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© Emilia Therese Danish playwright and theater director Christian Lollike (1973) was among the participants of Nordic Focus, which was held for the first time this year as part of the New Text Festival. Within the scope of the event supported by the Danish Embassy, Danish Cultural Institute, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Danish Ministry of Culture, Danish Consulate, Consulate General of Sweden, the Swedish Research Institute and the Swedish Arts Council, Lollike's play Cosmic Fear or Brad Pitt's Day of Paranoia  was performed as a staged reading. Lollike is working with stage and installation art in theaters, public areas and virtual platforms. He has produced a comprehensive amount of theatre texts and his texts are being played in and outside Europe. During the last couple of years, Lollike’s work has been dealing more and more with inter-aesthetics and he has made a ballet, an opera installation and a political party. His artistic drive derives from wanting to underst...

The New Text Festival, organized by GalataPerform since 2012 and which is the first playwriting festival in Turkey, was held for the 11th time this year. The theme of the festival, which met the audience between November 26 and December 4, 2022, was “Fear”. Fredrik Brattberg, from Norway, was the first guest of our conversations with the playwrights whose plays were translated into Turkish and performed as a staged reading. The New Text Festival, which has an important place in the field of theater in Turkey by increasing the visibility of new contemporary writers and introducing them to the performing arts sector, had a new section titled Nordic Focus , this year. Fredrik Brattberg, whose play Cantus was performed as staged reading, was among the participants of this section, which was supported by the Danish Embassy, the Danish Cultural Institute, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Danish Ministry of Culture, the Danish Consulate, the Swedish Consulate General, the Swedish ...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists who will perform in Fringe Festival Istanbul 2022. Our last guest is Inez Wolters from LaPiratesse. Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer La Piratesse & Claroscuro Concert Extravagant @ Concertzaal Tilburg  © Chris Heijmans What is the essence of performance in your opinion? LaPiratesse is a live music band, but we call it a performance band as well, because we want to give the audience a different experience than most live bands do. Performance adds elements to the show that gives you more than just a music concert. The character changes and the extravagant, self made costumes, the visuals, the spoken word and the dance add more layers to it. So the essence of performance would be opening up the eyes of the spectator, surprise them, give them something to think about, try to involve them in our journey. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? Almost impossib...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists who will perform in Fringe Festival Istanbul 2022. Our fifth guest is Joisy Amorim from Giro 8 Cia. de Dança. Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer What is the essence of performance in your opinion? The performance brings the representation of reality to the stage, recreating it and leading the audience to appreciate life itself, as well as existence itself. Dancing through its art helps to establish a man's connection with his most intimate desires and dreams. In addition, it causes a feeling of happiness and fulfillment, making the desire for change grow, allied to the belief in a better future.  Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? Yes. I believe that art promotes reflections and allows new meanings to life's actions. Art is intrinsic to the processes of living. Through it, we can transform ideas and, consequently, people and society as a whole. Wh...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists who will perform in Fringe Festival Istanbul 2022. Our fourth guest is Rachel Lum from Deca.Dance Co.  Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer What is the essence of performance in your opinion? It is to inspire, express and mostly importantly, connect with the audience. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? YES! Back home, I work closely with elderly communities. I observe first-hand how art and movement can transform a person’s outlook on life. I have even witnessed personality changes for the better through engaging in the arts. When you are working on a piece, what sources inspire you? Do dreams play a role in your pieces? I pull inspiration from the moment in time I am in, whatever season of life, phase, life stage, all that is around, is what I put out as my artistic language. When do you decide to give a title to a piece you are working on if it already ...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists who will perform in Fringe Festival Istanbul 2022. Our third guest is Dana Naim Hafouta.   Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer What is the essence of performance in your opinion? If I have to narrow it down to a title I would say ‘Transcendence’. For me it means a performer is fully committed to whatever is happening to them at the specific moment, and really lets these happenings change and shift them, mentally and physically. I think this commitment, alongside a control you have to have while performing, can bring a ‘Rise above’, a transcendence. But I believe it’s not something you can instruct, people are different (the same but different), and each performer has to look for their own transcending inner escalader. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?   I really do. I believe it has great power on both aspects - as an art practitioner and as an ...

