Lifting a Secret (2009).
Still from performance at the Claire Oliver Gallery, New York.
Courtesy of the Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, and the artist.
Artist Statement:
The idea, the thought, the draft are the bases for my artwork. My ideas come from everyday-life situations, social and cultural atmospheres. The idea expresses itself in performances and installations.
I use the body as a means of expression. Sometimes, the artistic idea is expressed using the body alone; at other times, the body is used as part of the installation and within the context of a presentation to an audience.
The subjects I deal with are time, movement, space, material, body, and action/interaction. I try to create works of art that leave for the viewer free space for associations and new possibilities. I take specific situations from everyday life and place them into a new context.
I aim to create an art where all of the elements are interconnected so as to form a total work of art—a Gesamtkunstwerk.
Biography:
Nezaket Ekici (born 1970, Kirsehir) has lived in Berlin and Stuttgart, Germany, since 1973. Many of her performances, installations, and videos are inspired by her dual German-Turkish cultural heritage.
In 1994–2000, she studied art pedagogy, art history, and sculpture at Ludwig Maximilian University and Fine Arts Academy, Munich, and received her MA degree in art pedagogy. In 2001–04, she studied performance art with Marina Abramovic at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Braunschweig, from which she received her BFA and MFA.
She has exhibited at venues that include the Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, 2000; Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2000; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 2001; 25 May Museum, Belgrade, 2001; Museo Centro Galego de Arte Contemporànea, Santiago de Compostela, 2002; PAC, Milan, 2002; Fifth International Women’s Art Festival, Aleppo, Syria, 2003; Fiftieth Venice Biennale, 2003; Fourth International Performance Festival, Odense, Denmark, 2003; Art Forum Berlin, 2004; Art Frankfurt, 2004; International Festival of Performance Art, Boston, 2004; MoMA PS1, New York, 2004; Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art, Istanbul, 2005; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2005; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2005; The Armory Show, New York, 2006; Feigen Contemporary, New York, 2006; International Performance Art Event, Singapore, 2006; Into Me / Out of Me, Kunst-Werke, Berlin, 2007; Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, 2007; Venice Biennale, 2007; Expo Zaragoza, 2008; Triennale, Bovisa Museum, Milan, 2008; Fifth Latin-American Visual Arts Biennial, Vento Sul, Curitiba, Brazil, 2009; Kunstmuseum Heidenheim, 2009; Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, Netherlands, 2009; Kunstverein Friedrichshafen, 2010; First Mediterranean Biennial of Contemporary Art, Haifa, 2010; Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, 2010; Mardin Bienali, Turkey, 2010; Museum Alex Mylona, Athens, 2010; Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Amsterdam, 2011; Istanbul Modern, 2011; Villa Empain, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, 2011; Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, 2011; Esbjberg Kunstmuseum, Denmark, 2012; Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, 2012; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2012.
Selected awards include an artists’ and authors’ grant, Else-Heiliger-Fonds, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, 2002; artists’ residency grant, Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, 2004; GASAG Art Prize, Berlin, 2004; Arbeitsstipendium Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn, 2005; artists’ residency grant, BM Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, 2005; Arbeitsstipendium Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, 2006; U2 Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 2007; artists’ residency grant, FADA International, Toronto, 2008; Arbeitsstipendium für Bildende Kunst, Berlin, 2010; Karin Abt-Straubinger Stiftung, 2010. Ekici also received project grants from the Goethe-Institut International to create work in Milan, 2001; Damascus, 2003; Madrid, 2005; Los Angeles, 2006; Amsterdam, 2007; Jakarta, 2007; Istanbul, 2008; Ankara, 2009; Tiflis, 2009; Athens, 2010; Thessaloniki, 2010; Vietnam, 2010; Ghana, 2012.