Performance Installation 2023 As part of the Perspectival Festival, July 13–16, 2023, in Damüls, Austria

In a two-part Performance Installation consisting of a Video Performance and Live Performance, Nezaket Ekici’s journey through the Damüls Mountain is first filmed and then partially re-enacted live in the museum. In the first portion of this performance, Ekici undertakes a grueling trek by foot. Climbing for miles over the course of 8 hours in scorching summer heat, she reaches all 4 Swings on Damüls Mountain (also appropriately called ‘the land of Swings’) while wearing multiple vibrant costumes layered atop one another. At each swing she takes off a costume and affixes it like a summit flag at that location. In the second portion of the performance, Ekici sits in her final costume on the last swing, now installed in the museum, reading from her ‘Gipfelbuch’ (summit diary). Named Summit of Happines (“Gipfel des Glückes), this performance installation depicts the existential nature of Ekici’s solitary hike. Along the way, she records her thoughts, sensations, and reflections in a Summit Diary (“Gipfelbuch”). Though grounded in a poetic and contemplative frame, Summit of Happiness displays potent feminist and political gestures through the embodied actions of the artist. By climbing through the alpine terrain in layered, brightly colored costumes and anchoring each to a swing, Ekici reclaims a traditionally male-coded motif—the solitary mountain ascent—as a site for female expression, ritual, and authorship. The act of carrying and gradually shedding costumes along the way becomes a performance of fundamentally exsistential labor, endurance, and transformation. Her presence— is marked by the colourfull costumes. Ekici simultaneously marks space and leaves a trace—a form of inscription onto the landscape, turning the private act of reflection into a public, spatial intervention. The dangerous ascent, with unstable rocks underfoot and all-around is re-contextualized as dimension of existential threat. Her journey is documented by a camera team, including aerial footage captured by drone. On July 13, Ekici completes her ascent by arriving at the fifth and final swing—this one located inside the exhibition space in Damüls. Swinging over a projection of her hiking route mapped onto the floor, Ekici reads aloud from her ‘summit diary’ and shows the 4 costumes that she had used as flags on the mountain. The writing from her diary captures not only her impressions of the physically taxing journey but also the inner terrain traversed:“Es braucht Kraft, immer wieder Kraft , die Schaukel mit mir zu schwingen.” (it requires strength; again again strength to swing the swing with me upon it). A floor projection with the 5th costume will remain on view for the duration of the exhibition, inviting visitors to trace her path and contemplate the layered dimensions of the work. (Text: Jono Wang Chu)

5 flagpoles Summit Diary 5 costumes Provisions (food and drink) Camera: Stefano Cagol (with drone and additional camera) Photography: Matthias Bunsen

Video Performance: July 12, 2023, 10:00–18:00 (8 hours) Video installation (HD MP4 23 min sound, colour, ) Live Performance: July 13, 2023, at 20:30 (30 minutes)

Nezaket Ekici „Gipfel des Glückes“ Performance Installation 2023 Presented in the Group Exhibition: Project „Nona“ in the Frame of 1. Perspectival, FIS Museum Damüls Austria 14.7.2023 - 25.7.2025 Curator : Miriam Lehmann-Gragert, Matthias Bunsen Assistent : Andreas Bunsen, Matthias Bunsen, Elmas Ekici, Andreas Dammertz Costume Design: Nezaket Ekici Dress Cutter : Süleymann Camera: Stefano Cagol, Matthias Bunden and Nezaket Ekici Videocut: Stefano Cagol Damüls Faschina Tourismu