Page - 96 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 4/2018

96 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 4 2o18 Lora Sariaslan | The Art of Migration contamination. This principle counters the risk of standardization, which is the consequence of telecommunication and globalization. On the one hand, such a principle makes the most of trespassing and cultural interaction; on the other hand, it affirms that the individual artist has the right to produce unexpected and amazing forms, stemming from a symbolic scheme that is free from hierarchy.”13 Nasan Tur knows that humor can be a catalyst. His interest in socio-cultural critique is present even more humorously in Somersaulting man (2001-7) (Fig. 2). Conceived as a form of continuous cultural study, this work documents the artist somersaulting through different cities around the world. The enjoyable absurdity of the childlike, playful somersaults in front of the steady camera and set against the cacophonic metropolis, can flip easily into a questionable action at the thought of the physical strain and feeling of the rough tarmac on the artist’s back and shoulders. The video shows the artist and passers-by who are confronted with the rapid somersaults of a man reacting similarly in all the cities: amused and bewildered, apprehensive and inquisitive, as well as skeptical and doubting the mental stability of this tumbling man 13 Achille Bonito Oliva, ‘The Globalisation of Art’, in Belonging and Globalization: Critical Essays in Contemporary Art and Culture, edited by Kamal Boullata (London: Saqi Books, 2008), 44. Fig. 2: Nasan Tur, Somersaulting man Istanbul-Tokio-Frankfurt-Paris-Mexico City-...., 2001-2007. 4 digital videos, each 5.5min loop. Courtesy of the artist.