International performance art platform Performistanbul’s represented artist Ekin Bernay’s new 33-minute performance titled Atlas, commissioned by V&A Museum and actualized in partnership with Performistanbul, met with audiences on the 26th of November in the iconic Raphael Court of the museum in London as part of V&A Friday Late. Inspired by the oldest surviving complete musical composition by Seikilos Epitaph, the performance’s journey hinged upon February 2021.
You perform both in Turkey and England and Atlas Performance is taking place in London at V&A Museum. How does performing in different countries affect your performance practice?
I believe in a world without borders. I know this might not be easy to achieve, but I feel like it’s one of my purposes to bridge different places with my body. Having said that, when I make a piece for a specific place, I do need to consider the culture and the context it will be shared in, up to a certain degree. In my opinion, the more universal the piece is the more power it has. So I am working towards simplifying everything every time, while the complexity evolves.
You worked with a crowded team for Atlas, and you also have been working with Performistanbul for years now. Could you talk about the creative process such as the curatorial aspects, the creation of performance materials, and other team members?
Performistanbul guides me through complex timelines. And specifically, they know my practice so well that they help me see what the piece might need. Sometimes Simge pulls out an idea from years ago and suggests maybe it’s time. I am lucky to have her by my side watching and believing in me attentively. And the female team at Performistanbul is very important to the art world. They all have great powers.
Although it is slightly difficult to see in the Raphael court due to its size. Many elements were very carefully crafted for this performance. I was thinking of the idea of creating an object that can trigger performance, so potentially when someone else sits in my position with these elements they too can be moved and inspired to express themselves in a newfound way.
It was almost like having artworks within the artwork. Some of the collaborators are my dear friends and the others became very valuable friends to me through this process. The hairpins were a moment of realization in quarantine, after three months of thinking about wanting to make my own pins, then after sketching the idea I got Ultramegaomega to help 3D print them. They were printed in Ankara, similar to my body.
The marble was an idea that rose with Joseph Bond after our discussions on how to create a space for me to lie down. The idea of death and rebirth, like a post mortem table… the marble is also what Seikilos Epitaph was found carved on. So the two ideas came together once again with the input of Simge and the tremendous help of Design Elements Co who produced and sent the marble from Denizli to London which is incredible to me still to this day.
The body armor or the bones was made by Abi Sheng and actually, some of them were printed in China and traveled to London for this performance. The seven-meter long skirt is a collaboration of me and Florence King, who is one of my best friends.
I also need to mention Anna Lanns’ incredible original composition for the piece, and our choir members Vernetta, Ash, James, Yvonne who sang live and channeled something so beautiful into the performance. The sound helps everything together, and I was also able to add some of my words into the piece.
The Greek text of the Seikolos Tomb epitaph you refer to in your Atlas performance writes “While you live, shine/don’t suffer anything at all;/because life is short/and time demands its toll” When did you first see the Seikilos epitaph? Could you elaborate on the development of the performance idea?
This piece has become about facing my own life as something that will not be here in this reality one day. When I read the lyrics found on the tombstone, I thought maybe this is a message for me from some of our ancestors. It’s hard for me to make lighter work but I still believe it’s “light” work and carries some love into now. These words say, shine. And that life will not always be yours so do not sleepwalk, wake up, be awake. This is what I am trying to do through my practice. Help us feel alive…
The legend of Titan, Atlas, who was condemned to carry the skies on his shoulders, also gives his name to the C1 vertebra, which connects our skull to our spine. You state that this bone is a reflection of the human experience in the world, and you also feed on Sufism. Could you explain this intersection you have established?
The idea of carrying the world’s weight on our shoulders parallels the human experience. Life is heavy. The weight and gravity here are also metaphorical. I say in my performance “I am born into weight” so here is a body, brought to this simulation, by whatever your belief is, trying to make it make sense and endure…
I was inspired to find out Atlas bone was given this name as my simulation, and signals in my body travel through my vertebrae, into my gut, in and out my brain. It makes me curious to realize the vertebrae as an axis of this simulation we are in.
There is an idiom in Turkish that means to have a strong sense of character which has the word “backbone” in it called “Omurgalı olmak”. And it is also similar to the English idiom “grow a backbone”. Do you form any connection with these concepts in Atlas? If so, what does a strong sense of character mean in performance art?
Maybe it is relevant. Since this piece also talks about strength. Not just physical but more so the emotional strength. In performance art as a form, it can be anything. The more honest, raw, and pure the performance is the more character it has for me. Its essence must speak louder than all the things that surround it.
You also work as a dance movement psychotherapist and in an early interview, you mentioned that during therapy sessions you are the one enabling the healing for another but in your performances, you are the one receiving the healing yourself and you feel like almost channeling something. In Atlas, which is formed around the concept of finding the essence, how does the concept of healing stand?
It did really touch something in me. I love having a body and I love the body I am in. But there were moments in the performance where I had a feeling of knowing I will let this body go one day. And it will hopefully age as I grow older on Earth, I was trying to make peace with this and also trying to get a sense of what it might be like to be in my own funeral. So to go back to your question, I was trying to go deeper in my feelings about death, I believe there is something therapeutic in that as it is inevitable maybe we need to find ways of working on it.
Lastly, every art project, every performance is the result of a production process and I believe it offers new teachings or reminds some learned ones to shine brighter. What did you learn from Atlas performance? Or, what would you like all of us alive in our contemporary world to remember and experience more often?
Practicing love and kindness, also learning to shine brighter like you have said, while we are here and alive. There is so much noise, so much pain, can we find some beauty in our own life and presence and glorify our own existence like we do with others…
Is there anything you would like to add?
I want to thank you for your time. Also, I would like to thank all my collaborators, supporters, and sponsors for the project. Please take the time to read the credits as this is all very important for me. Atlas was supported by Faruk Sade Art Fund, I’m emotional and proud to carry Faruk’s name to this place.
Wearable technology and Visual Effects: Abi Sheng
Gown by: Florence King
Original Composition: Anna Lann
Marble Production: Sirmersan & Design Elements Co.
Installation Design: Joseph Bond Studio
Hair Pins 3D Design: Ultra Mega Omega Ltd
Photography Documentation: Burcin Ergunt
Film: Jerome Monnot, Sibling Studios
Atlas, Ekin Bernay, 2021, Performance | 33 min. | In collaboration with Performistanbul
| As Part of V&A Friday Late. ©️ Hydar Dewachi /
Supported by Faruk Sade Art Found 2021
Sponsored by Hitay Vakfı, Ömer Burhanoğlu, İrem Erim
Images courtesy of the organizer.
