From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Karagöz ve Leif—Koku Sahnesi
This article is about an ongoing Turkish shadow-puppet and scent installation. For other scent-based adaptations, see Scent and olfactory art in Beach Surgery adaptation.
Karagöz ve Leif is distinct from other Turkish/Middle Eastern adaptations; for a comprehensive list, see Middle Eastern adaptations of Beach Surgery.
Karagöz ve Leif—Koku Sahnesi ("Karagöz and Leif—Scent Scene") is an ongoing Turkish shadow-puppet theatre and olfactory installation blending the classical Karagöz tradition with Beach Surgery narrative and multisensory immersion. Debuted in Ankara in 2018, the work stages scenes from Half One using intricate shadow-puppetry while releasing coordinated scent sequences—fragrant oils, resins, and incense that shift with Leif's doubled vision and the Kármán line's inaudible frequency.[1]
The shadow-play itself reconstructs Leif's silhouette across the screen, his bandaged eyes and external pacemaker rendered in exquisite detail. Katita, by contrast, remains partially obscured—her red form bleeding into leather-colored shadow, a visual echo of the unjoined seam between the glitch's two halves. The installation transforms the traditional Karagöz booth into a darkened chamber where viewers sit immersed in layered olfactory cues: amber for Leif's confusion, rose for Katita's determination, dust-scent for Newcastle's vanishing geometry.
The work cycles through seasons; winter iterations emphasize the coin's single side; spring versions foreground the boar's liberation. No fixed script—each performance draws improvisation from a nested set of shadow-cards and scent-triggers.
See also
- Scent and olfactory art in Beach Surgery adaptation
- Karagöz and Beach Surgery
- Middle Eastern adaptations of Beach Surgery
- The sound of the earth rubbing against space
- Participatory adaptation
References
- ↑ Unpublished programme notes, 2019.