Nezaket Ekici
Nezaket Ekici (born 1970 Kirsehir/ Turkey, lives and works in Berlin)
The art created by the artist has been influenced by her Turkish and German descent. In her works she refers to the meeting of different cultures. She is an author of performances, installations and videos.
She fished the history of art and pedagogy of art at Ludwig Maximilians University and sculpture at the Art Academy in Munich. She also studied performance at High School of Visual Arts in Braunschweig. She was supervised by Marina Abramovic. She worked with such international artists as Ilya Kabakov and Tania Bruguera.
In her artistic activities she used the social, political and cultural experiences. Motives and emblems abstracted from reality are marked with meaning- a flag, a white dress, meat, a Muslim veil covering a woman's head. Using these elements gives her works activist overtones.The artist tells about a woman in the context of power and culture. She shows that they both stigmatize her and are used to enslave her. Complex and controversial topics are shown in aesthetic entourage. To achieve this aim Ekici uses fetish objects, creates flower landscapes or lights tens of candles hanging from the ceiling. She arranges her actions in a poetic way.
The character of her performances is processual, open to associations and transformations. They engage the audience both emotionally and intelectually through a sublime playing with form and the meaning of motives. The body is a means of conveying ideas and expression which becomes a part of the installation.
Nezaket will realize the action called "Flying dust / Latający pył." She will draw a Turkish carpet o one of the main streets of Lublin. She has been inspired by a photograph showing a Turkish town whose streets were covered wiith carpets on which people were cycling. A carpet plays a significant role in the Muslim culture and miraculous properties are attributed to it. In Muslim countries carpets are laid on the floors, in mosques, but you can't walk on them in your shoes. That's why the picture which inspired the artist seems so paradoxical. The carpets drawn with a piece of chalk in the street will refer to the patterns of Oriental carpets.and will create a symbolic way to the East.
Temporary carpets, drawn with coloured chalk, will be soon washed away by the rain and blown away by the wind. The people walking down the street will trample them with their shoes. The sunrise has the same meaning as the pictures drawn with chalk. "Orient" means to rise (Greek oiriri). A carpet which is usually a private work of art becomes the property of the public and creates the intimate atmosphere within the city space. Sunbeams cast light on both intimate and public spaces without buliding barriers between them. Because of their universal meaning, oriental ornaments enable different people to design their own carpets and create common artistic work.
"Flying Dust"
Location: Plac Litewski square