Nezaket Ekici_CIFRA

MOMENTUM is proud to launch our cooperation with CIFRA

NEZAKET EKICI:

Transformation of Daily Life

On stream

1 – 30 June 2025

and explore the artist’s page of CIFRA here

CURATORIAL STATEMENT

Daily life tasks are what Any Body Knows, right? But beneath the surface of the ordinary lie scenarios, rituals, and fairytale plots. Some feel familiar; others stretch to the edge of fantasy. Any action can be rethought and repurposed. Any simple habit can become a source of inspiration. And that is what this solo show by Nezaket Ekici uncovers. Nezaket Ekici uses her body as a seismograph of the present: it becomes a site of memory, resistance, and transformation. Her performances emerge from everyday life, yet always open up to universal questions of identity, migration, spirituality, and power. In her work, the boundaries between the private and the public, between ritual and rebellion, begin to dissolve. Ekici gives meaning to things by living through them performatively — every movement becomes a gesture of inquiry, exploration, and transgression. Her work becomes a constant engagement with the spaces we inhabit and the bodies we are — always in flux, always in motion.

This solo exhibition presents ten outstanding video works by Nezaket Ekici, selected from 25 years of international performance practice. More than 300 works in over 70 countries bear witness to a life in art, lived in ongoing dialogue with diverse cultures, everyday observations, and personal experiences. The selection strikingly reveals how Ekici uses her body as a medium to negotiate questions of identity, culture, and art history. In Emotion in Motion (since 2000) turns a private living room into a public space: with red lipstick, the artist leaves intimate traces — an understated reflection on closeness, memory, and presence. She makes her connection to and appreciation for the things in her private living space visible. A mindfullness work. In Hullabelly (since 2002), Nezaket Ekici reimagines the hula hoop by spinning it around her veiled head, focusing its motion solely on her neck. She presented her Performance Hullabelly in many places worldwide. The three-hour performance well recived at Venice Biennale (2003), she gives a powerful commentary on endurance, cultural identity, and the constraints imposed by society.

In Atropos (since 2006) Nezaket Ekici transforms an everyday phenomenon — hair — into a symbol of existential entanglement and radical self-empowerment. Through the act of cutting and tearing away, she stages a powerful liberation from both real and symbolic prisons—a transformation of the body, space, and the everyday. In Blind (since 2007), Ekici blindly carves her way out of a cast made of thick plaster, inspired by the martyrdom of Saint Cecilia — a powerful symbol of self-liberation caught between faith and social constraint. In Fountain for 6 Women (2010), Nezaket Ekici and 5 Women, assembles women in water-filled dresses into a living fountain sculpture — a poetic image of the female body, control, and circulation. Fountain based on her ongoing performance since 2004. In Human Cactus (2012), Ekici explores what it feels like to be a plant, expressing experiences of proximity and distance. In But All That Glitters Is Not Gold (since 2014), Nezaket Ekici confines herself within a golden cage, reaching through the bars to grasp one of thirty golden keys suspended above her, each a potential means of escape. This performance serves as a metaphor for self-imposed limitations and the deceptive allure of material wealth, challenging viewers to reflect on the constraints of societal expectations and the pursuit of true freedom. In Pars Pro Toto (2019), Ekici melts a block of ice using kettles and an iron — forming a closed cycle that vividly embodies climate change and human responsibility. In Transmission (since 2020), Ekici intertwines analog sculpture and the digital world by constructing a QR code from three-dimensional objects — a performative link between real and virtual identity. In Gipfel des Glückes (2023), the artist embarks on a path of emancipation by following the rituals of mountaineers, placing a flag made from her own dress — symbolizing “freedom” — on each swing she encounters.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Nezaket Ekici (born 1970 in Kırşehir, Turkey) is an internationally renowned performance artist who lives and works in Berlin and Stuttgart. At the age of three, she emigrated to Germany with her family. She studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and earned a master’s degree in art education at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. At the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, she was a master student of Marina Abramović in the field of performance (MFA degree and Meisterschülerin, 2004). She has presented more than 300 different performances and installations in over 70 countries across four continents, in more than 180 cities, in museums, galleries, and biennials. In 2013/2014, she was a fellow at the Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul for 10 months. In 2016/17, Ekici received the Rome Prize from the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo for a 10-month residency. In 2018, she was awarded the Paula Modersohn-Becker Art Prize. In 2020, she received the Cultural Exchange Fellowship of the State of Berlin – Visual Arts: ISCP New York. She participated in the Artist-in-Residence Program at Operndorf Afrika (Schlingensief) in Burkina Faso for 2.5 months (2012/22). Most recently, she was invited by the Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts (FSA) for a six-week artist residency in Charleston, SC, USA, in April 2024.

