PHOEnix, Developing a FunCTIONAL MOVEMENT WORKOUT FOR PERFORMERS OVER 40
Photo Daniel Nartschick
2023-DIS-TANZEN SOLO- NEU START KULTUR
ABOUT THE PROJECT
In my journey as an educator, the centre of my work was always to be a compass for my students for their artistic perception but also try to build up a strong technique, raising awareness on anatomy, engaging consciousness on injury prevention. My teaching experience of more then two decades and many different profiles (dance students, actors, amateurs, children, elderly and now German National Figure Skating Team) is based on the exploration of a healthier, free flowing, easy, organic and genuine way of moving.
My aim with this research is to build up a regenerating innovative workout for performers over 40, to obtain functional mobility and effective muscle building through analysing complex anatomical structures and finding out their biomechanical function. Would like to explore the hidden causes of pain in order to restore muscle, ligament, tendon, fasciae and joint functions through combining different somatic practices that I learned through my movement journey. Therefore I would like to deepen my knowledge on those techniques and methods:
Yoga (Vinyasa & Yin),
Qigong Tai chi
Chinese medicine, Meridians and Acupressure
Feldenkrais
Skinner Release
Alexander technique
Franklin Method
Body Mind Centering
I am extremely enthusiastic about creating this workout which might help all my colleagues which had to quit performing due to their physical conditions and make them shine and light up stages again with their experience and the beauty of their maturity. This training also aims to create a life long healthy movement journey for the whole dance scene, especially for the next generations, a pain free, healthy performance life.
At the end, we dancers have always been and will always be Phoenixes
THE JOURNEY
This dream project gave me the opportunity to have time to dig in the somatic practices, analysing complex anatomical structures to find out their bio mechanical function and even deepen my knowledge about the psychological aspects and causes of the injuries and pain.
As I was injured myself since the beginning of my research, this process also involved its focus on restoring muscle, ligament, tendon, fasciae and joint functions that I was dealing personally.
I was involved genuinely in Chinese Medicine, reading and researching on meridians and acupressure. „The yellow emperors’s classic of internal medicine“, „Qigong Meditations“ by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming were my new eye opener documents that I combined through Shaolin Qigong and Embryonic Breathing.
I created a many layered yoga practice, based on the Chakra System and releasing stagnant energy blocks, focusing mainly on hormonal centres since tage related hormonal issues are affecting the whole body and therefore the muscle, tendon, ligaments, tissues and nerves, causing injuries, pain or discomfort.
My journey with Skinner Release technique guide me more to the psychological issues effecting the proper body alignment, it’s functions and reactions. I used the improvisational tools of this technique for finding a free flow organic and gentle movement and included aerial techniques correspondent to the practice.
The research on Franklin Method brought my attention more into the pelvic floor. And thus aligned itself with the hormone and endocrine system. This inventive method proposed another way of workout containing props like different balls, foam rollers which I combined with Chinese massage sticks, yoga belts, Pilates therabands, Iliopsoas releasing tools and rings.
Alexander technique workouts, on the other hand, draw my attention to posture again but mainly on the head, neck, and spine area. While doing the chair work consistently, my research focused on the posture-voice connection. I also added my knowledge of Linklater Method to those workouts, which resulted as finding a clear, natural voice through the movement practices.
Feldenkrais, being part of my contemporary movement research, helped me improve the movement quality without creating muscle tension, specially during the healing process of my injury.
The creation of the workout was challenging since I wanted to add all those different knowledges to the practice. But as they are actually connected on the bases, there was a natural elimination which helped me to create an hour long workout combining breathing techniques, massages with tools, Qigong, Vinyasa Yoga and using Feldenkrais and Skinner Relaese techniques as a little free flow at the end of the practice to liberate the body. As this workout forming itself, some methods felt more powerful and efficient then the others in my personal needs but this content consists of all.
As the workout is shared on my website, I am hoping to reach everyone who would be in need or search of a tool for their body and mind, so that all Phoenix’s are keeping on shining on stages
To conclude, the exploration for a healthier, free flowing, genuine way of moving will always be an ongoing research in my practice since the more profound I got into different techniques and methods the more layers I discovered on the complexity of the human body and mind which excites me. I am extremely grateful for this incredible journey of discovery and will continue this work further with great passion.
Please contact me on my mail for further versions of the workout since it was not possible to upload it all here. I would be very happy to work personally with anyone who is interested . We all have different anatomy and different needs after all. Love and peace to you all
STOIC, DEADPAN AND FALLING- 2022- FONDS DARSTELLENDE KÜNSTE
ABOUT THE PROJECT
"Tragedy is a close up, comedy is a long shot”
Buster Keaton
Stoic, deadpan and falling
A fall is tragic when experienced by self, but makes us laugh when happened to someone else. Nowadays, some of social media’s big hits are the videos of people, kids or animals falling. ” Our greatest glory is not never falling but in rising every time we fall” says Confucius. The fact of knowing that there is a rise after the fall makes the actual action of falling easy to accept. The fall becomes an essential part of understanding life and its fluctuations, a philosophical approach on acceptance and continuity of existence.
"Jusqu’ ici tout va bien, Jusqu’ ici tout va bien, Jusqu’ ici tout va bien. l'important,
Ce n'est pas la chute, c’est l’atterrissage."
La Haine- Matthieu Kossovitz
Buster Keaton was born to a family of vaudeville artists and since his very early stages of childhood, he had to learn the art of falling since he was exposed to his father's violent acts on their performances, which even leaded on a child abuse interrogation on his parents. The Keatons act was based on knockabout acrobatics and Buster was used as human mop in the show.
