Live performance presented at:
Sinopale 5, Internationale Sinop Biennale, ”Clusters and Crystals: Observing at Point Zero”, July 12 - August 31, 2014
Curator: Melih T. Görgün

The artist Nezaket Ekici shows a new performance installation during the Sinopale, the Sinop Biennial in the city of Sinop (Turkey). Cities with the name “Sinop” can be found not only in Turkey but also in Brazil, Georgia, and certainly elsewhere. Symbolically the artist brings Brazilien Sinop (Mato Grosso), the fourth largest city in the north of Brazil, to Sinop in the northern part of Turkey.
She hasn't been in Brazil Sinop before, but she has visited other Brazilian cities. There she noticed that people greets eachother with saying “Tudo bem” and that is always be respond by saying “Tudo bom”. A constant back and forth, which is comparable to the “PING PONG” in table tennis.
In the performance installation table tennis players, primarily from the Turkish Sinop, compete in a table tennis match.
But the players haven't a bat or ball. They have to use a imaginary bat and hit a imaginary ball. The typical sound of the PING PONG in table tennis becomes a “Tubo bem – Tudo bom”. This results in a back and forth, which actually takes place only in mind, and yet can be followed by an audience like a real table tennis game. The judges on each panel have to decide who is awarded the point and determine the winner. The language and thinking replace the action of a table tennis game: The movement is a movement of the Spirit. This virtual game places enormous demands on the coordination ability of the players and the spectators. In addition, viewers are confronted in Sinop with the Brazilian language. This creates a bridge between two distant cultures that play virtually together.

Thanks to:
Sinop Belediyesi, Sinop Valiligi, Sinop Gençlik Hizmetleri ve Spor il Müdürlügü, Goethe Institut, Tarabya Kültür Akademisi, Nüans Müzik Merkezi, Çagatay Simsek, Av. Kadir Tingiroglu (Milletvekili), Aylin Demirhan, Ceyda Kalyoncu, Mert Karaçikay, Canset Akay, Timur Kivanç, Zihni Simsek, Hakan Yilmaz, Alaaddin Gürkan

Several ping-pong tables

Paricipants in the performance: Nezaket Ekici mit Gülbu Küçükazay; Nihat Zengin; Serpil Pinar; Fehmi Yavuzer; Mesut Turan; Celal Özal; Zehra Simsek; Selçuk Küçükazay; Funda Öner; Ibrahim Önal; Zihni SimSek; Ugur Besok; Sadi Uluçay; Zihni Tümay; Akif Pinar; Tangül Tunay; Yalçin Danaci
Production assistents: Çagla Sönmez Çakir, Yesim Uzunöz, Erkan Akliman
Project coordination: Bahadir Basoglu
Camera: Yesim Uzunöz, Erkan Akliman
Photos by: Çagatay Simsek