16th August 2012 - Helsinki
When I read it, I was in Istanbul. Even I didn't have experienced the performance; while I was walking on the main pedestrian road of Istanbul where he had performed, I had the feeling that I was seeing and even following him. But actually I recognized even much later, that this work had touched me quite deep, since some images was popping up in my mind quite a long time. A white man, with a coca-cola can in the hand. Walking in Beyoğlu. Asking for exchanging it with water. The time when a Turkish man is giving him a bottle of water. The very delicate time point. He is washing his 'whiteness' with this water. He asks people for help to sign the contour of his body with chalk for declining that it is dead. A young man, a young artist, who has the urge to encounter the oriental world with explaining the whiteness for dead.
So, I decided to realize an Iade-i Ziyaret. If you want to read more about the meaning of this word and the performance Woman in Black with which I wanted to communicate with Jani, the letter I wrote to Jani, is pervious to everyone in the next blog page.
I would like to thank a lot my dear colleagues MILLA MARTIKAINEN, AINO KOSKI and KATERINA ZHERBINA who supported me in Helsinki for realising this performance.
OYA ERDOĞAN and TOM ROSCHER are the colleagues of mine whose support I got during the preparation time in Berlin. I am very thankful.
I love the world of art, where the arts and artist don't need to compete with each other, but already enjoy the wisdom of mutual unfolding. And everyone knows that there is a time to get and a time to give. Thanks for being a part of my life.