Halil Altindere’s film Wonderland, documents the anger and frustration of a group of youths from the historic Sulukule neighborhood of Istanbul, home to Romani communities since the Byzantine Empire, the area has been increasingly demolished since 2006 as part of an “urban renewal” development project. Presented in the style of a music video, Wonderland captures the young men of the hip-hop group Tahribad-ı isyan rapping about inequality and gentrification as they are simultaneously confronted by the police.

Since the mid-1990s, Halil Altindere (Turkish, b. 1971) has emerged as one of the most prominent contemporary artists in Turkey with a practice that ranges from video, sculpture, photography, installation, and performance, to collaborative editorial and curatorial projects.

Halil Altindere, Wonderland. 2013, HD video: color/sound, Courtesy the artist and Pilot Galeri, Istanbul.