Collaboration with Ziya Azazi
400 x 500 cm Paper Installation with Natural Coal Pigment
Artist-in-Residence, Albrechtsfeld, Burgenland 2014
On May 13, 2014 the worst mine disaster took place in Turkeyʼs history. Memory to SOMA is a
remembrance of the infinite pain the catastrophecaused, independent of the consequences
of political negligence. The contemporary Turkish dancer Ziya Azazi
and Casanova Sorolla met at a film and dance festival in Ankara in the aftermath of SOMA. Immediately,
they knew that they needed to work together. Azazi—known for his interpretations
of the Sema dance, a Sufi tradition of a spinning dance, in which transcendence is acquired
in the earthly realm—performed for this work, with his body whitewashed while dancing on
a paper prepared with charcoal pigment. According to Rumiʼs words “With one foot in this
world, with the other in the other world,” the work should build a bridge for the sufferers of
misfortune to free themselves in another life; born again, arriving on the other side, during
the constant and incessant turning movements of Azazi, whose body gradually turns black,
right under the skin.
In memory to SOMA
