Fuat Eşrefoğlu Eating a Lahmacun, Failed Tribute to Andy Warhol,2015
Installation, poster (144x100 cm), dvds
In 2013, Gizem Karakas produced Fuat Eşrefoğlu Eating a Lahmacun, Tribute to Andy Warhol, a four-and-a-half-minute remake in which her friend Fuat performs Andy Warhol -granting him his “five minutes of fame”- alongside the well-known footage of Warhol eating a burger.
A Danish journalist who saw the video at an Istanbul-based gallery sent her an email to inform her that the film clip of Andy Warhol was actually a scene from Jorgen Leth's movie "66 Scenes From America." He then published an online article accusing her of plagiarism, including aggressive comments by Leth like "It's illegal," "I'm angry." A couple of days later, she received an email from Jorgen Leth's lawyer warning her not to show, sell, or distribute the video.
Fuat Eşrefoglu Eating A Lahmacun, Failed Tribute To Andy Warhol depicts the story of the failure of Fuat Eşrefoğlu Eating A Lahmacun, Tribute To Andy Warhol. It includes a poster of the video where the image of Andy Warhol is censored, and on the review part, the comments of Jorgen Leth are added. A new version of the video - where Fuat eats a quince* while reading the emails she received from the journalist and Jorgen Leth's lawyer - is distributed to visitors in DVD form. This version is circulated on DVDs packaged in the familiar format of pirated copies, reintroducing the work through the very channels it was asked to avoid.
*Note: "Eating a quince" is a Turkish expression meaning "to eat shit."
Fuat Eşrefoğlu Eating a Lahmacun, Tribute to Andy Warhol, 2013
Installation view from "Your Last Chance to See Galerist Studio!", 2015, Galerist Studio
Fuat Eşrefoğlu Eating a Lahmacun, Failed Tribute to Andy Warhol, 2015, DVD cover