© Annemie Augustijns The famous opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny , in short Mahagonny , with the libretto by Bertolt Brecht and music by Kurt Weill, tells the story of a city where, if paid for, there are no rules for entertainment (food, sex, boxing and drink), everything is permitted for entertainment. In this artificial city, people are prevented from realizing that their lives are empty and meaningless by spending their time with entertainment, so much that people are made to forget that they are human by dulling their feelings. So, the plot of the Mahagonny can be read as a critique of American society, so Mahagonny may represent Las Vegas, for example, or it may also describe the corrupted Berlin of the 1920s of the Weimar Republic. Mahagonny, which premiered in Leipzig in 1930, was the culmination of a six-year partnership between Brecht and Weill. Like all cult and timeless works, it was met with protests (organized by sympathizers of the National Socialist ...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists who will perform in Fringe Festival Istanbul 2022. Our second guest is Eleni Papaioannou from A(r)CT. Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer What is the essence of performance in your opinion? A performance, for me, is life magnified, reproduced, represented, reoccuring in front of your eyes. The essence of a live performance is the exchange of energy and ideas through movement or words, through images, music and aesthetics. A performance is filled with emotions and motions. It is a shortcut to the creator’s soul and a window to his/her creative mind. That’s why, in my opinion, to watch a performance is something sacred. Something we should really admire, whether we get attracted to it or not. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? I deeply believe that art has the power to transform people and societies and it has been proven many times in the past, in both politic...

© Andrea Behrends In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists who will perform in Fringe Festival İstanbul 2022. Our first guest is Becca Hoback from Enactor Productions.  Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer What is the essence of performance in your opinion? Enactor’s solos are exploring what it means to be a human being having a relationship with your body. As I was beginning to curate the collection of solos, the spark was wanting to understand how to better integrate my relationship with my body into my identity. I realized there was a strong separation between the times when I was aware of my body - usually in the dance studio - and the rest of my life. As I began exploring this topic and having conversations with others, I realized that each person’s body-relationship is going to look different - sometimes drastically. I knew I wanted to work with others to gain more perspective and explore just that. How do we t...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists who performed in İstanbul Fringe Festival 2022. Our last guest is Agnieszka Kazimierska from t he former Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards .   Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer  © Nikita Chuntomov What is the essence of theater in your opinion? A deep and meaningful, living - thus necessarily in flesh - nourishing encounter among human beings that is based on craft. It entails mastery of being in relation. A space in which the quality of people’s attention becomes a gentle container for awakening what is hidden, for a common communal journey through ideas, ideals, dreams, desires, which are all rooted and living in the body and often kept dormant. A space of revealing and revelation. A space of generous giving. Of giving up. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? Yes, definitely. Not all art, not any “art” has this power, but def...

Setting of with the idea " True perfection lies in imperfection ", imPerfect Dancers Company was founded in Italy in 2009 by Walter Matteini and Ina Broeckx. Matteini and Broeckx have danced in many world-renowned dance companies and in the works of many world-renowned choreographers like William Forsythe, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin and Maguy Marin.  The ensemble, which has performed in many countries from Colombia to Tanzania, from Canada to Israel, from Armenia to Poland, previously presented their piece Lady Macbeth at the CRR Concert Hall in Istanbul, Turkey.  Walter Matteini Ina Broeckx What is the spirit of performance in your opinion? How do you define contemporary performance? Energetic, emotional, receptive and motivated – these are just a few words that characterise our work. Our choreographic language is intensely physical and athletic, and hinges on our quest to explore and understand the human soul in all its different facets. Our work seeks to create an emotional co...