RESEARCH POSITION STATEMENT

My artistic research investigates the body as a site where political power, memory, and lived experience take physical form. Working with movement, voice, sound, and public space, I explore how intersecting systems such as patriarchy, colonial histories, capitalism, migration, surveillance, and ageism shape bodies and how bodies respond through endurance, refusal, play, and disruption.

Choreography and performance function in my practice as research processes. Knowledge emerges through sustained physical inquiry, repetition, risk, and attention to sensation. The body carries memory, inherited histories, and survival strategies that unfold through action, rhythm, and presence. I am drawn to moments where meaning shifts away from language toward breath, tension, vibration, and gesture.

A central strand of my research examines bodies under pressure within capitalist and disciplinary structures that demand productivity, legibility, and control. I work with falling, exhaustion, stillness, silence, and failure as tools that reveal how obedience, efficiency, and resilience are trained into bodies. Humor, deadpan, and absurdity operate as critical strategies that expose instability within everyday systems and interrupt normalized forms of compliance.

Voice occupies a core place in my research as an embodied and political force. Through live sound, vocal experimentation, and sonic dramaturgy, I explore voice as vibration, resonance, rupture, and rhythm. I focus on voices historically restricted, distorted, or dismissed—particularly those of women, migrants, aging bodies, and non-conforming subjects and investigate how presence can be asserted without translation or justification.

Migration and displacement form a structural foundation of my work, shaped by colonial legacies, economic asymmetries, and enforced mobility. Working between Turkey and Germany, I research how migration affects bodily perception, identity formation, and artistic practice across generations. Memory, loss, and adaptation surface physically, influencing movement patterns, spatial awareness, and modes of connection. Artistic practice operates here as a means of navigating rupture, survival, and continuity.

Another key axis of my research addresses aging bodies and gendered labor within capitalist frameworks that privilege youth, speed, and replaceability. With particular attention to women performers, I explore how value, authority, and visibility shift over time, and how accumulated experience, contradiction, and physical knowledge generate new forms of strength and precision. Aging appears in my work as transformation and density.

Methodologically, my practice moves across choreography, improvisation, live sound, text, and somatic research. Public space functions as an active field where audience response, social codes, and spatial hierarchies influence the work in real time. Collaboration, particularly with sound artists and performers, expands the research through shared attention, listening, and negotiation.

Across all projects, my research remains attentive to presence, friction, and relational intensity. It asks how bodies continue to act, resonate, and connect within systems that seek to regulate, extract, categorize, or erase them—and how performance can hold space for complexity, persistence, and embodied knowledge.

PHOEnix, Developing a FunCTIONAL MOVEMENT WORKOUT FOR PERFORMERS OVER 40

2023-DIS-TANZEN SOLO- NEU START KULTUR

ABOUT THE PROJECT

THE JOURNEY

Research Process and Practice Development

This project provided the opportunity for an in-depth investigation of somatic practices, anatomical systems, and the psycho-physical dimensions of injury and recovery. The research unfolded in parallel with my own injury rehabilitation process, allowing embodied knowledge to function as both subject and method. Personal recovery became a site of inquiry into restoring muscular, ligamentous, tendinous, fascial, and joint function.

A significant component of the research focused on Chinese Medicine, particularly meridian theory and acupressure. Foundational texts such as The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine and Qigong Meditation by Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming informed the integration of Shaolin Qigong and embryonic breathing practices into the training.

A multi-layered yoga practice was developed, structured around the chakra system and the release of energetic stagnation. Particular attention was given to hormonal centres, acknowledging the impact of age-related hormonal changes on connective tissue, neuromuscular coordination, and injury susceptibility.

The Skinner Release Technique guided the research toward the psychological dimensions of alignment, tension, and habitual holding patterns. Its improvisational tools facilitated the development of gentle, continuous movement pathways and were expanded through the incorporation of aerial elements to support weight distribution and release.

Research into the Franklin Method foregrounded the pelvic floor and its relationship to the endocrine system, posture, and efficiency of movement. This phase introduced the systematic use of props—balls, foam rollers, resistance bands, massage sticks, and release tools—integrated with Pilates and yoga-based apparatus to enhance proprioceptive feedback.

The Alexander Technique refocused the inquiry on postural organisation, particularly the relationship between head, neck, and spine. Through sustained chair work, the research extended into the connection between posture and voice. Drawing on my experience with the Linklater voice method, the work explored how natural vocal resonance emerges through aligned, responsive movement.

Feldenkrais practices supported neuromuscular reorganisation during the injury recovery process, enabling improvements in movement quality without unnecessary muscular effort. These principles became central to the final structure of the training.

