In recent years, the district Kadıköy in Istanbul has become the strongest alternative to what had been lost in other areas in İstanbul, such as a sense of freedom, safety, social opportunities and cultural events. Many people, including myself, moved to Kadıköy in search of these things, to build our utopia. I started to recognize the boundaries of our utopian bubble when I found myself trapped in the same routines, same people and same places everyday. Could our utopia have also created our dystopia?

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Purgatory is a documentation of this semi-waiting room created by people waiting for a better future, as they shift between heaven and hell, belonging and not-belonging, utopia and dystopia.

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