Nezaket Ekici
Artist talk and Book launch
Moderation by Burcu Dogramaci (Professor for Art History, LMU Munich)
Tuesday, 19 March 2019, 7 pm
(Kino)
The artist Nezaket Ekici loves all forms of clothing, regardless of whether they are ordinary, everyday items, or costumes specifically created for her performances.
In conversation with Burcu Dogramaci, on Tuesday 19 March, at 7 pm, the artist will discuss a selection of her works that explicitly put clothes and costumes under scrutiny, and will touch on some of her recurrent themes, such as the social inscription of gender roles, the uncovering of social and cultural phenomena from daily life, and her German-Turkish identity. In doing so, the focus will lie on the long-duration performance Present and Absent / Diary Villa Massimo that Ekici developed while staying at Villa Massimo in Rome in 2016/17. Every day, over a period of ten months, the artist visited the city’s countless, open clothing stands to put together a new outfit to wear for the remainder of the day. This long and continuous project was documented through daily photographs of herself modeling the attire in front of the Villa Massimo, which required the normally-itinerant artist to remain in Rome for the entire residency period. The performance, therefore, responds both to the unusual specific time for the artist, while also reflecting on the socio-political, -economic, and cultural dimensions of the mass production and consumption of shockingly cheap clothes. The artist lives and works in Berlin, Stuttgart, and Istanbul.
The artist’s book Present and Absent / Diary Villa Massimo 2016/17 was published in relation to this long-duration performance by the Kerber Verlag. Nezaket Ekici will read excerpts from it, show photographs, and present videos. The book will be available for purchase. The artist is happy to write dedications.
Projekt: Present and Absent/ Diary Villa Massimo, Rome 2016/17; Performance, Photography, Sculpture since 2016; Artist Book: Present and Absent/ Diary Villa Massimo 2016/17 (Kerber Verlag, 2018; Photo: Andreas Dammertz