OUTCOME AND REFLECTION

The primary challenge lay in integrating multiple methodologies without producing an overloaded or contradictory system. However, as the research progressed, shared foundational principles emerged, allowing for a process of elimination and refinement. The result is a one-hour regenerative training practice combining breathwork, self-massage with tools, Qigong, Vinyasa Yoga, and concluding with free-flow improvisation informed by Feldenkrais and Skinner Release techniques.

While certain methods proved more effective for specific needs, the final practice retains elements of all contributing systems, forming a flexible and adaptive structure. The training is currently shared through my website, with the intention of making it accessible to performers seeking sustainable tools for both physical and mental wellbeing.

This research affirms that the pursuit of a healthy, fluid, and authentic way of moving is an ongoing process. The deeper the inquiry into somatic systems becomes, the more complex and layered the understanding of body–mind interrelation grows. This continuous discovery sustains my commitment to developing and sharing practices that support longevity, resilience, and artistic vitality.

As performers, we repeatedly fall, regenerate, and return. In this sense, the dancer remains a phoenix—not through denial of injury or age, but through transformation.

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

This research project investigates falling as a physical, social, and philosophical event situated between comedy and tragedy. A fall is experienced as tragic by the subject who falls, yet often perceived as comic by observers. Contemporary digital culture amplifies this paradox: videos of falling bodies—humans, children, animals—circulate widely as entertainment. The knowledge that one can rise after falling, as articulated in philosophical traditions from Confucius onward, renders the fall simultaneously acceptable and meaningful, positioning it as a metaphor for endurance, continuity, and existence.

Drawing on the legacy of Buster Keaton—whose work transformed physical risk, stoicism, and deadpan expression into a philosophy of resilience—this project examines how stillness, silence, and controlled physicality operate as responses to violent, chaotic, or unstable environments. Keaton’s practice, shaped by early exposure to bodily risk and repeated falls, reveals how the body becomes both vulnerable and resistant, producing comedy not through exaggeration but through restraint.

Deadpan performance, defined by emotional neutrality and minimal expression, functions here as a deliberate strategy. When paired with physically demanding or hazardous actions, deadpan creates a productive tension between affect and action. This tension situates the fall not as slapstick spectacle but as an existential gesture—one that exposes the instability of social order, empathy, and perception.

Positioned within artistic research and social movement inquiry, this project employs public-space interventions in which the performer repeatedly falls while maintaining silence and a deadpan facial expression. Using discreet video documentation, the research observes how passersby respond to the falling body, examining reactions shaped by fear, empathy, indifference, prejudice, or care.

The project asks how social context, spatial conditions, and visible identity markers—including gender expression, ethnicity, and socio-cultural positioning—influence public response. It further investigates how comedy or tragedy emerges not inherently from the fall itself, but from the relational dynamics between performer, observer, and environment.

Ultimately, this research seeks to expand understandings of performer presence in public space, the politics of being perceived as “the other,” and the fragile boundary between laughter and catastrophe. As an homage to Keaton’s work, it explores how minimal actions—executed with precision, risk, and restraint—can expose the ethical and emotional structures governing collective life.

PHYSICAL RESEARCH (Condensed & Strengthened)

1. Performing Natural Falls in Public Space

My extensive training in contemporary dance and acrobatics initially functioned as an obstacle rather than an asset. Technical knowledge risked aestheticising the fall and revealing it as controlled or staged. By consciously dismantling this technical reflex, I pursued a more organic, precarious mode of falling that increased both physical risk and perceptual authenticity. This approach destabilised bodily certainty and reintroduced danger, producing reactions that aligned more closely with real accidents rather than performative stunts.

2. Maintaining Deadpan and Silence

Sustaining a deadpan expression proved technically manageable; maintaining silence did not. Silence intensified the ambiguity of the act and amplified discomfort. In highly surveilled spaces such as Alexanderplatz, silence signalled performance. In transitional spaces like the subway, the same behaviour was read as threatening or irrational. This revealed how context determines legibility, and how consistency and density of action shape audience interpretation.

3. Improvisation After the Fall

Although the structure of the performance was premeditated, its trajectory was determined by public reaction. Improvisation emerged relationally, shaped by proximity, energy exchange, and sensory engagement. Control shifted continuously between performer and audience, revealing improvisation as a shared, negotiated process rather than individual authorship.

4. Impact of Public Space on the Body

Crowded environments restricted bodily agency and increased physical risk, while open spaces allowed greater control and security. Dense proximity intensified energetic confrontation, producing heightened psychological and somatic pressure. Public space thus functioned not as a neutral container, but as an active force shaping bodily experience.

