Havîn Al-Sîndy: A picture of a gateway
with Eva Busch, Bariş Seyitvan, Sinthujan Varatharajah, Students, Mariane Verbecq & Milena Cestao, Leyla Toprak, Johab Silva, Heike Dempster
Opening: Sep 15, 2023, 6:00 pm
Duration: Sep 16, 2023 – Oct 29, 2023
Photos: Johannes Bendzulla
"The house that stood before me was not the house I was supposed to remember."
Mother
What happens to an architecture that must be abandoned? What happens in the necessary re-encounter with it?
The multi-part work A Picture of a Gate brings together two concrete physical places that are geographically distant from each other, yet they are set for an encounter than transcends their perceived boundaries.
Our memory is fragile, fragmented and manipulative. Knowing this, a question arises: what does solidarity in memory mean in moments like these? How does memory change through its de-location or its insertion into a new context. What space can such memories occupy in a country like Germany?
The work is divided into several elements that come together in an installation of sculpture and drawings, video works, and a live performance with 260 students from NRW.
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Program
16.09.2023
Performance with Leyla Toprak at NKR
House, body, dance, resistance, where is the negotiation space?
Excerpt from the video “Red Handkerchief” by Leyla Toprak
Red Handkerchief
The people who have to live within bounded place and time by the laws were either in prison or on the mountains or in demonstrations. And the halay was a way of organisation, a feeling of unboundedness in a bounded place, the synergy emerged from collective movement and mostly it was integrating, healing and detaching.
Location: Diyarbakır
Year of Production: 2015
Running Time: 16:20
Genre: Documentary and Fiction
Language: Turkish
Subtitle: Engish - Kurdish
Director: Leyla Toprak
Script: Leyla Toprak
Production: Leyla Toprak
Paticipation: Ramazan Morkoç, Sara Aktaş, Hasan Yağız Mehmet Akdoğan, Sevi Demir, Pero Dündar, Besime Konca, Herdem Kızılkaya, Şaban Tan, Hasan İnatçı
Editing: Leyla Toprak-Utku Kaya
Director of Photography: Mustafa Köksalan
Camera: Mustafa Köksalan, Özkan Küçük
Sound: Mir Mustafa Baydemir
Excerpt from the video “Distant Synopsis” by Leyla Toprak
Distant Synopsis
The movie observes Kobanê war’s influences on people and nature, and also Kobanian guerilla women’s rebellion against the approach which ignores woman’s historical values in dominant social descriptions for years.
Location: Syria / Kobanê
Year of Production: 2016
Running Time: 16 mins12 sec
Genre: Experimental Documentary
Language: Kurdish (Kurmanci)
Director: Leyla Toprak
Script: Leyla Toprak
Choreography: Leyla Toprak
Production: Leyla Toprak
Dancer Performer: Semra Kap
Editing: Leyla Toprak - Mustafa Köksalan
Director of Photography: Mustafa Köksalan
Camera: Mustafa Köksalan, Aram Dildar
Sound: Semra Kap, Aram Dildar, Mahkum Abi
Music: Arvo Part – Für Alina
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08.10.2023
Havîn Al-Sîndy and Johab Silva: Floating Places (online artist talk)
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19.10.2023
Havîn Al-Sîndy and Heike Dempster (online artist talk)
