Performance Installation 2019 - VIVA, Art Action 2019 the 7th biennal for Performance, 25-28.9.2020, Live Performance 27.9.2020 - Invited by Articule, Artist Run Center, in cooperation with Goethe Institut Montreal

The artist is fascinated by Canada's nature and the sheer immeasurable wealth of forest and water. In her performance "Puzzeling", the artist refers to the multi-layered history of Canada's origins. The individual wooden tiles, which she assembles into a 2:1 rectangle in the performance, represent the various political and cultural influences that have shaped Canada over the past centuries. Nezaket Ekici shows her perspective on the construction of Canada according to her reception of the country's history. The different layers of colour she assembles represent the French, British and Indigene and Canadas own driving forces that have shaped the country. By overpainting the colorful wooden panels with white and red, which are like a jigsaw puzzle, she shows the identity-forming power of the Canadian self-image. The opacity of the white colour is here and there not strong and so the other colours still shine through, coulours that can be found in the centuries-old flags of Canada. The artist applies the colours white and red with her whole body to the wooden panels, demonstrating the effort and devotion that the people of Canada have taken upon themselves on their way to becoming a nation: The project of constructing a nation. It is accompanied by effort, struggle, discussion, and confrontation of all kinds. Eventhough, in Canada, the lively European culture can still be felt almost everywhere and in a fascinating way, the independent and grown Canada is visible at the same time as well. The work aims to show that all nations in the world have the same path in front of or behind them and that the boundaries we draw to form a nation are only a construction, we paint in different colours. But tThe boundaries exist only in our minds and not in nature.

13 wooden panels in different sizes and colours (yellow, blue, green, white and red) 4 buckets, white paint; red color, plastic transparent foil, spotlight

1 h

Articule and the Team, Viva and the Team, Goethe Institut Montreal, Studio 303, Burcu Emec, Amber Berson, Eunice L. Bélidor, Katja Melzer, Michelle Lacombe, Chris Lloyd