sites of importance to nuclear heritage and highlighting the Metsamor area, home to a high-risk relic of the Cold War nuclear complex still partly operational today, and a Bronze Age archaeological site close to the Turkey-Armenia border.
The visual style of the work is an outcome of studies of explosions, sublime frequencies, overtones and gaze that they create in the landscape.
