Performance Installation 2021, Premiere Live Performance Near Heaven (Dem Himmel so Nah) Meta Theater Moosach 18.9.2021

In this performance, Ekici is seen wearing a dark blue and red velvet costume in the room. Bales of straw lay on one side of the room. Around them, stand 7 microphones. Spotlights shine down on them. Pulling one bale of straw after another, each one weighing 15/20kg, into the center of the room, Ekici begins to pile them up. From time to time she goes to the respective microphones and sings a tone or makes noises with her body. Slowly Ekici builds up a pyramid of straw bales, again and again she descends to fetch new straw bales. When all the straw bales are built (forming a pyramid), Ekici reaches the ceiling of the room and looks up towards the sky. The straw shines in the lighting as if it were gold. Called Near Heaven ("Dem Himmel so nah”), Nezaket Ekici’s live performance is inspired by the painting "Die Himmelfahrt Mariae (The asscention of Mary)" by Lippo Memmi (circa 1340, poplar wood 72.5 x 32.5 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich). To get close to heaven is not easy and to be holy represents an even greater difficulty. As a human being, St. Mary Mother of God was a woman who worked hard every day. She comes closer to heaven by her manners of living and this principle of a "God-fearing life" applies equally in many religions: from the Kama teachings in Buddhism, to the Tao (the right way) in Asian Shintoism, to Abrahamic religions. The performance deals not solely with the idea of religious ascent, but also with the question of right living. The sounds Ekici makes are collected live and played back in variations and simultaneously rearranged into a "choral song" by Pit Holzapfel. This music and the polyphonic voices represent a ritualistic and spiritual form of life. Ekici must physically labour to get closer to heaven, stressing the material conditions of existence, while also constructing a sense of higher existential connection to a greater power through ritual-like song. (Text Edited: Jono Wang Chu)

Straw bales approx. 50 pieces a 15/20 kg. size approx. 80x50x40 cm 7 microphones 4 -5 theater spotlights music equipment (mixer, amplifier, sound boxes recording equipment) costume

1,5 h

Idea, concept, performance and voice: Nezaket Ekici Live sound: Pit Holzapfel Light: Axel Tangerding Costume design: Nezaket Ekici, Roubs Style Live Atream/Camera/Editing: MichaeleSeifert & Co. Production: Meta Theater Moosach Assistant: MichaeleSeifert Photo: Andreas Dammertz Curator: Axel Tangerding, Wolger Pöhlmann The film documentation of this premiere will be shown on Friday, September 24 and Saturday, September 25, 2021, both at 7:00 pm at the Meta Theater. The artist will b