C-84 Confidential / Exhibition 2013

Simon Oberhofer | Mikaël Pors

On the 3rd of August 2001, the ship Hephaestus I picked up a strong magnetic signal from more than 400m deep, in the black sea.
After ten days of scanning the sea, the 8th Submarine Squadron, of the Bulgarian Navy, discovered, around 20 miles away from Istanbul, a plain container from the 70’s. Once back to the surface, the C-84 container has been shelled by international scientists, and historians. After the initials findings, it appeared the container wasn’t supposed to be discovered. Indeed, according to a number sources the module was a real moving lab, installed on a boat, and have been lost in some mysterious circumstances.

In 2008, two indepedant british researchers, supported by Wikileaks, and Amnesty International, decided to learn more about this black box. After more than five years of work, and some millions dollars spent, they arrived to conclusions and revelations.

Where this container used to be?

A container is moving all the time, from a ship to a train, to a barge.... Crossing seas, and continents. Loading and unloading infinitely different kind of merchandises. Also, most of the time, containers are staying in harbors, creating cities out of these modules.
Statistically, a container in one year can cross more than 250000 km; going from one point on the earth surface to its opposite, in less than two months.
During its life, the C-84 container could register millions of files, in the most sensitive places of the globe, places where exchanges take shape, the knots of cities and countries. And all of this in the biggest discretion.

Who could imagine that one of these rough boxes housed a spy lab?
We found this C-84, but was it the only one?
What kind of information could they get?
Who were these spies? Where were they come from?
Which country were interested into these datas?
Could we imagine this kind of investigation in our days?

After all these years, the Turkish Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with the city of Istanbul, decided to exhibit this mysterious treasure, in the brand new Istanbul Naval Museum, in Besiktas.
From the May, 11th, 2014, you would have the opportunity to approach, and understand one of the darkest sides of international political strategies.
This exhibition, a bold and unique undertaking, features contributions from a range of researchers and activists with past, present or ongoing links to the worldwide secret services.