Archive of Feelings: Istanbul

Gizem Aksu

Performance 2022/23

Some feelings are allowed to be felt, expressed, and acted out in the public space, while others are attempted to be constantly manipulated, controlled, or forbidden/hidden. While feelings permeate all areas of our lives and provide rich, multidimensional clues to our everyday lives, they are also fields of power in which the politics of governmentality can be traced. To document the increasing violence, conservatism, and social trauma in Istanbul, Gizeh Aksu began to archive feelings and show how feelings change and move bodies.

“Archive of Feelings: Istanbul” was produced with the intention of finding other ways of communicating, moving and living together in a dark and suffocating socio-political and cultural environment. The performance invites the audience to experience, feel and imagine together the potential power of expressing our feelings.

Duration: 1 hr., less language

Choreography and Direction: Gizem Aksu
Performance: Suzan Alev, Leyla Postalcıoğlu, Ekin Tunçeli, Bahar Vidinlioğlu (previously also performed by Zeynep Günsür Yüceil)
Stage Design: Bengi Günay
Lighting Design: İrfan Varlı
Original Music: Emre Malikler
Additional Music by Ah! Kosmos, dEUS / WITH COURTESY of the ARTISTS.
Mask: Leyla Okan
Direction of Photography: Derin Cankaya
Animation: Valko Chobanov, Nina Paley / WITH COURTESY of the ARTISTS.
Stage and Production Manager: Büşra Tuna

Coproduced by Moda Sahnesi

Supporters

Deniz Akkuş, A Corner in the World, Çıplak Ayaklar Kumpanyası, ÇATI Contemporary Dance Artists Association, Theatre Department of Kadir Has University, Contemporary Dance Department of Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts and Tuğçe Ulugün Tuna.

Special Thanks

Ann Cvetkovich, Gizem Karaosmanoğlu, Aydın Teker, Yasemin Nur, Melissa Ugolini and PURESPACE.