New Sakariba

Redefining Sakariba: stages for both sanctity and sinfulness

Competition Entry for Central Glass Competition, Japan

Summer 2019

In Collaboration with Meriç Özgen

There is no depth in the new surficial sakariba. Surrounded by screens, we are veiled from reality.

Yet, found perched atop a reservoir of immense depth is an island where children know water beyond its surface.

Only the young remember the water is wet; others can no longer see past their reflection.

Contemporary sakariba necessitates s(t)imulation. It takes shape between the ke, profane time of work and hare, sacred time of rest. As Sakariba devolves into the virtual, always at our fingertips, a new space begins to take form. It appears as a screen in the washing light of day, but a mirror at night. It constitutes a new way to reflect. In seeking Sakariba on screens without depth, we lose touch with the essence of reflection and our own need for it. The light of the screen overrides our inner light, and we no longer see past the surface; there exists only reflection: lighting over enlightening.

The arena, repurposed for the contemporary world, is inlaid with a benign surface. It acts as a lining between the depth of the reservoir and the depthlessness enveloping each cellular unit. Infrastructure is outsourced, and people live looking inwards. Sakariba no longer takes place in transitory place and time, but occupies the very spaces within which we live and work. The original place of spectacle, the Colosseum, remains a place for viewing, albeit individually en masse.