The artist Nezaket Ekici shows a new performance installation on the Sinopale, the Sinop Biennial in the city of Sinop (Turkey).
Cities with the name “Sinop” can be found not only in Turkey but also in Brazil, Georgia, and certainly elsewhere. Symbolically the artist bring as the fourth largest city in Brazil Sinop (Mato Grosso) in northern Brazil to Sinop in the northern part of Turkey.
She herself has not yet been in this Brazilian city, but in some other cities in Brazil. And she always noticed that people say “Tudo bem” as a greeting and respond “Tudo bom”. A constant back and forth, which is comparable to the “PING PONG” in table tennis.
In the performance-installation, the artist works with table tennis players, primarily from Sinop (Turkey) and have them carried out a table tennis tournament. Several players, including the artist, play table tennis on several tables.
No player has a bat or ball. Players only use a imaginary bat and hit a imaginary ball. The typical sound of the PING PONG in table tennis becomes a “Tubo bem – Tudo bom”. This results in a back and forth, which actually takes place only in mind, and yet can be followed by an audience like a real table tennis game. The judges on each panel have to decide who is awarded the point and determine the winner.
The language and thinking replace the action of a table tennis game: The movement is a movement of the Spirit. This virtual game places enormous demands on the coordination ability of the players and the spectators.
In addition, viewers are confronted in Sinop with the Brazilian language. This creates a bridge between two distant cultures that play virtually together here.