Gay cruising areas

Uzun shares her teenage memories, cruising after school hours. But the public toilets are monitored by cameras and the few standing trees are not enough to create dark spots—big lights illuminate all corners of the park. Sexuality and urban intimacy have deep ties to activism and resistance.

In order for a protest movement to grow, sex is often kept out of the narrative. Respectability politics take over.

Istanbul Gay Guide

Sex and sex work require illegibility to survive and prevent policing. Safety is not provided by depending on the state or institutional cruises safety is mainly intramurally negotiated. Most histories are not documented through text or legislation; they depend on intergenerational intimacies and informal storytelling.

For Refresh AmsterdamSimon e van Saarloos presents Cruising Gezi Park, an installation that refers to both Gezi Park in Istanbul and Oosterpark in Amsterdam, examining areas such as queer cruising, visibility, safety and the regulation of public space. The police of Amsterdam responded by proposing extra lights at night.

The lights were seen as a safety measure, but light is also often employed as a surveillance tool. Whose ideas of safety and pleasure rule the city? Sound support by G. October Photo by Monique Vermeulen For Refresh AmsterdamSimon e van Saarloos presents Cruising Gezi Park, an installation that refers to both Gezi Park in Istanbul and Oosterpark in Amsterdam, examining concepts such as queer cruising, visibility, gay and the regulation of public space.