5. Communication Through Physicality Alone

The research confirmed movement as a complete communicative system. In the absence of speech, somatic responses and eye contact became the primary channels of exchange. Notably, silence often induced silence in observers, generating a shared suspended state.

6–7. Personal and Physical Impact

The work produced lasting emotional impact, particularly in Istanbul, where fear, avoidance, and withdrawal dominated responses. The absence of care in familiar environments was emotionally destabilising. Physically, repeated falls resulted in minor injuries, underscoring the inseparability of bodily and psychological risk.

8–10. Comedy, Tragedy, and Performer Agency

The research demonstrated that the performer’s intention—expressed through movement quality—determines whether an action is perceived as comic or tragic. Awkwardness invites laughter; restraint invites gravity. The performer retains agency to shift this axis regardless of audience reaction, revealing playfulness as a central analytical tool.

SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH (Key Findings)

• Public behaviour is highly self-regulated and performative, shaped by surveillance and fear of judgment.

• Reactions spread contagiously; intolerance and judgment replicate rapidly.

• Visual identity strongly influences response:

• Businesswoman: most readily helped, perceived as legitimate and non-threatening.

• Burka: elicited respect and distance; help varied by neighbourhood.

• Non-binary/queer presentation: observed rather than assisted, often aestheticised or suspected as performance.

• Verbal communication is the default impulse; its absence redirects interaction toward bodily and affective exchange.

• Fear frequently precedes care; assistance is delayed, outsourced, or avoided.

• Acceptance of “the fallen” depends less on the act than on recognisability and perceived similarity.

VOICE OF MEDUSA, RESEARCH FOR A DRAMATURGIC TALE OF MUSIC IN PERFORMANCE

2021 DIS-TANZEN SOLO

Photos: Claude Hofer

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Voice of Medusa

In Metamorphoses, Medusa is described as a beautiful maiden whose appearance attracts the attention of Poseidon. When Medusa seeks refuge in Athena’s temple, Poseidon rapes her within the sacred space. Rather than punishing the perpetrator, Athena responds by transforming Medusa’s hair into snakes and cursing her gaze so that anyone who looks directly at her turns to stone. Medusa, the victim of sexual violence, is thus rendered monstrous, blamed, punished, and socially erased.

This mythological narrative exemplifies a long-standing patriarchal logic: violence against women is repeatedly displaced onto women’s bodies, voices, and identities. Medusa becomes both the site of violation and the object of punishment—silenced through fear, myth, and stigma.

This research is situated within a contemporary political context in which similar mechanisms persist. The Istanbul Convention, formally titled the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, was adopted in 2011 to prevent violence, protect victims, and end impunity for perpetrators. Between 2020 and 2021 alone, Turkey recorded hundreds of femicides and suspicious deaths of women, while public discourse increasingly normalised or justified such violence. On 20 March 2021, the Turkish government officially withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, marking a decisive retreat from institutional responsibility toward women’s safety.

Growing up in a society where sexuality is framed as taboo and women’s bodies are subjected to continuous surveillance, regulation, and violence, I situate this project within my own lived experience. Having encountered forms of violence ranging from verbal harassment to sexual assault, I seek to reclaim Medusa not as a monster, but as a figure of resistance. Voice of Medusa positions itself as an act of counter-narration: a sonic and corporeal articulation for women who have been silenced, punished, or erased by patriarchal, cultural, religious, and state structures.

Voice of Medusa is conceived as a sonic–movement research process leading toward a future performance work. The project investigates voice as a political, embodied, and affective force, exploring how sound, breath, vibration, and movement can carry histories of trauma, rage, resilience, and transformation. Rather than illustrating women’s stories, the work seeks to embody voice as presence, destabilising the expectation of coherence, beauty, or legibility.

The research builds on my previous performance Occasionally Colliding, developed in collaboration with sound artist Hüseyin Evirgen. This work enabled an in-depth exploration of live sound production through vocals and electronics, including extended vocal techniques such as throat singing, drone-based improvisation, and the use of effects to transform voice into spatial and somatic material. Movement emerged directly from sound, rather than accompanying it, allowing sonic impulses to dictate rhythm, intensity, and physical response.

The musical trajectory of Occasionally Colliding evolved from electronically generated soundscapes toward more acoustic and tactile textures, incorporating guitar and bendir. This shift foregrounded sound as a dramaturgical agent rather than a compositional backdrop. Dramaturgy unfolded through frequency, vibration, and energetic exchange, producing a structure that resisted linear narration and chronological time.

Rooted in shared experiences of political instability, migration, and social repression, the collaboration examined themes of oppression, interrogation, identity, and freedom. The performative universe that emerged operated outside linear temporality, shaped instead by memory, dream logic, and speculative futures. Within this space, two performers functioned as relational bodies—occasionally colliding—where each encounter generated new actions, affects, and transformations.

