As part of the event “A Day in the Park” Nezaket Ekici – Performance for Neuhardenberg Park and Adelheid Schönborn in conversation with Philipp Sattler Schloss Neuhardenberg, 31 May 2026 Produced as part of the exhibition “Of Gardens, Landscapes and Images. Landscape Gardens in Art from the Baroque to the Present” Schloss Neuhardenberg, 21 March–9 August 2026 Curated by Simon Häuser

For the landscape park of Schloss Neuhardenberg, the artist Nezaket Ekici has developed the performance installation “Gehend-Sehend (Walking–Seeing)”. The work begins with the question of how we perceive a landscape garden and how our view changes as we move through it. At first glance, an English landscape garden appears natural. In reality, however, almost everything is carefully designed: paths, trees, meadows, bodies of water, sightlines and viewpoints follow a composition. Some things are made visible, while others remain hidden. The gaze is directed. Nature becomes an image. “Gehend-Sehend (Walking–Seeing)” takes up these principles and translates them into physical actions. The audience accompanies the artist through the park from one station to the next. In this way, the work becomes a performance lasting several hours, structured as a shared walk through the landscape. A central element of the performance is a series of large golden picture frames, which Nezaket Ekici carries through the park and places at different locations. They frame individual sections of the landscape and temporarily turn them into images. At the same time, they refer to the tradition of landscape painting and to the idea of the landscape garden as a walk-in painting. At the first station, the representative aspect of the park comes into focus. Behind a golden frame stands a swing. Nezaket Ekici wears an elaborate dress, swings and drinks tea. Palace, park, clothing and body merge into a living image of elegance and representation. The scene refers to the historical role of landscape gardens as expressions of ownership, social status and cultural refinement. At the second station, the image changes. The artist now wears a gardener’s uniform. Behind the frame is a large mound of wood mulch that blocks the view of the park. Nezaket Ekici begins to remove the wood mulch with a shovel. Gradually, the landscape behind it becomes visible again. This shifts the focus to the physical labour required to create a landscape garden and preserve it across generations. Trees have to be planted and pruned, paths laid out, lawns maintained, earth moved and sightlines kept open. The seemingly natural park is the result of continuous work. In the performance, this labour becomes directly and physically tangible. Labour creates visibility. At the third station, the focus shifts to movement, leisure, sport and health. Nezaket Ekici runs through the park and stretches long elastic exercise bands between different points. In doing so, she creates lines and connections between trees, paths and other elements of the landscape. The bands make visible the sightlines and perspectives of the landscape garden that normally remain unseen. At the same time, the historical park is connected with its contemporary use as a place for movement, recreation and physical activity. In “Gehend-Sehend (Walking–Seeing)”, different meanings of the park come together: the park as a place of representation, as the result of physical labour, as a designed landscape, and as a public space for leisure, movement and social encounter. The audience also does not remain in one fixed place. It walks, stops, changes position and repeatedly looks at the landscape from new perspectives. With every movement, the image of the park changes as well. For several hours, the performance transforms the landscape park into a stage. Carrying, walking, swinging, shovelling, running, stretching, concealing and revealing alter the perception of the place. The golden frame connects the individual stations and repeatedly raises the same question: What do we see – and what determines what we see? “Gehend-Sehend (Walking–Seeing)” is a performance about landscape and perception, but also about labour, the body and time. A landscape garden is never complete. It is created, maintained, transformed and passed on. It is a task for generations.

3 gold frames, 4 costumes, mulch, shovel, buckets, swing, table, tea set, exercise bands, wheelbarrow Performers: Nezaket Ekici, Lucas Kurz, Elli Pfeiffer, Emma Hirseland, Benno Zierau

1 hour 45 minutes

Camera: Branka Pavlovic, Andreas Dammertz Editing: Branka Pavlovic Performers: Nezaket Ekici, Lucas Kurz, Elli Pfeiffer, Emma Hirseland, Benno Zierau Technical Support and Set Installation “Walking–Seeing”: Jesper Niemann Technical Production: Matthias Warias Assistants: Svea Staschik, Lisa Pahl, Amy Gesche, Leo-Maxim Neumann, Asmar Mahmoud, Hannes Wagner Photography: Stiftung Schloss Neuhardenberg / Robert Niemeyer Costume Design: Nezaket Ekici Tailoring: Belgü Moda Evi, Istanbul Speci