kirkpinar

Performance, 60 min

Berlin, 2020 

KIRKPINAR is a duet performance by caner teker, created in 2020, premiering at Sophiensæle Berlin. The 60-minute piece is performed live by two performers. Drawing from Yağlı Güreş—the traditional Turkish oil wrestling practice—the work moves through repetitive, physically intense sequences that carry the ritual weight of the sport while pulling it into a performative and queer context. Oil becomes the central material and metaphor: slippery, exposed, ungovernable. Through it, the boundaries between protection and aggression, strength and vulnerability, control and surrender begin to blur. KIRKPINAR tests what happens when a body coded by combat tradition is freed from its normative stakes and what kinds of relations, and worlds, become possible in that opening.

KIRKPINAR has been acquired by the Museum Ostwall in 2023. Previous presentations include Berlin Atonal x Julia Stoschek Collection, Tanzquartier Wien, Neue Nationalgalerie, Sophiensaele Berlin, and Creamcake 3HD. 

Performers: Élie Autin, Rayne, Ewa Dziarnowska, Aaron Ratajczyk, Raoni/Muzeh Saleh, Ryn, Felipe Faria, Rayne, caner teker