21 Oct ÇANAKKALE ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM
The Artist-in-Residence Program in Çanakkale, conducted by artist Nezaket Ekici, was realized on October 14-21, 2019 with the participation of artists Eda Sütunç, Gülçin Karaca and İlke Şahin, selected through the open call and artist Deniz Toka, based in Çanakkale.
The program started with an artist talk by Nezaket Ekici on October 4th at MAHAL Art Center where she presented her artistic practice and shared the details of her one-week residency program in Çanakkale.
15 – 21 October 2019
From Now to Back
From Assos / Aristoteles to Troy / Homer Illiad
Journey / Walk,120 km
Participating artists: Eda Sütunç, Gülçin Karaca, İlke Şahin
Participating artist from Çanakkale: Deniz Toka
Photo and video documentation: Saygın Mavinil, Burak Topçakıl
Guide: Egemen Çakır
Special Thanks: Prof. Rüstem Aslan, Dr. Andreas Dammertz and the farmers, gardeners and shepherds along the way
The 120 km long trip from Assos to Troy follows the trail of Troy Culture Route. The journey started on October 15th and took 7 days. Every day the performance group walked approximately 17 km and the journey was documented with photos and videos. Assos offers the only Doric temple of Asia Minor dedicated to Athena, a unique monument of antiquity and is also known to be the site of the first philosophical academy of Aristotle. Troy is the place where the war described in Homers epic Illiad took place and which is discovered by archaeologist Schliemann in the 19th century. The 120 km long road that connects these two places is an important witness of philosophy and cultural history of Orient and Occident.
Nezaket Ekici aimed to show the rich diversity of cultural and historical events, places and stories with her journey performance. The region of Çanakkale with Assos and Troy is explored in order to bring its rich history to artistic representation. In the journey, the trail was the goal. It was a journey in which one not only talked about performance or about Aristotle and Homer but also about the landscape and the people in the villages. The performance Journey was a source of inspiration for performance ideas and their implementation on the way and upon arrival in Troy. Participants took part in various performance concentration exercises. It was central to understand the basic craft of performance art and to develop an awareness of one’s own actions and effects in space: Performance is always a room taking action. The participants drew, read, thought, ate and interacted with the villagers, spent time alone with nature and got into dialogue with Aristotle, Homer, Illiad, art, mythology and philosophy.
On the last day, the participants crystallized their 7-day long experience on the collective performance of approximately 3 hours that took place on the ancient harbor of Troy, on the shores of the Achilleus tumulus (Yeniköy Papazın Plajı). The performance by Eda Sütunç, Gülçin Karaca, İlke Yılmaz and Deniz Toka took place on October 21st and it was a semi-improvised presentation of this experience trough their body and natural materials such as stones, adobes, bushes and water.
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