Occasionally Colliding functioned as a laboratory for investigating how live sound, movement, and improvisation can construct meaning without predetermined narrative. The performance exposed how human experience oscillates between individuality and collectivity, revealing the tension between personal consciousness and shared existence. Drawing on this research, Voice of Medusa aims to deepen the exploration of live vocal practice as a method of political embodiment.

The ongoing research asks how voice—fragmented, amplified, distorted, or raw—can reclaim what has historically been silenced. By engaging Medusa as both mythological figure and contemporary symbol, the project seeks to transform the curse of silence into an act of sonic resistance.

 TURKISH WAVES OF MIGRATION AND THEIR RELATION TO ART AND CULTURE 2019 Fonds Daku

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Today, more than three million people of Turkish origin live in Germany, forming the country’s largest ethnic minority. This demographic reality is the result of multiple migration waves, each shaped by distinct political, economic, and social conditions. While the first large-scale migration began with the Gastarbeiter agreements of the 1960s, more recent movements—particularly after the Gezi Park protests—reflect a new form of displacement marked by political repression, censorship, and intellectual exile.

As a member of the post-Gezi migration wave, this research emerged from my desire to understand the experiences of the first generation of Turkish migrants in Germany: how they were received, how they survived the initial period of arrival, how integration unfolded (if at all), and what role culture and artistic expression played in that process.

Historical research and documentary sources reveal that many first-generation migrants arrived directly from rural areas, often without prior exposure to large cities, without knowledge of the German language, and with limited formal education. Migration was initially framed as temporary labour; the intention was to earn money and return. This expectation is embedded in the term Gastarbeiter itself. Over time, however, temporary stay turned into permanent settlement. Families were reunited, children were born, subsequent generations emerged, and a hybrid cultural formation developed—linguistically, socially, and artistically.

This research focuses on a central question: how did these communities communicate, survive, and create meaning in the absence of shared language and social recognition? In particular, it investigates whether and how artistic practices functioned as tools of survival, connection, and identity formation.

Key research questions include:

• When spoken language was not available, did bodily communication and embodied practices serve as primary tools of interaction?

• Beyond customs and traditions, did migrants bring artistic practices with them, and if so, how were these expressed or transformed?

• Could art function as a unifying force across linguistic and national boundaries?

• What artistic forms emerged within the hybrid “ghetto cultures” that developed as survival strategies?

• How do later generations—second, third, and fourth—define themselves in terms of identity, language, and cultural belonging?

Despite economic mobility among segments of the Turkish-German population, there remains a persistent lack of social recognition. Scholars have noted that even socially and financially successful individuals often experience symbolic exclusion. This dynamic extends into the cultural field, where Turkish artists and writers in Germany are frequently categorised primarily as “ethnic” practitioners rather than recognised as artists in their own right. As Ayşe Çağlar argues, this framing produces a structural marginalisation that limits visibility, legitimacy, and access to cultural capital.

Drawing on Distinction, this research understands migration as not only a spatial displacement but also a negotiation of symbolic limits. A sense of place, as Bourdieu suggests, implies an internalised understanding of what one is permitted to claim or inhabit. For migrants, this sense is often shaped by exclusion in both the country of origin and the host society.

The project also addresses the most recent migration wave following the Gezi protests and subsequent political developments in Turkey. This wave is characterised by a significant “brain drain”: highly educated, skilled, and politically targeted individuals seeking safety and the possibility to continue their professional and artistic lives. The research asks how this group navigates displacement differently from earlier generations, and whether structural challenges—lack of networks, recognition, and stability—persist despite higher cultural and educational capital.

Growing up as an artist in Turkey meant navigating an environment where artistic expression was never institutionally prioritised and often politically constrained. Periods of relative openness alternated with intense repression, producing a continuous state of precarity. Yet artistic production persisted as an act of resistance, survival, and necessity.

This project investigates continuities and ruptures between generations: how different migration waves relate to art, how they construct identity, how they connect with each other, and how displacement shapes creative processes. It examines similarities and differences in strategies of adaptation, modes of belonging, and artistic production across time.

The research takes the form of a blog-based interview series with artists from different generations and disciplines. The aim is to create a visible, accessible platform—a living archive—where experiences, narratives, and artistic positions can coexist, intersect, and enter into dialogue. By making these voices visible to one another, the project seeks to counter isolation and foster intergenerational connection within the Turkish-German cultural landscape.

This platform is conceived as both documentation and intervention: a space where migration history is not reduced to labour narratives alone, but recognised as a complex cultural and artistic continuum.

With deep gratitude to Fonds Darstellende Künste, whose support made this research 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.