Later he describes:" I started so young that landing is a second nature with me. Several times I would have been killed if I hadn’t been able to land like a cat.” The body’s proneness to injury and his magical immunity to that, were the heart of his comedy. In his vaudeville journey, Buster got accustomed to take pratfalls without suffering and started to experiment with audience reactions in his storytelling. That’s right on that process that he discovers that the more serious he gets with his facial expression, the more laughs he got. Hence, he started to build up his deadpan face, which would later inspire so many contemporary actors and directors like Wes Anderson, Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Denis Lavant, Peter Sellers, Orson Welles, Monty Pythons, Louis C K, Sasha Baron Cohen.
Deadpan, also known as dry humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter.
Keaton’s secret weapon was the magical chemistry between his combination of self contained stillness and explosive kinetic energy.This could also be interpreted as unemotional withdrawal as a response to a violent or chaotic environment. That’s the significant point which makes his gags deeply philosophical rather than ordinary slapsticks.
Buster Keaton’s films have been considered as the response to the absurdity of modern existence. His characters are struggling with calamity in a stoic endurance, existing in a world where all structures are in a constant state of persistent insecurity and uncertainty and a world where, even the elements of nature have turned against him. This violent and chaotic environment builds his remote performances, his solemnity on full display. His self contained stillness becomes his secret weapon creating a comedy of resilience. Keaton is not creating a character but instead, uses his physicality defined by the contrast of the environment in which it is displaced. The body language orbits around a symbolic nexus of contradiction and Keaton’s body becomes the central of all conflict.
As a physical performer and movement researcher, I am absolutely amazed by Keaton’s lucidity and precision in his movement vocabulary. In my opinion his acrobatic flows are the projection of rigour, lyricism and rhythm while his ravishing Great Stone Face is a philosophical statement.
Therefore I would like to deepen my knowledge about Keaton’s work and make a social movement research based on his gags.
The project will be constituted by videos taken with hidden cameras, set on public spaces, where I will be falling while trying to keep a deadpan face in total silence. The sociological research is on people's reactions to the fall. Our world today is turbulent and our social interactions are limited because of the pandemic and our prejudices and fears about the “other” are increased gradually.
My sociological questions asked would be:
How are our approaches to the “other”s reactions alters in the public spaces?
Where and how does bias and prejudice take place? Or does it take place?
Do we connect with an incident and physical action or do we connect with our facial
expressions and words?
Do we have a tendency to tolerance or intolerance in public?
Does the person’s (here as the fallen one) ethnicity, socio-cultural stand, gender affect our
reactions?
Do we fear or do we help?
How do we accept the fallen in to the society?
Does the influence of the fall change according to time and place of the action?
Is a fall funny or tragic?
And my movement research would be asking:
How can I perform some precise and natural falls in public spaces?
How can I maintain a deadpan face and total silence when there is a reaction from the other
party?
Where does my improvisation will guide me through after the fall?
How does a public space affect my body?
How can I be a response to all reactions only with my physicality?
Do I get affected personally as a performer?
Where does it hurt?
If I take the decision and choose to be funny or tragic, am I gonna be able to persuade the
other party?
How can I build up a connection only through actions in a silent state?
Where and how does an action evolves towards comedy or tragedy?
This research project aims to expand the knowledge about the performer’s presence and action in public spaces on being the “other" and how that influences and shifts to or with the public’s reaction. It also excavates on psychological aspects of a fall in society and and how it emerges in both parties. And at the end as an homage to Keaton’s work, it explores where comedy or tragedy occurs through simple motions.
"Tragedy is a close up, comedy is a long shot”
CONCLUSION
PHYSICAL RESEARCH
1. How can I perform some precise and natural falls in public spaces? The contemporary dance techniques, acrobatic moves and all my training and my connection and understanding of the floor work were handicaps on the search of a more authentic, organic, natural way of falling. My understanding is that the technicality of the falls is the real essence of the movement which make them implied as a stunt or a hazardous fall. So eliminating all I know was a greatest way to achieve a more natural movement vocabulary, which of course brought its challenges as more risk factors and injuries. This genuine way of falling created its own surprising reactions in the body and even the fact that knowing that this action will happen did not effect its flow. The most demanding part was to erase the idea that my body needed protection and try to perform in a more astonished state which caused “ the accident”.The fall which is very familiar to my body became more alien and dangerous which made me believe that this was achieved within a good approach and intention which created the right measures of reaction from the public.
2. How can I maintain a deadpan face and total silence when there is a reaction from the other party? As a performer, to maintain a deadpan face was rather easy even in environments which were more reactive than the others, but as the reaction and response from the other party evolves, it got harder to remain silent. Sticking in the principles of maintaining this blank and numb state, only in Alexanderplatz, made the audience understand that there is an act or performance. But while the same performance was repeated on the subway of Alexanderplatz, the subject became only a scary fool in the eyes of the observers. This exploration was very engaging and interesting and guide me to a more provocative improvisational process. The solid attitude and consistency resolved to a more reactive audience which made me understand that the density of the action is the most important tool which concludes the performance.
3. Where does my improvisation will guide me through after the fall?
The performance was extremely immersive depending only on the receptions, attitudes and backlashes of people. Although I developed a plan of actions, the public’s stand was effecting the improvisational process. The interaction, being the strongest element here decided where the flow went. The connection through the senses, feeling, seeing, hearing and the energetic contact were shaping the performance through different states. I was capable to be the central of the act controlling and directing it through where I wanted to lead it to. It was an absolute genuine experience of how the performers skills can be enigmatically dominating and powerful.
