THE KINGDOM is a multi-part, cyclical body of work, with its starting point at the ancient archaeological site of Perre in the former Kingdom of Commagene in southeastern Turkey. At the heart of the project is an artistic exploration of the topography and atmosphere of this unique place—a region shaped by monumental rock formations and traces of a complex cultural past. In several interrelated phases, THE KINGDOM investigates how landscape and spatial experience can be rendered visible and transformed through photography, video, sound, and object-based practices. Each phase builds on the outcomes of the previous stage, further developing its motifs, materials, and methodologies, resulting in a multifaceted dialogue between place, perception, memory, and image-making.

In the first part of the series, the focus is on site-specific, investigative research at Perre. Here, the principles of artistic fieldwork merge with an individual approach: photographic series of rock formations and plant fragments are made using digital-SLR and smartphone cameras. This visual material is supplemented by video recordings—such as daily journeys along Atatürk Boulevard, marking the transition from contemporary life to the historical excavation site—and by sound recordings of the muezzin’s call to prayer and the local car radio, weaving together soundscapes and impressions of the landscape. The resulting images and sounds remain deliberately open, fragmentary, and research-oriented; the collected material is not a finished work but rather an experimental field and methodological foundation for all further transformations in the cycle. The images and fragments presented here are selected from this experimental material collection. They offer a glimpse into the layered, process-oriented approach and reflect moments of encounter, observation, and research at the archaeological site.