Director Elmas continues Bacca peace trip to honor slain artist  

Film director Bingöl Elmas is continuing the peace trip started by Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, an Italian performance artist also known as Pippa Bacca, who set out on a journey to promote peace in the world by hitchhiking from Milan to Tel Aviv in a wedding dress.    

Bacca's peace trip, which ended when she was killed near Gebze in northwestern Turkey during her hitchhiking tour, is being continued by documentary director Elmas. Elmas began the journey on March 31 at the time and location where Bacca was killed in her white wedding dress. Her tour will be documented and will air on Franco-German TV station ARTE in September in a 43-minute film titled "My Letter to Pippa."

Elmas and her film crew, who will walk 1,400 kilometers across the country to reach the Cilvegözü border crossing, have gotten as far as Niğde.  A device called TAKBUL, which receives positioning information from GPS satellites, is attached to Elmas so that if for any reason she is separated from her team, she can be located.

Noting that she has traveled with all kinds of drivers, including bus, truck and private car drivers, Elmas said: "At first I was apprehensive about truck drivers, but I never thought I would share the same fate as Pippa. Some people think I am a streetwalker, the police, a spy or just plain crazy." 

Bingöl is continuing the peace trip started by Pippa Bacca -- who was murdered in Gebze while hitchhiking from Milan to Tel Aviv -- wearing a black wedding dress in place of the white bridal gown Pippa Bacca wore.