4. How does a public space affect my body?
When performed in more crowded areas like subway, flee market or Istanbul streets, the fact of having very close encounters and no distance among people was challenging and burdensome. In order not to touch anyone and not cause any problematic situation, falling became more dangerous for my body. The packed public spaces were caging my body and personal space therefor affecting my performance. On the other hand, the more relaxed and spacey the area was I felt more secure, safe and protected in a way. I felt that the energetic exchanges have more impact in the close encounters and this creates a big confrontation on the performer but also on the audience.
5. How can I be a response to all reactions only with my physicality?
After so many falls interactions and connections i’m very confident that movement is a very sufficient form of communication which says it all. The public reaction, rather positive or negative, was shaped through my physical responses. The contact with the audience was a build up relation through movement. The only factor which can be added to this communicative transmission was the eye contact. As I tried to obtain the deadpan on my face and therefor my eyes, the only conversation created was through somatic responses. I found that relatively interesting that the lack of verbal communication guided the audience also to silence, which constructed another realm of bound between me and them
6. Do I get affected personally as a performer?
I got totally affected personally after some specific experiences that occurred in Istanbul. The degree of loss of affection, care and therefore our humanly actions was detrimental for my heart. This city were I was born and raised, which was known for its hospitality became a gigantic heartless jungle. The implemented fear and anxiety and ongoing oppression made people more harsh, merciless and cold blooded. People were even afraid to take a look at what’s going on and rather escaped as fast as possible. This emptiness and eviction of space happening in seconds after a fall was very heartbreaking for me, Because of my personal connection and history to my homeland, it made me more vulnerable as a performer.
7. Where does it hurt?
As I mentioned in the previous description, it hurt my heart in my home city. Also some falls in the asphalt and cobblestoned pavement were hard to achieve physically where even my lifelong training of falls was not helpful to protect me of some little injuries. We can interpret that the whole process hurts physically and psychologically.
8. If I take the decision and choose to be funny or tragic, am I gonna be able to persuade the other party?
After many attempts and different approaches, I came to the conclusion that it’s all about the decision of the performer which guides the whole scene towards tragic or funny. The only component which adjusts this thin line between two genres is the movement vocabulary. When a clumsy, awkward, bulky way of moving is chosen the return from the public becomes a laugh, while a serious, critical and inverted version invites them to a more dramatic sensation. I also tried to combine this two, in the process of starting in a serious way and then becoming a fool. in this case again, the people's reactions also changed with my moods. Even so, if they felt like laughing they wanted to hide or control it as they thought it would be socially inappropriate. We can probably evaluate this situation as the choice of the performer being the most important tool of an act.
9.How can I build up a connection only through actions in a silent state?
Silence is an extremely strong and also hypnotic state. This element is so powerful that it invites the both parties to a profounder, deeper connection. Silence opens the audience’s perception and apprehension to an augmented state of bound. When there is a falling action happening before their eyes and this action has no sound, it already opens to a new consideration of the reality and is accessible to an almost unreal nature of events for the observer. When the contact is more close, the only meeting point becomes the movement and the eyes which are enabling a different way of uniting or bounding where everything becomes more pure, without any bias or assumptions, just being the action itself.
10. Where and how does an action evolves towards comedy or tragedy?
As explained in the chapter 8, this thin line between those two poles is a very productive and maybe the most interesting point for the performance analysis. This flow is only guided by the performer and performer only whatsoever the audience’s reaction, attitude, reception or feeling is. The power of the performer is to create the story towards which direction they want to shape it. Regardless of the response of the audience the performer has the full power of shifting the situation and play with that material. The key element being playfulness makes the whole process a fun journey between emotions and states.
SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
1. How are our approaches to the “other”s reactions alters in the public spaces?
The fact that you are always watched as a part of society shapes our actions and responses in public spaces. Knowing that every single move can be examined, analysed, criticised or judged creates a public appearance of ourselves and might push us to act differently in the presence of the others. This modality happening only with our self image no doubt creates more boundaries between the other and self. The people who were present on this incidents were usually extremely self aware of their own actions. The intriguing part was that they were even proudly reacting even in a bad manner which might have caused some chain reactions in public. Talking about a chain reaction, some of the general attitudes were contagiously spreading through everyone, specially some demeanours like not approving, judging and criticising produced a virus effect in society. Society has it’s own ethics and rules, besides human behaviour has none in nature. The analysis here comes to an outcome that we have a tendency to copy behavioural patterns and even own them easily in public.
2. Where and how does bias and prejudice take place? Or does it take place?
Unfortunately bias and prejudice takes place in many ways and forms. Performing with a burka was quite challenging cause the image itself creates some distance and personal space automatically. The fact of not touching a Muslim woman is producing an authentic invisible aura. So the information about the performer from this image is already very strong and includes a statement. Bringing the vulnerability to this image and making it more accessible, reachable for the other party was nearly impossible. This invisible aura’s powerful outcome was absolute respect. Although it attracted all the eyes people were more distant and even their helping behaviour was remote. Despite all this, when in Prenzlauer Berg, the faces became more judgemental and critical and neglecting.
The businesswoman image though was the most accepted between all the images. To recognise that this acknowledgment is coming from an image was bizarre but this cis-woman, was helped and taken more seriously then any other character. Where no-one was suspicious of an act or performance possibility. This solemnly character was more reachable and sincerely connected and helped.
