Performistanbul opens new season

ISTANBUL

The first international performance platform in Turkey to bring performance artists together, Performistanbul, is starting the new season with a series of performances and events that will take place at Art ON Istanbul, BLOK Art Space and Artnivo Project Space.

On Oct. 22, Performistanbul’s first performance of the new season, “Face Time,” creates a face-to-face encounter and a body-to-body situation in which the performers test out symmetries and asymmetries of co-presence. Ranging from facial expressions, postures and bodily gestures to collective movement, “Face Time” inquires into the potential of an embodied event, asking what bodies can do, can’t do and could do.

Murat Adash will lead the performance with 10 others in parallel to portrait works at Art ON Istanbul entitled “The Face is Everything.”

On Nov. 11, Performance Night will include simultaneous performances “My Sandcastles,” “Contact” and “Just 15 Minutes” by Performistanbul’s artists AslieMK, Batu Bozoğlu and Ekin Bernay. Performances will be presented within three separate areas of the gallery BLOK Art Space in Çukurcuma.

On Nov. 12, Gülhatun Yıldırım’s solo performance, “You are Half Water,” will be presented in collaboration with Performistanbul.

Followed by simultaneous performances by Burçak Konukman, Gülhatun Yıldırım and Pınar Derin Gençer in the last season, the performance series will continue with three solo performances by each performance artist.

Performistanbul is a performance platform founded by Simge Burhanoğlu in 2015, with the aim to unite performance artists under one roof and promote their participation in new projects.

It was established to support performance artists, foster their practice and reach more audiences to experience challenging and creative performance work.