Video performance 2024

Illusion begins in a pale blue room reminiscent of an azure sky and sea. Nezaket can be seen leaned over, hair billowing in the wind, body clothed by a salmon satin costume. She stands in a man-made pool of water, with an empty aquarium container exhibited in the center. On the grated wood roof of the aquarium lies a large sandstone. She straightens up, still swaying, lifting a small block of stone over her head. Over the course of many hours, this single sandstone rock will be used by her to grind down the larger stone; and she will attempt to fill the aquarium with its sand. The curiosities of Illusion lie in the fundamental question of creation. How is sand made? Who makes it? What is an ocean, a sea? Can the artist create something truly and entirely natural? With her hands, Ekici begins a long and arduous task of testing this process of creation. She shows the real power of the physical body by almost stressing it to its limit. In this physical exertion, one wonders what the artist needs to create ‘sand’—a material produced by the natural geological changes of the plant over millions of years. Here, a human attempts that form of creation, highlighting how a human subject may take-on almost God-like, supernatural tasks. Artificially made sounds of the ocean—waves, wind, birds, thunder—esconce the performance in a pelagic atmosphere. But we are nevertheless distinctly aware that this performance takes place in a contained box. In order to make the task easier, Ekici requires the ocean’s help. She has to use water to wet the stone and weaken its surfaces. As the bottom of the aquarium slowly fills with sand, we notice that the artist is creating another smaller beach which reflects our natural world: except in miniature. This moment is completed by Ekici’s submersion into this mimetic universe: Ekici lies down in the water, as she would in the sea, her pink satin costume floating to the top, her calm face hovering. In covering herself, she subsumes herself and dives under the waves, to enter her creation even though she is its creator. The rocks placed on her chest both weigh her down, keeping her in the water, and look like oversized jewelry pieces, highlighting the artifice she wears on her body like clothes. By the end of the performance, the water itself has become yellow and muddy—the sand she has made has leaked into it, the dust of nature fusing with the artificial world she has created. (Text Jono Wang Chu)

Blue wallpaper, aquarium, sandstone, water, woudconstruction, spotlights, gopro, costume, windmachine,

06:58 min. HD MP4, 16:9, sound, colour

Camera and Editing: Branka Pavlovic Technique and Set Installation: Jesper Niemann Costume Design and Dresscut: Nezaket Ekici Sound Design: Mladjan Matavulj Assistant: Andreas Dammertz