The non-binary, queer party look though was not taken so serious. I’m still trying to understand if it’s only the image or the looks which projected a younger presence were more potent in that. Confronting a deadpan face with this act guided a lot of people to a suspicion about a possibility of a performance. I’m not certain again, if that’s because it might be the image of many artist in Berlin or it was just coincidence that made many people acting that way.
We analyse through images and some appearances have very strong effect on our perception. This information received through the self expression of the costume choice is creating prejudices and bias.
3. Do we connect with an incident and physical action or do we connect with our facial expressions and words?
As mentioned above in the physical report, we do connect through all. In terms of public reaction, the first impulse is to convert verbally, through words. But noticing that there is no active response to that, the communication through the eyes becomes extremely effective and opens a new path to explore for the performer and also to the people.
Additionally, the physical action of falling is very powerful and also takes place in every single person's memory. This situation creates a bond through feelings and connection the the fallen one. We all have been there and we all know how it feels. That enables a strange state of attachment to the performer from the audience side. So we might actually be connecting through personal experiences and recalled emotions.
4. Do we have a tendency to tolerance or intolerance in public?
Tolerance and intolerance was changing constantly during the performance of the act. As it’s mentioned before, in Istanbul, the rough jungle mood of the city was only creating intolerance. People were extremely disturbed, changed their paths, totally neglected, ignored the action. Depending on where it was performed and the image of the performer projected, the amount of tolerance and intolerance differed. My conclusion is that, when it was performed in busier and crowded areas, the act creates more intolerance and when it is happening in more laidback, relaxed neighbourhoods the tolerance was even replaced by compassion, a very constructive way of helping, getting friendly in many terms. The only significant different attitude was the burka experience in Prenzlauer Berg where there is a more upper class populace and relaxed atmosphere. So the dosage of tolerance differs from the areas, times and demagogy.
5. Does the person’s (here as the fallen one) ethnicity, socio-cultural stand, gender affect our reactions?
As it was explored on chapter 2, one of the most interesting parts of the research was to see how ethnicity, socio-cultural stand and gender affects our reactions. I tried different looks-costumes in similar places and tried to understand the perspective of the viewer and also how demagogic state of the neighbourhood alters with that.
The performance had been accomplished with a business woman look, non-binary look and head scarfed-burka look. The business woman has been always helped, no matter which area it was performed, people took it very serious and their reactions were very gentil and compassionate. Non-binary-queer party look took attention but the reactions were not to help but usually look from far and observe in more contemplative way. While the burka image has usually gotten a lot of help in Kreuzberg and Neukolln area but not in Prenzlauer Berg, also the problem of touching someone with a religious mark became deliberate and mostly distanced with a lot of respect for some personal space.
6. Do we fear or do we help?
The first reaction is to observe and examine and see the circumstances. If the performer was already up during this process, they come to a decision that there is no needed activity from their side. I am assuming that the never ending pandemic process also made us more distant to the people we don’t know, even to the ones we know from close. This study showed me that we are more fearful and more pre-cautious towards people. The fall, even a severe one, required some time for a public response. Somehow people were checking others for a reaction and in order to avoid contact themselves first hand, taking time and exploring the situation and see if the help would be provided by another party and would be enough, so they can keep distant and not involved.
7. How do we accept the fallen in to the society?
The concept of falling itself is somehow conventional and totally accepted since it might happen to anyone any time. The notion of this happening is an "accident" and this makes it easy to connect with. But the perception of the falling one and its image is the aspect which makes the issue more comprehensible. The acceptance of the other, as they are, in our society depends on our remembrance of the same experience, personal memories, feelings and emotions which reminds us that we are not different then each other, that we all fall and rise, again and again…
8. Does the influence of the fall change according to time and place of the action?
As mentioned above, the space is one of the most important factors for the incident. The element of time, was depending on the working hours and also the space of performance. The busy hours containing more rush and crowd made the fall more insignificant where the relaxed hours were attraction more attention . Also as long as the improvisation stretched though and the primarily involved responders augmented, the attention got less from the other party, which made the primary reacting group more focused. The more time consuming it gets, the more disturbed was the audience response in the busy areas. In an era that time is limited in the daily flow of our lives that was predicted.
9. Is a fall funny or tragic?Conclusion:
As a completion, depending on the development of the act aside of the other influencing factors like performer’s decision, space, image etc, the performance shifts between tragic and funny. The playfulness of the performer and the response of the audience are the strongest elements which are shaping the act. Personally, I really enjoyed this journey which flows with the vibrations, energies and rhythm of surroundings and experienced no boundaries or limits which were separating between tragic and funny. As life’s fluctuations flow, so many different waves are coming and going and leaving us with the traces behind and we accept all those ups and downs, falls and rises. And at the end, we are left only with some memories that we collect through our journey.
VOICE OF MEDUSA, RESEARCH FOR A DRAMATURGIC TALE OF MUSIC IN PERFORMANCE
2021 DIS-TANZEN SOLO
Photos: Claude Hofer
ABOUT THE PROJECT
In Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Medusa is described as a beautiful maiden and her unusual beauty catches the eye of Poseidon. One day Medusa goes to pray in Athena’s temple, but Poseidon is waiting there and he ravages her in Athena’s shrine. When Athena discovers that Medusa is raped in her temple, she gets furious about the violation of her shrine and seeks vengeance by transforming Medusa’s hair into snakes Anyone who gazes at her directly would be turned into stone. Medusa being the victim, is blamed guilty, punished and shamed.
