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Posts from the ‘Dil Seçeneği / Language Selection’ Category

Oct 31

Also to be discussed – presentations of Sanja Mitrovic and Gabriele Reuter

Iulia Popovici

Once upon a time there was a happy country called Yugoslavia. Really, it was happy, not because even the trees joyfully spelled the name of the leader Tito but because people were happy, even those pictured on the 100 dinars bill. Then the country stopped being happy – until its citizens (fewer now, since the country had become smaller) gathered again on the bridges of the capital, to save it from bombing. In Will you ever be happy again?, the Serbian-born artist Sanja Mitrovic and the German Jochen Stechmann star a performance about how the international perception of national identity marks the personal construction of the self, putting in a mirror their own experiences. The result is ironic without being bluntly critical and touching without being sentimental – equilibrium very difficult to reach when talking about the innocent bystanders of recent past. Read more

Oct 31

Thought Works

Nóra Bükki Gálla

The architect’s eye looks for the mechanism that makes things work, the structure behind the form. In a performance that connects theory and abstraction with the reality of the stage, Filiz Sizanli attempts to show us how the conventional usage of stage space can be challenged, while playing with the interchangeability of dimensions. Drawing a parallel between dynamism and stability, science and art, we find new ways to explore, analyze and describe motion.

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Oct 31

Beyond the Box

Nóra Bükki Gálla

Yesterday could the Istanbulies watch and participate in the 24-hour durational performance Beyond the Box performed and created by Javier Murugarren, Erikk McKenzie, Velvet lee black and Belit Sağ. As the title reveals is Beyond the Box a transdisciplinary attempt in which street theatre, burlesque and cabaret meet improvisation and dance. Dressed in dotted and striped colourful clothes, with a DJ-set from which tones of both salsa and applauds came out, two bags filled with inflatable balls, funny hats and other props does the performance engage its audience in a compelling and generous way. Beyond the Box takes its spectators beyond normative ideas about both art, performance and themselves.

Oct 30

One Too Many

Nóra Bükki Gálla

Being a tourist you are pampered and challenged at the same time: people don’t expect you to keep the rules but on the other hand (since they don’t know your ‘world’, your context) they reflect an image that you might prefer not to see of yourself – and wouldn’t have to anyway, were it not for the simple fact that you are a tourist.

Gabriele Reuter takes that idea: the figure of a foreigner we cannot really identify with, still accept and even grow to love in a way, multiplies it by four and (unfortunately enough for both audience and choreographer) thinks this is enough to make a statement of art. No wonder it isn’t. She tries hard though, dresses her performers in parachutes, jungle costumes and Eskimo wear, adds some truly interesting movement material, and her performers are gregariously confident… Still. Or should we say, all the more…? Read more

Oct 30

Looking for the stranger

Martina Rösler

In Me and My Stranger the belgium performer and theatre-maker Sarah Vanhee is exploring the notion of the stranger. Her lecture performance is strongly related to the French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy and his novel L’intrus. In one hour Vanhee presents a collage of film excerpts, street interviews and recitations of different texts that are somehow connected with the phenomenon. She for instance refers to the German political theorist Hannah Arendt, shows parts of Pasolini’s film Teorema and parts of Claire Denis’ documentary about Jean-Luc Nancy called Vers Nancy. Vanhee also traces an ark to the current political situation in Belgium and appeals to the highly problematic issue of immigration. Moreover she includes scientific, microbiological descriptions in her lecture by talking about the human immune system being assaulted by something strange.
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Oct 30

Body Architecture

Martina Rösler

How do we position our own body to the constructed architecture that surrounds us? Why do we consider some structures, objects, environments as hospitable and others as inhospitable?
The Turkish dancer and choreographer Filiz Sızanlı invites the audience in her new solo Site to a white cube, where she examines the relationship between architecture and power. Surrounded by thin white fabric walls that are open to the audience her body is already part of the stage design. The first movement sequence follows the principle of constantly looking up to the ceiling. Her head disappears, we just see her throat and chin, her body looks distorted. Starting with small finger and arm movement she slowly gets up from a sitting position and starts to move through space. Something weird is going on in her body, as if she was unable to walk “normally”. Suddenly also sounds are coming out of her. She repeats the vocal ”A” and sends it up like air bubbles. The vocal utterances slowly transform to words. Sızanlı is talking very quietly, sometimes just moving her lips, we can just pick up some fragments of Turkish language. She is now lying on the side of her body with bend legs, facing the audience, pretending that she is sitting on a chair. The dimensions of space start to drift apart, an imaginary space opens up denying reality. Read more

Oct 30

Architecture, Power and Coolness of Inscrutability (Or Just Another Try at Sexy Titles)

Eylül Akıncı

A “dreamscape” created with paravane-like white curtains and ground lighting, with a kneeling woman and a pillow-like stand in it… It is impossible not to be impressed by the stage design of Filiz Sızanlı’s solo work Site. The title of her performance already promises an attentive gaze and inquiry about landscapes, which is also convenient when you think of her professional field, architecture. However the performance in itself seems unable to fulfill this attempt, falling prey to unreadable conceptuality. Read more
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