The Blob presents
Body double — Stockholm Istanbul

Saturday 21 May:
18:00 We need to move urgently (Taldans)
Dinner break*
20.00 In Love (Bahar Temiz)
21.30 Happy Happy Together (Ilyas Odman)

Sunday 22 May:
15.30 Lecture by curator/ scholar Gurur Ertem (free entry with ticket to either Body Double performance)
17:00 We need to move urgently (Taldans)
Dinner break*
19.00 In Love (Bahar Temiz)
20.30 Happy Happy Together (Ilyas Odman)

*Auel will be here selling delicious food during both evenings.

The Blob is an elastic boneless organisational body/alter ego/artist initiating, curating and producing art and culture with a special interest in dance and choreography. It creates forms and projects that stand alone or have the ability of “blobbing on” to different structures through collaboration/partnerships. The core basis of The Blob is to create spaces for working together and to elaborate around ways of organising and presenting art. The Blob is run by Anna Efraimsson or Anna Efraimsson is run by The Blob in collaboration with artists, researchers, organisations, and institutions in Sweden and internationally.

The name “The Blob” is inspired by two elastic bodies: The childrens book character Barbapapa and the 1950s horror film, The Blob. Like Barbapapa, the organization is flexible and a problem-solver. But also like the frightful slim, The Blob has an inherent criticism, with its own agenda and integrity to counteract the contemporary political ideas around the flexible cultural entrepreneur.

The Blob works with analyzing power structures and strives to use the intersectional perspectives, which means that The Blob as a name is also a statement, it is a formless body that can change sex and identity.

www.theblob.se

Gurur Ertem contextualizes the advancement of the independent contemporary dance scene in Turkey since the late 1990s and discuss the impact of local history, individual initiatives, international exchange programs, and European dance networks on the trajectory of field. Drawing on the example of iDANS, a not-for-profit private structure Ertem co-founded that organized an annual international performing arts festival in Istanbul between 2006-2013, she discusses the potentials, promises, and pitfalls of working in Istanbul today against the backdrop of wider political developments.

Gurur Ertem is an Istanbul-based cultural sociologist and the artistic co-­director of iDANS (Istanbul) where she is responsible for curatorial research, theory, and publications. Ertem is a specialist in contemporary dance culture, and assumes multiple roles as academic, critic, dancer, curator, dramaturge and editor. She recently completed PhD in Sociology at the New School for Social Research (New York). She is the editor of Solo? in Contemporary Dance (2008) and Dance on Time (2010) as well as other Turkish language publications on dance. She coordinates the “iDANSblog”, an online platform of dance scholarship and criticism. For more information: www.idans.info www.idansblog.org

“There is a beautiful mess outside, how can you stay in?” is written on a city wall. “We need free space not castle dreams” says another wall text.

This project initially began by questioning the responsibility and role of art and science in current society. Later the process was subjected to a forceful social event that changed the course of the work- the events in Gezi park in Istanbul in 2013.

It was only one in a series of many deep social -and artistic- upheavals in the past years, from New York over Brazil or Lisbon to Istanbul. They gave rise to thousands of spontaneous ideas, initiatives and gave birth to a temporary social order that organized itself. Social cybernetics in the making.

Objects gathered from various cities, prompted us, as three individual performing artists, to relate to the events. Back in the studio, they became materials for an analogue spatial and mental model where we could grasp the processes and work in a free space. A model to zoom in and out from.

Taldans has been established in Istanbul by Mustafa Kaplan and Filiz Sızanlı in 2003. Kaplan and Sızanlı have created many independent and collaborative projects. Some of the projects they have created together are Sek Sek (2002), Solum (2005), Graf (2006), Dokuman (2009) and Eskiyeni (2011). Taldans was named after the Theater Research Laboratory (TAL) of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Theater in which a movement-dance research unit was established by Mustafa Kaplan. A number of individuals who used these studios by the support of Ayla Algan and Beklan Algan have founded ÇATI (Contemporary 5 Dance Artists) Association after leaving Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Theater.

In Love, a two-part solo dance performance supported by objects and sculptures, is intending to activate the potential sensitivity of the inanimate. The movement vocabulary is aimed at turning the body into a moving sculpture. Everything is visible, and even over visible.

Part 1: I
In this world of over exposure, we navigate from one scene to another by weightlessness proper to tactile experiences. How to make a tactile experience visible? How to hide and reveal in a world of over exposure? How to make an image last over time?

Part 2: II
Part two focuses on the conflictual aspect of any concept, in this case the concept of love. In Part 2: II, we witness how one (I) is transformed into two (II) over the process of splitting, multiplication, division, reproduction, reflection, repetition, identification, separation etc. In a world of opposites, we are constantly pulled, pushed and torn apart by the object of our desire.

“If love is so strong that it creates an attachment hard to be torn apart, hate intensifies more and more. In this sense, love is considered as a battle between two sides trying to ruin each other by passing through the walls of protection of other’s identity.”
(RUSSELL Bertrand, A History of Western Philosophy, Volume 1, New Age, p.20, translation from the Turkish translation by Bahar Temiz)

Temiz has worked around topics such as love, war, fear, touch, fear of unknown and protection to find an hybrid form for a dance inspired by visual arts, cinema and architecture.