The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is a human rights treaty of the Council of Europe against violence against women and domestic violence which was opened for signature on 11 May 2011, in Istanbul, Turkey. The convention aims at prevention of violence, victim protection and to end the impunity of perpetrators.
In only between 2020-2021, Turkey had 328 femicides and 185 suspicious woman death, in 2019 this number was 474 with the governments enormous attempt to normalise and justify all crimes.
In 20.03.2021, Turkish Republic decided to withdraw from Istanbul Convention.
Growing up in a country oppressed by sexuality as a big taboo, having experienced all kinds attacks, from verbal harassment to sexual assault, I would like to be the voice of Medusa, the voice of all woman, harassed , assaulted, raped, oppressed and suppressed by patriarchy, society, state, cultural inherits and religions
"Voice of Medusa" is a sonic-movement research and learning process for an upcoming project.
“Voice of Medusa” will be a dramaturgically told tale of music and performance. Telling woman’s stories from from all over the world, opening up several perspectives and layers.
“Occasionally Colliding”, the performance I produced during the process of my research, allowed me to dig deeply into the concept of creating live sound through vocals and electronic music. My collaboration with Huseyin Evirgen aka Magna Pia as a musician in this piece, helped me focus on learning different vocal techniques such as throat singing, ; as well as trying out with different effects to turn the improvised vocal sounds guided by drone into the starting point for movement. In this musical journey which started with an electronic base and transformed itself into an analogue path which was accompanied by guitar and bendir, the music was the source of creation and showed us the way.
With our roots being politically turmoiled, we wanted to dig deeper in the notions of oppression, riot, migration, freedom, voice, interrogation and identity, in a universe we build up from recollection of memories, remembrance of dreams, dystopian and utopian visualisations. In this universe where there is no arrow of time and nothing is linear, we became two floating souls occasionally colliding, where every collision executed and effected different actions.
Our experiment of Occasionally Colliding, started with an empty space, a space creating its own sound and story through our rencontre, our improvisations and live sessions. This space, being filled by my vocals and complex psychedelic drones, synth lines, processed acoustic instrumental sounds and throat singing added live by Magna Pia, started to tell a story, a story, which was not planned or thought, a story coming directly from the sound and commingling with every element in space. This creation of a magnetic stream through energy, frequency and vibration composed the dramaturgy of the piece.
Occasionally Colliding brings the human history under flashlight throughout archetypes, indicated roles, emotions, passages, creatures, gods and goddesses in this timeless cosmos. Our research is on the individual, being a part of a whole but experiencing themselves, their thoughts and feelings separated from the rest, living in an optical delusion of their own consciousness. Through our reciprocity, we focus on humanly connections and how that effects the whole process of the existence, how every action causes an equal or opposite reaction.
After this research, which made me even more excited about this concept of liver sound producing, my aim is to implement all this material into my work more and deepen my knowledge in this subject.
TURKISH WAVES OF MIGRATION AND THEIR RELATION TO ART AND CULTURE 2019 Fonds Daku
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Today, there are more than 3.000.000 Turkish immigrants in Germany, which forms the largest ethnic minority in the country.
As a member of the last wave- post Gezi immigrants, I was very curious about the first generation. How they were welcomed, what they went through, how they were treated and above all, how was the process of integration for them, if there was any. From some documentaries that I watched or from reading that I made about the subject, I knew that they had a challenging process.
The largest amount of the first generation came here from their villages without even seeing a big city in their homeland. They didn’t speak any language then their maternal one. They were not well educated. They left their families, their beloved ones and came here with the hope of gaining money. But their biggest intention was to go back. That was the first deal between the two countries and that’s why they were called here “Gastarbeiter”.
Years passed after this first step to Germany, they settled, brought their kids and wives, had some more kids, learned the language, created the 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations established, bought houses, made a lot of flotations and stayed here. Becoming maybe more German then Turkish, Creating a hybrid culture, speaking a ghetto language between those two languages. But my curiosity was about what happened to them, how did they communicated, above all how did they survived the first arrival process.
As an artist those questions were pumping up on my brain:
When language was not the tool of communication did body language help?
It is clear that they brought some of their culture to the this new home but did they also bring their art?
Was art unifying then, enough to create a bond between different nations and backgrounds?
And what art forms they used or shared between the Ghetto culture they created here in order to survive.
Then was the 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation, who created many artists, politicians, writers, musicians who took very important roles and positions here. Was wondering about how they described themselves, specially in the fields of identity, culture and language
There is a severe deficiency in Turks' social recognition in Germany. Those German Turks who have already moved up economically, despite their well-off position there, in fact complain about their lack of social recognition in Germany.
It is not only workers or those who started as workers and became successful entrepreneurs who suffer from this lack of social recognition. Turkish artists and writers living in Germany express similar discontent. Their major complaints are being treated as 'ethnic' artists, writers or social-workers, and the evaluation of their works by reference to criteria different from those that are applied to German artists and writers (see Seyhan 1989; Suhr 1989; Cirak 1991: 5; Erdem 1991: 57-59; Wollbert 1991; Lutz 1991). The source of their unease is their non-recognition as artists and writers per se and their recognition only as ethnic artists (Ayse Caglar- German Turks in Belir; Social exclusion and strategies for social mobility)
And now, the post Gezi wave is here, the big brain drain. Mostly highly educated, specialised in their domains, talented and good labourers are seeking for asylum in Germany. But how is their process of immigration. Is it easy to leave your comfort zone, everything you build up behind and start a new life in a foreign country where you have no network and no connection?
