Performance program at Pera Museum

The Pera Museum will be presenting a performance program titled “Look Again” between March 31 and April 2 in collaboration with Performistanbul.

Inspired by the museum’s collection exhibitions, the program features performances by artists AslieMk, Ekin Bernay, and Ata Doğruel.

Curated by Simge Burhanoğlu, the founding director of Performistanbul, “Look Again” aims to celebrate the art of performance as well as visitor experience through the museum’s collection exhibitions. 

The artists, who have been working closely with the museum’s collections, will be presenting their own interpretations. The performance program hopes to facilitate a new look into the museum’s collection and exhibiting practices.

Doğruel’s performance “Ambassador” focuses on the exhibition “Intersecting Worlds: Ambassadors and Painters,” based on the Orientalist Painting Collection. 

The performance casts a new look at ambassador portrait paintings from the 17th and 19th centuries, reinterpreting them by discussing the notion of duality. Doğruel engages in an abstract interpretation of the dual lives of these colorful characters, i.e. ambassadors and painters. 

The artist duo AslieMk’s performance entitled “In Situ,” based on the exhibition “Coffee Break: The Adventure of Coffee in Kütahya Tiles and Ceramics,” aims to turn the exhibition space into an open and functioning laboratory, taking visitors beyond a one-way visual communication in relation to the works at the museum. 

The performance is based on recreating works which can be touched and sensed once again.

Bernay’s performance “9 Stones” is a reference to the “Anatolian Weights and Measures” collection exhibition. Active audience participation will be required during the performance where Bernay will focus on questions such as the rediscovery of the relation between the body and soul, the freedom of the body, and body weight.