Göksu Kunak: INNOCENCE | Sep 11 12 13 14 | Festsaal – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin
Göksu Kunak:
INNOCENCE

INNOCENCE
English
10€/15€
11.09., 21:30, DJ Set by Zuzanna Czebatul
13.09., 17:30–19:00, Hochzeitssaal: Panel talk with artist Göksu Kunak, sociologist Ceren Türkmen and curator Çağla Ilk (English with simultaneous interpretation into German)
Reduced admission to the event with Berlin Art Week Guest Card subject to availability and only after prior registration via ticketing@sophiensaele.com
A traffic accident as dramatic as a soap opera: INNOCENCE is based on the Susurluk scandal, a notorious car crash in Turkey in the 1990s. The supposedly everyday accident led to the discovery of criminal links between state institutions, the drug mafia and deep state relations. In INNOCENCE, Göksu Kunak reflects on the policy of concealing and erasing and explores accident and scandal as phenomena; as a moment in which technology reveals its potentially grave consequences. But also as a moment in which falsities and truths of our constructed reality come to light. INNOCENCE portrays the crash as a moment frozen in time in which relationships are crystallized: a traffic accident as a neutral moment, neither good nor bad, but as dramatic as a soap opera.
The Susurluk scandal as a grey area reveals the inaccuracies of a rigid East-West dichotomy and defies simple conclusions. For Kunak, the car as a fetishized object and the accident are metaphors for both the corrupted patriarchal political system in Turkey and the crash of Turkish modernization. INNOCENCE is an attempt at a genealogy of corruption in the country, the suppression of minorities and also sheds light on the atrocities inflicted by western imperialism upon Turkey and the Middle East.
After AN(A)KARA (2021) and Ajaib Mahluqat (ACAYİP MAHLUKAT) (2023), INNOCENCE is the third co-production of Göksu Kunak with Sophiensæle.
13.09., 17:30–19:00, Hochzeitssaal: Panel talk (English with simultaneous interpretation into German)
Artist Göksu Kunak, sociologist Ceren Türkmen and curator Çağla Ilk talk about the Susurluk scandal in context: How can the scandal of the 1990s be reflected from a contemporary perspective, especially against the backdrop of steadily increasing sympathy towards fascist structures such as the Grey Wolves in Turkey, Germany and throughout Europe?
Please register here.
The information on accessibility is still in progress and will be updated as soon as possible. If any questions remain unanswered until then, please feel free to contact the communication department at barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 35. Please note that details may change by the day of the event. Therefore, if you find out after you have purchased your ticket that the performance is no longer accessible to you, you can contact us for a ticket return at ticketing@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 45 until 5 business days after the event (Monday through Friday between 10am and 6pm).
Duration
- 90 minutes without a break
Language
- English spoken language
Space
- The ballroom will be vacated after 50 minutes. The last scene of the performance takes place in the inner courtyard.
Sound
- Loud music is used.
- In the yard a big wheather balloon will be blown. This ballon pops at one moment
Smell
- There will be Rosewater spent to the audience at one moment (voluntarily).
Light
- Spotlights are used from above.
- The lighting mood is rather dark.
- strobe effects are used (omly outdoors).
Other
- There are video projections.
- Some of the projections are videos from car crashes.
- Sunflower seeds will be spent to the audience at one moment
Audience area
- Seated grandstand
- 2 beanbag seats bookable according to availability
- 2 wheelchair seats bookable according to availability
- The last scene of the performance takes place in the inner courtyard without seats. Some stools will be provided. Beanbags will be provided after booking.
Early boarding
- Early boarding is possible. A loudspeaker announcement will be made a few minutes in advance.
Tickets
- Reservations can be made via the ticket telephone at 030 283 52 66, Monday to Friday from 4pm-6pm
- Via the online ticket shop
- At the box office
You can also find more information about accessibility at the house here.
Concept, text, installation, light, performance: Göksu Kunak
With: Bilgesu Akyürek, Felix Beer, Buğra Büyükşimşek, Chima Okerenkwo, Leo Luchini
Light advice: Annegret Schalke
Assistance stage, documentation: SynthTati
Consultation stunt: Sascha Girndt
Dramaturgical advice: Isabel Gatzke
Outside eye: Çağla Ilk
Production assistance: Ben Mohai
Production management: Florian Greß
A production by Göksu Kunak in co-production with Sophiensæle and DE SINGEL Antwerpen. Funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. Media partners: Berlin Art Link, King Kong Magazine, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.
Göksu Kunak (Ankara, 1985) is an artist, researcher and writer based in Berlin. Kunak’s interest lies especially in 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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© Maiko Miske -
© Ege Dandin -
© Ege Dandin