We grew up in a struggling environment for artists. In our country, performance and artistic expression was never a priority. We have gone through times of flourishing environments, we have gone through oppressing environments. We have gone through the roller coasters of personal struggles, political conflicts, financial troubles, artistic chaos. We have gone through all but we kept on resisting, kept on creating.
Different backgrounds, different experiences...
The sense of one's place is also a sense of what one can or cannot permit oneself, and it 'implies a tacit acceptance of one's place, a sense of limits' (Bourdieu 1985: 728).
I wonder about the changes in structures and textures between generations after the first immigration who created a hybrid culture. The intention is in the socio-political and cultural effect of this event, specially in the art field. The psychology of the immigrant culture, who is usually “the other” in its own and the new country.
What are the similarities and differences between the first comers and the new ones. How do they make connections, how do they accommodate to the new culture, how do they interact, what kind of difficulties they encounter and how all this effect their creation process.
In this blog, with this series of interviews with different artist form different generations,the intention is to create a platform, a data base, in which those different generations and backgrounds can be visible to each other, get connected and share their experiences.
With my deepest gratitude to the Fonds Darstellende Kunste, who made this possible.
ARTIST INTERVIEWS
ALI M. DEMIREL
Ali M. Demirel, born in Turkey in 1972, is a Berlin-based artist. He is known for experimental video work that hones in on minimal imagery and structural compositions, often rooted in architecture, science and nature.
Demirel studied nuclear engineering at Hacettepe University and architecture at Middle East Technical University (METU). After receiving his degree, he worked and lectured at GISAM (Audio-Visual Research Center) of METU. In 1993, he started experimenting with video. As his practice developed, he began working with electronic musicians, and is well-known for his collaborations with Richie Hawtin/Plastikman. Their work together includes the sleek music video for “The Tunnel,” from Hawtin’s album DE9: Transitions and the 2010-11 Plastikman live tour. Demirel is known across minimal electronic music for his singular aesthetic.
Other work of his also includes Meta-Control, a collaboration with Burak Arikan, which consists of interactive, kinetic visual compositions generated through programming language Processing. More recently, he has been working on a series of video installations which examine post-apocalyptic utopias.
Demirel has performed live at Sonar Festival, Spain; Mutek Festival, Canada; Coachella, USA; Fuji Rock Festival, Japan; Brixton Academy, London; L’Olympia, Paris; ADE, Amsterdam; among others. His work has been shown at institutions and spaces such as Guggenheim Museum, New York; TodaysArt.NL; CTM, Berlin; ICA, London; Arter, Istanbul; among others.
DJ IPEK IPEKCIOGLU
Based in Berlin and Istanbul, queer-living DJ, producer and curator, İpek İpekçioğlu aka DJ Ipek has an established reputation across nightlife scenes worldwide.
Ipek Ipekcioglu is regarded as one of the most popular and diverse DJ’s of the Berlin club scenes and internationally known as Queen of Eklektik BerlinIstan.
Inspired by her passion for ethnic music and genre-hopping dance, her „Eklektik BerlinIstan“ set provides surprising breaks to the steady course of club music today.
In her musical spectrum, psychedelic Turkish funk meets Disco, Balkan to Minimal, AnatolianFolk to Deep House, Armenian Halay to Electro, Kurdish Gowend 2 Moombahton, from Dabke to Reaggaton, Iranian Bandari to Techno. Her EthnikFolkElektronikMix is free of conventions, and it refuses to be limited by style, tempo or genres.
At her electronic „MidEast’Elektro ’’ sets, Ipek takes you into deep-house, tech-house, minimal and techno spiced up with ethnic - folk -oriental tunes, fueled by kicking beats and dramatic basslines and live-mixes.
Besides djaying and producing music, Ipek Ipekcioglu has a strong social-critical agenda related to women, immigrant, queer and gender topics. She focuses on contemporary, everyday issues and transports these issues into her music.
Ipek is also known for her collaborations with well-known musicians such as Aynur Dogan, Brenna MacGrimmon, Petra Nachtmanova, Kinan Azmeh, Baba Zula, La Nuit d’Antigone, Hakan Vreskala etc.
she maintains a principle of cultural – gender diversity and pushing boundaries within the ethnic and electronic music scene for over a decade.
The socialy- critical minded producer, DJ, is an activist and member of female: pressure network and is consistently on the cutting edge throughout the cultural arena. Ipek is also Patron (Schirmherrin) at the „Aktion Courage – School against racism“ (http://www.aktioncourage.org/startseite/) and Boardmember at Gladt e.V. http://www.gladt.de/ (LGBTQI* with immigrant background from Turkey)
Ipek Ipekcioglu offers dj workshops for female participants. Its goal is to promote visibility amongst female DJs. She gave workshops in Vienna, Graz, Beijing, Tunis, Istanbul, Montréal and in Berlin.
She has performed at Glastonburry, Fusion, Sziget, At. tension, Ms Dockville, Womex and many more international electronic and world music festivals from New York City, Tokyo, Beirut, Erbil, Yerevan, Salvador de Bahia, Istanbul, Novosibirsk to the desert Sahara of Mali, developing an exclusive brand name with her unique & hybrid Soundmix . She has toured across Europe, the US, North-Africa and South-Asia.
This vibrant mix and her work have earned her a place as “one of Berlin’s most important cultural contributors” [Zitty Magazine]. She proudly carries the title of "MC of cross-cultural understanding" (Daniel Bax - TAZ).
