On the longest day of 2003, two men were employed to spend 12 hours in the streets of Istanbul doing nothing.

The team, recruited from the job ads in a local newspaper, was called ‘On Iki Saatlik’ (’twelve hours of...’) dressed in outfits with special logo’s and false I.D. cards. As real-life guards, they perfectly mastered the manners and movements of professional time-passers.

Their uniforms, made to order in a shopping centre, were of standard cut and colour and made them ideal universal street supervisors. They became traffic police officers on busy crossings, trade officers (‘Zabita’) at a market square, boat attendants on a ferry. The public reacted to them accordingly.