Born in Istanbul, Bahar Temiz studied philosophy at the Université de Paris IV-la Sorbonne, followed by studies in dance at Artez Hogeschool voor de kunsten (Arnhem) and choreography at Ex.e.r.ce 09/10 (Centre National de Montpellier). She holds a Masters degree from Université de Paris VIII. Her master’s thesis, “In and Out Sider”, was the result of an auto ethnographical research of two weeks spent within The Forsythe Company during the rehearsals of the piece “Sider”. She worked as a dancer and performer with Superamas (“Theatre”) and in site-specific projects with Erik Kaiel, Willi Dorner and Dylan Newcomb. She presented her solo performance “1+” in Tanzquartier Wien and in Springdance Festival in the frame of the Europe in Motion programme (2011). She has been supported by APAP – Advancing Performing Arts Projects with another solo project “In Love” (2016). She collaborates with dance artists Erinç Aslanboğa, Natalie Heller, Maik Riebort and visual artist Ceylan Dökmen. She is currently working as a performer with Ivana Müller (“Positions”, “Edges”).

Two men are tied to each other through their ears with a ring.

happy happy together is a performative interpretation of Wong Kar Wai’s Hong Kong movie Happy Together from 1997 depicting a tumultous relationship starring Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung. happy happy together is a sequel to Odman’s glasstepsss which explored the deep personal desire and quest to be united with another. Odman’s approach to choreography goes through theater and acrobatics.

Odman combines contemporary dance with acrobatics and mime-theatre. He performed in Jérôme Bel’s The Show Must Go On at the iDANS Festival in Istanbul in 2011. He is the cofounder of the Copycats collective with which he created the performances Countdown, Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah and Holy Holy Holyæ.He has toured Europe with three of his own productions: tired(2005), glassteps (2006) and oggi niente (2010). Odman began to dance at METU Dance Theatre at 1998 and has been the choreographer, trainer between the years 2000-2002. At the same year, he began to attend dance classes in Ankara Modern Dance Turkey where he worked with teachers such as Alparslan Karaduman, Bürge Öztürk, Paul Clayden, Jan Pusch, Chevy Muraday, Dilek Dervişoğlu, Stephanie Parent, Martin Sonderkamp, Talin Büyükkürkçiyan, Rubato, Alexandre Abellan, Handan Ergiydiren and Karin Ponties. In 2001, he established “underNine dance and movement project”with whom he performed internationally. Odman is also teaching in Osmangazi University and Atölyedans İstanbul. Through his career, he has collaborated with artists from different disiplines such as Bahadır Dilbaz, Karine Ponties, Ethem Özgüven, Umay Umay, Yüksel Aymaz.

Curated by: Anna Efraimsson/The Blob and Filiz Sizanli in conversation with Björn Säfsten. Production: The Blob, Taldans, Firat Kusçu, Säfsten Produktion, Nordberg Movement. Coproduction: Säfsten Produktion and MDT. Supported by: Prof. Erol Nezih Orhon at the Anadolu University Faculty of communication sciences, Consulate General of Sweden in Istanbul, The City of Stockholm, Swedish Arts Council, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee.

Credits – We need to move urgently:
Concept: Taldans. Creation: Filiz Sizanli, Mustafa Kaplan, Vania Rovisco. Light: Jan Maertens. Production: Platform 0090, Taldans, Wp Zimmer, Buda, fabrik Potsdam. Artistic advice: Zhana Ivanova, Pieter T’Jonck, Cevdet Erek, Marcus Rovisco. Project management: Fırat Kuşçu & Valerie De Visscher. Thanks to: Demimonde na Galeria da Boavista-Lisboa for hosting our live process, ÇATI Association-Istanbul for providing workspace. Taldans is sustained by the EMWAP project and funded by the European Culture programme. Premiered in January 11-12 2014 at the festival Made in Potsdam, Germany.

Credits – In love:
Concept and performance: Bahar Temiz. Sculpture: Ceylan Dökmen. Costume: Ritter Bitter. Music: Berke Özcan, A year from the wind that was a year ago; Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Their Helicopters’ Sing; Claudio Monteverdi, Lamento della Ninfa. Light design: Martin Kaffarnik. Wooden construction: Stef Depover, Metin Sakin. External eye: Mesut Arslan, Michael De Cock, Smaranda Olcese, Marc Vanrunxt. Thanks to Arda Ateş, Anna Efraimsson, Chrystel Herbeaux Del-Pino, Wim Viaene, Valerie De Visscher, Saint Joseph High school. Co-production: Platform 0090, Kunstcentrum Buda (Kortrijk, Belgium), APAP – Advancing Performing Arts Projects / Performing Europe Network, funded by the European Commission – Culture programme. With the support of De Feniks Walpurgis (Mortsel, Belgium), Maison de la Culture d’Amiens – Centre de creation et de production (France), Centre National de la Danse (Paris, France), Salt Galata (Istanbul, Turkey).

Credits – Happy happy together:
Concept and choreography: Ilyas Odman. Performers: Ilyas Odman, Çağlar Yiğitoğullari. Music: Happy Together, The Turtles; Cucurrucucu Paloma, Caetano Veloso. Dramaturgical support: Burcu Barakaci. Light design: Yülsel Aymaz, Alev Topal. Photography, photographical advice: Ceyhun Erdem. Costume design Serra Kefeli. Special thanks to Vincent Dunoyer, Aydin Teker, Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory Modern Dance Program.