In this event Nezaket Ekici will share a video performance and on the sense of place and matter in Sinop.
Nezaket Ekici
3 Memories (3 Hatira)
Videos and letters with objects 2022
For Sinopale 8, Sinop Biennale Turkey 2022
Curator Mürzteza Fidan has invited Nezaket Ekici to Sinoplae 8, “Upcycling” Sinop Biennale 2022. In his curatorial concept “Sense of Place and Matter – Human to Human Touch”, he talks about deceleration as a way to radically reform the capitalist society: more time and closeness to fellow human beings, to things and more time for reflection is needed in order not to loose the humand kind.
Ekici refers to this and creates a bridge to the 3 works she showed at 3 Sinopals in 2006, 2008 and 2014. She remembers the people who helped her with her performances. Years have passed since then and she is interested in what has become of these people.
She decides to write letters to the people involved, counteracting the ever-accelerating world by going the old way and writing a letter to ship by carbon post. An email, a text message, an Instagram message would be with the addressee with almost no loss of time. The old way: It will be a few weeks before the letter reaches the addressees.
The speed with which the world moves today, it seems, leaves almost no room for anticipation. Regaining this space must be a goal in order to escape the world of acceleration.
She remembers 2006 especially two hairdressers, Aytac and Cigdem Sahin, who helped her with her performance “Atropos”. They connected her hair to the ceiling via thin ropes.
Ekici writes a letter to the two of them and cuts off a strand of her hair, which she encloses in the letter as a little remembrance gift. In it, she thanks them and once again reflects on what happened as she experienced the performance at the time. This process of writing is also captured on video. She is very curious about their reaction to the letter and she is already looking forward to a response.
You can view the documentation of the artwork Nezaket Ekici produced in Sinopale 1 titled “Atropos” in the archive. Click for “Atropos, 2006”.
In 2008 Ekici was again invited to the Sinopale. This time she gave a performance workshop about topic Body and Architecture _site specific: the City of Sinop and the Architecture for young participants from Sinop. She remembers in particular a young girl, Gülbahar Karaduman, who had performed in the „Garden oft he Elders“ where she hung in the a tree with white paper written memories and wishes of people from Sinop mostly from elders. The Tree looked as if all the leaves had been replaced by wishes.
Ekici writes her a letter and attaches a tree leaf to the letter, thanking her for participating in her workshop.
This process is also recorded as a video. She is very curious to her reaction to the letter. and she hopes to see her again perhaps in Sinop.
You can view the documentation of the artwork Nezaket Ekici produced in Sinopale 2 titled “Body and Architecture” in the archive. Click for “Body and Architecture, 2008”.
Ekici is invited for the third time in 2014. She remembers her performance “Tude Bem – Tude Bom”. Above all, she remembers two people, Zihni ve Zehra Simsek, among the many other actors who co-organized the performance. A whole table tennis team participated in Ekici´s Performance: a table tennis tournament that runs artistically. Without ball and racket, only with words “Tude Bem – Tude Bom”. is played (the greeting ritual in Brazil: it stands for „are you well“ – „I am well“). In this way, the artist brings a piece of Brazil from a city in the north of Brazil, which is also called Sinop, to Sinop in the north of Turkey. She writes a letter to Zihni and Zehra Simsek, and as a souvenir she designs a T-Shirt with the words “Tudo bem” and “Tudo Bom” written on the front and back, and encloses it in the letter, thanking them. This process is also recorded as a video. She is very interested to see the reaction – looking forward to a response and would be happy to see the two with the T-shirt again.
You can view the documentation of the artwork Nezaket Ekici produced in Sinopale 5 titled “Tudo Bem – Tudo Bom” in the archive. Click for “Tudo Bem – Tudo Bom, 2014”.
In today’s world, people’s feelings about themselves are affected by the conflict between their economic needs and their beliefs. Whilst their faith’s compass is set on the temporality and spatiality of the powers of compassion, temporality and spatiality of economy’s compass is based on the forces of aggression.
The global-standardizing consumption culture created by the growth ambition of the capitalist economy pushes us in terms of speed and movement, especially in metropolitan areas, breaking our ties with places and matter, creating a crisis of “touch”. In order to resist the currently accepted ethics of detachment that creates such insensitivities between individuals, we need to renounce meta-economy’s desire for uncontrolled growth and exercise the modesty of sustainable degrowth.