Performance

I Sultan Çoban, last week, had a call with my assistant. They told me that the dress I was supposed to be wearing at this event wasn’t ready. It was being custom-made and would be sent later this month from Paris. I asked my assistant: „How come? We were supposed to receive it before I attended the performance.“ My assistant said: „We still have the other dress for emergencies“ - I didn’t understand what emergency we were having. I said: „I was promised a custom-made dress months ago, and now they tell me it’s not ready yet. I understand the complexities of designing a dress and making it but there was an agreement.“, later I added, „Alright, I will wear the other one.“ 

A week before the performance, Sultan Çoban learns from her assistant that the custom-made dress she was supposed to wear is not ready. It is still being produced in Paris. The assistant suggests using “the other dress,” kept for emergencies. Sultan Çoban is not satisfied with the situation and tells the assistant to appear in her place. The assistant enters the stage wearing the other dress, carrying a brown paper bag with a chandelier inside and flowers wrapped in brown paper. Even though she is prepared to replace her, she still wants to set up the stage, as she expects Sultan Çoban to show up anyway. When she sees the audience already waiting, she hesitates, unsure whether to continue setting up the space or begin performing. She walks with the bag and the flowers, places them down on the stage, and begins removing her jacket and gloves. As she moves, she becomes more confident and walks in and out like on a catwalk. She returns to the bag, takes out the chandelier, and is unsure whether she should install it. She waits for help that never arrives, then drops the chandelier, which breaks on the floor. She continues without reacting to it. Later she puts on her own pop song through headphones while the sound of Sultan Çoban remains in the room. She dances, opens her hair, and performs in front of the fan and the mirror or projection. Finally, she sits down and faces her reflection, and the performance comes to an end.

Excerpt of the text to the performance (to be seen on paper or/and to be heard through voiceover): ... But if I am the one who performs, what is the story? Do I follow the fiction? Do I leave the fiction? If I am the author of the fiction, then who wrote the reality? I want to listen to a different sound than everyone else in the room is listening to. This sound you hear belongs to Sultan Çoban and her performance „unveiling for a play (act II, scene I)“. Sultan Çoban gave me some directions for the performance when she realized how confused I was. „You know, mostly I am occupied with the future. Sometimes I am occupied with what I will be eating. Usually, I am occupied with the complexity of my profession. This is what you should do. Show up in the fiction, act with it. You are just coming out of unveiling for a play (act II, scene I). Go with the music and feel it. Act the fiction. Act, act, act. You are in a rush, in a hurry. Set up for the performance. Take off some clothes that you do not feel comfortable with. Listen. Listen to the music that everyone listens to but then change. when the shift happens they will think it also changed for them, but it won’t. Put your sound on and leave the fiction.“ I am not in my own created fiction. If I broke something or a chandelier, it wasn’t my intention. Neither Sultan Çoban’s.

Duration:, ca. 23-28“ Minutes Theaterhaus Gessnerallee for the Swiss Performance Art Awards, Zurich, Switzerland & for SOL INVICTUS at Istituto Svizzero, Rom & Palermo, Italy 

This performance was shown at three different locations (Gessnerallee Zürich, Officine Bellotti Palermo, Istituto Svizzerto Rome), at each location a slightly different version was shown and was adjusted to the space.