Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu

Bärenzwinger Berlin | Germany

SAHA supports Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu’s project at Barenzwinger, 26 May – 6 August 2023. Curated by Malte Pieper and Maja Smoszna. Curated by Malte Pieper and Maja Smoszna, the artist performs a new performance titled Fire, everywhere.

Heart Beats is dedicated to the artistic research of the two performance artists Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu and Martin Toloku. Inspired by their personal experiences and cultural references, they deal with the physicality of grief and trauma in their works. In the exhibition they examine the phenomenon of physical endurance in borderline situations and its transgressive dimension, for example as an element of communal rituals.

Feelings of sadness, shame, anger or joy manifest themselves in the body and its metabolism. Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes the physical process of grieving as "crying with our muscles." Accordingly, memory also occurs in body tissue, muscles and bones. What are the repercussions of historical ownership of bodies and land, on an individual and collective level? Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu and Martin Toloku have created new works for the exhibition that deal with metabolizing and transforming the fear, loss or stigma they feel in the context of the communities in the Global South and North in which they live. They interact with the special architecture of the Bärenzwinger. Working at the intersection of continuous performance and installation, both artists invite the audience to relate, spend time and share space with them. With video, sculpture, text and sound works, they transform the Bärenzwinger into a stage and at the same time leave traces that tell visitors about the past or point to future events.

Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu (1985, İzmir) explores the physical/emotional boundaries, limitations and potentials of the body in her * continuous performances, videos and installations. Based on this corporeal approach, Darıcıoğlu is interested in chronopolitics and necropolitics from a perspective that focuses on the vulnerability and strength of marginalized bodies. As an artist who * disagrees with the binary gender system, Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu uses the crossed out she/her with asterisk as a pronoun in texts and “they/them” in spoken language.

About Bärenzwinger Berlin

Until that day in autumn 2015, on which Schnute, the last female city-bear was euthanized, several generations of brown bears – Berlin’s heraldic animals – had inhabited the Bärenzwinger [bear pit] for almost eighty years.

In 2017, the cultural use of the Bärenzwinger as a location for exhibitions and events, lectures and discussions has been made possible through the transfer of the property to the Department for Further Education and Culture of Berlin-Mitte and the provision of support through interdisciplinary funding.