Ipek Ipekcioglu released her track with Petra Nachtmanova “Uyan Uyan” at Katermukke, which became Nr. 1 at Beatport Katermukke charts. Bei Epic, (Sony music Istanbul division) Bir cift Turna erst vor kurzem herausgebracht. Zuletzt remixte sie Omerar Nanda bei Kybele Records.
MUSTAFA ALTIOKLAR
Mustafa Altıoklar (born 1958) is a Turkish film director, producer and screenwriter. He is the chairman of the Turkish Film Directors Association and is fluent in English. Although he graduated from the medical faculty of Istanbul University and specialised in physiotherapy, he decided to pursue a career as a director, especially after the success of his short film The Scar.
KAAN BULAK
Composer and pianist Kaan Bulak works between cultures and explores diverse musical approaches. Bulak grew up at the piano as a student of Andrej Jussow. Instead of pursuing plans as a pianist, he studied audio engineering, followed by a master in sound art at the University of Arts Berlin. Bulak studied audio techniques in Studio P4 at Funkhaus with Jean-Boris Szymczak and composition with Martin Supper.
Commissioned by Bavarian Radio, Bulak composed Orgelwerk I: Hain I / II for Church Organ and Electronics (2017) which premiered at Podium Festival.Bulak arranged Hain I / II for string quartet and electronics, focusing on an intimate sound in chamber music setting, and released the live recording with Rothko String Quartet on his own record label Feral Note. His Cello Duet with Electronics (2017) premiered at Prinzregententheater in Munich and was broadcasted on BR Klassik.
In all his pieces Bulak prefers allowing sufficient rhythmic and expressive freedom to the instrumentalists rather than strapping them to a steady electronic beat.
During his tour with ensemble reflektor and conductor Thomas Klug in 2018, Bulak played his Augmented Piano Concerto (2018) as soloist at Konzerthaus in Berlin, Halle 424 in Hamburg, and ZKM_Kubus in Karlsruhe. For his concept of the augmented piano, Bulak has co-designed a mobile loudspeaker with Martion Audiosysteme that enables electronic sounds to sound as organic as possible in classical concert halls.
As a producer Bulak participated in the making of the club record 1840 (Contexterrior Records, 2016) with Jay Haze and Contrapunct, where solely a single violin was used to produce a 12 minute experimental house track. Bulak also wrote the soundtrack for the film We Were Rebels, which won the Grimme Award in 2015. On stage at Verbier Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn and XJazz Festival Bulak has been collaborating with classical and jazz musicians such as Julien Quentin, Adrien Boisseau, Wooden Elephant, and Taner Akyol Trio.
Bulak is artist in residence at ZKM Karlsruhe as a fellow of #bebeethoven, composing and recording electroacoustic works, and founder of the record label Feral Note which focuses on combining visual arts with contemporary music.
TANER AKYOL
Der 1977 in Bursa, der viertgrößten Stadt der Türkei, geborene Taner Akyol machte bereits während seiner Grundschulzeit erste Erfahrungen mit der türkischen Langhalslaute Bağlama (Saz). Im Alter von 14 Jahren bestand Akyol die Aufnahmeprüfung am Musikgymnasium in Bursa, das er vier Jahre später mit Fachabitur und dem Hauptfach Geige erfolgreich abschloss. 1996 zog es den jungen Künstler nach Berlin, wo er Kompositionsunterricht bei Helmut Zapf am Studienvorbereitenden Institut der Musikschule Kreuzberg erhielt. Noch im gleichen Jahr gab er sein erstes Solokonzert. Von 1997 bis 2003 studierte er Komposition bei Prof. Hanspeter Kyburz an der Hochschule für Musik Hanns-Eisler, gefolgt von einem Zusatzstudium als Meisterschüler bei Prof. Walter Zimmermann an der Universität der Künste, das er im Sommer 2006 erfolgreich abschloss.
Als Bağlama-Solist und als Komponist wurde Taner Akyol mehrfach ausgezeichnet, so mit dem „Musikpreis der Kulturen in Berlin“ beim musica vitale Wettbewerb 1998, im Jahr darauf mit dem Hanns-Eisler-Preis für Komposition und Interpretation zeitgenössischer Musik und 2007 beim internationalen Kompositionswettbewerb „global music – contemporary expression“. Er schrieb Auftragswerke für Festivals wie „Istanbul in Berlin“, „Randspiele“ und „Klangwerkstatt“. Für die Komische Oper Berlin hat er soeben die Kinderoper Ali Baba und die 40 Räuber vollendet, die am 28. Oktober 2012 ihre Uraufführung erleben wird.
Taner Akyols Bemühungen, die Bağlama der europäischen Komponisten- und Hochschulszene nahe zu bringen, fanden 2002 durch seine Berufung in die Jury für die Fachrichtung Bağlama beim 39. Wettbewerb von „Jugend musiziert“ erste Anerkennung.
Seit 2004 leitet er das „ta Musikatelier“ in der Dieffenbachstraße in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
Beim Label enja records liegen mehrere CD-Veröffentlichungen von und mit Taner Akyol vor, darunter „Birds of Passage“ mit zwölf in der türkischen Tradition verankerten Stücken, gespielt von unterschiedlich großen, aus einer Kombination von westlichen und orientalischen Instrumenten bestehenden Kammer-Ensembles, eine CD mit der weltberühmten griechischen Sängerin und Theodorakis-Interpretin Maria Farantouri und – unlängst veröffentlicht - „Dance to the Sun“mit dem Taner Akyol Trio, bestehend aus Antonis Anissegos am Klavier, Perkussionist David Kuckhermann und dem Komponisten selbst an der Bağlama.
