Performance Installation 2024 Premiere University of Michigan 20.3.2024

Always on the move, Nezaket Ekici has performed on 4 continents, in 70 countries, and in more than 180 cities; it is no coincidence that she refers to herself as an "Artistic Nomad." To understand how Ekici comes up with her ideas, one must understand what she has experienced worldwide and what she engages with. Over the years, performances such as "Personal Map to be continued..." (since 2008) and "Journey" (2012), have established and envisioned new vignettes for her life. In “Spinning Yarn,” Ekici expands her living memory, tracing the path she has taken over the past 25 years and creating her personal artistic world map. In her new performance "Spinning Yarn," she shares a selection from her portfolio of 300 performances, which she has presented in 70 countries, at the University of Michigan. Each of these performances contains a "highlight" for her. She explains how she came up with the ideas, where the ideas originated, and what makes the intense performances so special. Ekici is seen wearing a bodysuit with four black areas: under the arm, at the neck, around the waist, and on the lower leg. These four locations on her costume symbolically represent the four continents where the artist has performed: the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa (only Australia is missing). On the floor of the room, 40 long red threads are scattered, with their ends arranged to spell out the names of countries. Methodically, Ekici picks up the threads, wrapping them around these different symbolic zones, while describing each respective performance’s story. Sometimes she wraps one thread and tells one story; sometimes she picks up three threads and tells three stories. Involving the audience, Ekici also asks them to entwine the thread around her body. Over the duration of the performance, as the 40 red ropes slowly vanish from the floor (carrying with them their stories and places), four sculptures made of thread form around the four marked areas on her costume; one could almost say she becomes her world map. She wears the journeys she once embarked on and completed, transporting those ‘life lines’ onto her body. The viewer observes not only the process of embodying the threads and a transformation of the story-filled image, but also experiences the transformation of a personal history into a performance. (Text Edited: Jono Wang Chu)

Red thread, costume, projection

1h 20min.

Special Thanks: Kristin Dickinson Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies and Affiliated Faculty, Department of Comparative Literature and CMENAS University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Megan Ewing, Assistant Professor of German Studies Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures University of Michigan, Ann Arbor