Göksu Kunak: An(a)kara – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin
Göksu Kunak:
An(a)kara
An(a)kara
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Welcome to a degenerated utopia, a ticket to a society between times – and the losses it entails: AN(A)KARA is a sci-fi TV variety show hosted by Gucci Chunk a.k.a. Göksu Kunak that explores Turkey's late modernity with a particular focus on the city of Ankara, and the bodies of the neoliberal TV hosts that are like monumental statues as they embody nationalist ideologies, serving as instruments of propaganda. AN(A)KARA aims at toppling the statue of the young and athletic NEW MAN and replacing it with shapewear underwear. The performance also explores the shift in a concept of time: from kısmet, the idea that fate predetermines a person's path, to the clocked fast pace of modernity and the friction in between.
In AN(A)KARA memories and confusions of a Muslim child appear as voices and objects speaking from a past of the 1980s and 1990s. While the performance gives an overview of this distinctive era of Turkey, Göksu Kunak simultaneously addresses the clichés and clashes about the East-and-West and the ever-present (self-)censorship.
CONCEPT, PERFORMANCE, INSTALLATION, COSTUME, SOUND Göksu Kunak DRAMATURGY Isabel Gatzke LIGHT DESIGN Annegret Schalke STAGE DESIGN Julian Weber PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Nara Virgens, Florian Greß SOUND MASTERING Laure M. Hiendl DOCUMENTATION Ethan Folk
A production by Göksu Kunak in coproduction with SOPHIENSÆLE. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe. Media partner: taz.die tageszeitung.
Göksu Kunak (Ankara, 1985) is an artist, researcher and writer based in Berlin. Kunak’s interest lies in especially chronopolitics and hybrid texts that deal with the performative lingo(s) of contemporary lifestyles as well as non-Western/unorthodox dramaturgies. As a non-native English writer, their texts play with multilingualism and syntax. Influenced by Arabesk culture and late modernities, Göksu imagines new situations out of real encounters that point out the problematics of hetero-patriarchal structures. Orientalism, self-Orientalization (the perception of the “Eastern”, and how the Eastern sees themselves through this construction), as well as camouflage, self-censorship and science fiction are other interests of Kunak. Recently Kuank has been working on score-based performances and installations that focus on simulacrum and muscle as an object, body-as-sculpture.
In 2023 funded by the Haupstadkulturfonds and Freischwimmen, they performed Ajaib Mahluqat (Acayip Mahlukat) co-produced by Sophiensæle. Previously, they exhibited their solo exhibitons Dhikr at Number1MainRoad Berlin and Bygone Innocence at Pilevneli Gallery Istanbul, both curated by Léon Kruijswijk. Kunak performed at Performa Biennial NYC, Neue Nationalgalerie, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, De Singel Arts Center, Kaaitheather, Akademie der Künste Lab of Contested Space curated by Junge Akademie, The Parliament of Bodies as a part of Bergen Assembly 2019.
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© Ethan Folk -
© Ethan Folk -
© Ethan Folk