Die Musik Taner Akyols ist ohne Zweifel der westeuropäischen Avantgarde verpflichtet, verleugnet dabei aber an keiner Stelle die kulturellen Wurzeln seines Schöpfers. Das äußert sich nicht allein in der gelegentlichen Verwendung türkischer Instrumente wie Kaval, Zurna oder Bağlama. Die kulturellen Einflüsse seines Herkunftslandes reichen vielmehr in die kompositorische Substanz seiner Werke, sind in einer melismenreichen Melodieführung ebenso wie in einer an zahlreichen Stellen seiner Orchesterpartituren aufscheinenden, durchaus orientalisch anmutenden Heterophonie verortbar.
Der berühmte Komponist und Klaviervirtuose Fazil Say schreibt über Taner Akyol: „Ohne Zweifel ist Taner Akyol einer der herausragendsten Saz-Virtuosen der letzten Jahre. In erster Linie ist er jedoch Komponist. Ein Komponist, der der Volksmusik ein neues Gesicht schenkt, der lernt, arbeitet und sich müht, um Neues zu schaffen.“
Seit 2016 hat Taner Akyol als Dozent für Bağlama einen Lehrauftrag an der Universität der Künste Berlin inne.
KADIR AMIGO MEMIS
When Kadir "Amigo" Memiş dances, stages a production or draws, he summons his creativity from memories of his childhood. He grew up as a shepherd in a village of 300 souls in Anatolia and joined his parents in Berlin in 1984.
It was then that Amigo found his way into hip-hop culture and breakdance.
Like an urban nomad, he gathered impressions of the city and began to translate them into movements. Today he is best known as a dancer, choreographer and founder of the internationally acclaimed hip-hop group Flying Steps. In Germany, he was one of the first to combine hip-hop with other elements. For example, in his production Zeybreak, he mixed elements of the traditional Turkish folk dance zeybek with breakdance to create Zeybreak.
After graduating from high-school, Amigo trained as a technical draftsman, a profession that demands a great deal of precision. This experience was later reflected not only in his perfectly rehearsed sequences of movement, but also in the calligraphy that he has been producing for more than thirty-two years. Impulsive yet thoughtful, the black lines of his drawings seem to move in different directions, forming circles and setting points. Like the movements in his choreographies, the lines in Amigo's calligraphy always strive for a form in which intuition and reflection are in harmonious accord with one another. The boundaries between performance and visual art increasingly blur in his work.
In addition to his dance productions, Memiş has been active in the street art scene for many years. In 2003, together with artists such as Banksy, Obey, Akim, Datagno and others, he was part of Backjumps - The Live Issue, an exhibition project in Berlin that was one of the first in Europe to explore interfaces of street art, aerosol culture and hip hop, and to present the contemporary developments of the various art forms. The starting point of the show was the international network of artists and activists that was established in 1994 by Adrian Nabi and the magazine Backjumps, which Nabi founded. A big influence on Memiş has been the Berlin writers Akim, Tagno and Zast of the legendary Jazzstyle Corner.
Kadir "Amigo" Memiş will be a scholarship holder of the Tarabya Cultural Academy from January to April 2019.
www.kadirmemis.com
EZGI KILICASLAN
Ezgi Kılınçaslan was born in 1973, Besni-Turkey. She received a degree in art and pedagogics at Marmara University, Istanbul. She lives in Berlin and graduated as "Meister Schüler" from the University of the Arts (UdK).
While initially formed as a painter, she is now experimenting with a variety of mediums including photography, video and installation - exploring and questioning matters of power, related with patriarchy and gender.
LEYLA POSTALCIOGLU
Leyla Postalcıoğlu, born in 1981 in Istanbul.
In 2000 she moved to Essen where she received her dance degree at Folkwang University of the Arts in 2004, where she also danced in Pina Bausch’s Tannhäuser Bacchanal. From 2004 until 2010 she worked as a dancer at State Theatre Kassel first under the direction of Wu Kuo-Chu and later of Johannes Wieland.
Since 2010 danced and created work with Meg Stuart /Damaged Goods in Off Course (2010); Atelier I (2011); Sketches/ Notebook (2012) and with its following Initiative Supernova (2018); and Until Our Hearts Stop (2015). She also performed in Kat Valastur’s Ah Oh a Contemporary Ritual (2014)
After creating and presenting several short choreographies during her studies and her time at the State Theatre, she moved to Berlin to work as an independent and created two pieces Roof (2010) and Backyard (2012).
Between 2012 and 2015 Leyla gave Improvisation workshops as a guest in the Dance Program of the School of Art and Design at Yıldız Technical University. Since 2015 she has been facilitating creative dance workshops for children in different associations as well as improvisation workshops in independent dance studios in Turkey, mostly at Cıplakayaklar Studio. Since 2017 she has been teaching Improvisation and Repertory at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Contemporary Dance Department.
She was invited to Mardin Biennial in 2018
Leyla is part of the project team of the documentary Gitmek (Set off)(2019). As well, she was choreographic assistant of Senem Gökçe Oğultekin’s dance film Dun (2017).
In recent years she danced and collaborated with Tuğce Tuna in 45’s , with Ayrin Ersöz in Antigone Divided and currently with Gizem Aksu in Politial Imaginaries. Most recently she has collaborated with filmmaker Cynthia Madansky.
Leyla continues dancing, always questioning what it means to be a human being and an artist in times of neverending wars, how and where to take position in life and create work.