MORE INFO ABOUT THE ARTIST HERE >>

ABOUT CIFRA

Founded in the early 2020s, CIFRA is a global digital platform and community with a mission to transform how people experience digital art. Today it hosts over 1,000 artworks across 50+ genres, connecting hundreds of artists from Brazil to China, from Seoul to Venice. More than a streaming site, CIFRA is a living archive — a space where digital art gains permanence, visibility, and deeper meaning within an international community. Artists on CIFRA don’t just share content — they secure and present their vision to a global audience. Through curated programs and collaborations with figures like Lev Manovich, Dominique Moulon, and Rebecca Pedrazzi, CIFRA brings diverse voices to the forefront of contemporary discourse, challenging conventions and expanding the field. With initiatives like CIFRA TV, studio visits, and offline meetups, the platform fosters real-world connections and storytelling. Its mission is to open portals to emerging genres — from AI art to sound works, dance film to food-based practices — making space for new mythologies, digital rituals, and unexpected perspectives. Free to access and explore, CIFRA offers both open discovery and a membership model that supports artists directly through royalties, exclusive content, and merch. At its heart, CIFRA is a bold, boundary-crossing community where digital art finds its home — and keeps evolving.

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

Emotion in Motion

An empty gallery space is furnished with the artist’s personal possessions and valuables and thus transformed into a private salon. For three days she plants lipstick kisses across the entire room, its walls and its furnishings. Visitors have access to the room throughout the three days. They are able to observe this process. Additionally, the action is recorded on video. During the subsequent exhibition, the installation and video recordings are on show.

Performance Installation since 2000_ongoing project
Version: Emotion in Motion Milano 2002
Presented at: Performance-installation, Galerie Valeria Belvedere, Milan/Italy, 26.9-19.10.2002
Duration of the Live performance; 3 days
Duration of the Video: 4:16 min
Medium: DV 4:3, in Mov/Mp4, colour, sound
Camera by: Francesca Santagata, Raoul Gazza
Editing: Careoff
Music: ALIAS (köln) with kissing sound by nezaket ekici; Im Lechhausen- Heavy Listening, Studio H. Krejci M.
Equipment: 15 Lipsticks, Furnitures , Privat Objects, Costume, Musik
Photo by Roberto Marossi

Atropos

Ekici works on the act of the liberation in an abstract way. She carries out an act of the self-liberation, while she frees herself with the help of a sissle from long ropes fastened at the roof and to the hair. She cuts off a part of her hair and in this way dissociates herself from a piece of herself. This work can be seen as a vital discussion about the question on the sense of life, that is partly characterised by striving for freedom. Particularly, because hair can be considered as a symbol of life. The name of the Performance installation Atropos is related to the Greek myth of the moira, the goddnesses of fate. Atropos, who is one of them splits according to the myth the fate threads of the life with a sissle. The artist shows with the radical act of the hair-cut a way out. She takes fate into her own hands and frees herself, like Atropos did. At least the act of the cutting can be seen as an attempt of liberation in itself. Atropos was first time presented at Sinopale, 1. Sinop Biennale, Turkey, 15.8.-3.9.2006

Performance Installation since 2006
Presented at: Solo show, Double Bind, DNA Galerie, Berlin 2006
Duration of the Performance: 1 h
Duration of the Video: 5:30 min
Medium: DV 4:3, in Mov/Mp4, colour, sound
Camera: Andreas Dammertz
Editing: Nezaket Ekici
Equipment: 100 Robes Costume
Video still by Andreas Dammertz

Fountain for 6 Women

In the performance installation Fountain for 6 Women for the opening of the Mardin Biennial 2010, the artist performs her performance Fountain from 2004 together with 5 women simultaneously in the inner courtyard of a former university from the 12th century. The artist and the five women are lined up on six pedestals around an antique water basin as living fountain sculptures. They are wearing a dress made up of 56 urine bags, each filled with water. The performer and the five women use dosing valves on the bags to influence the way, speed and direction of the flowing water. They perform simultaneously according to a free choreography.

Performance Installation 2010
Presented at: Abbarakadabra, First Mardin Biennale,Türkei 4.6.-31.7.2010
Duration of the Live Performance: 30 min
Duration of the Video: 3:50 min
Medium: HD 16:9, Mov/Mp4, Colour sound
Camera: Nurullah Görhan
Edited: Branka Pavlovic
Equipment: 6 Pedestals, 6 Costumes, Water, 5 Performer
Photo by Ugur Aydin

But All That Glitters Is Not Gold

The Video performance shows Ekici confining herself in a golden cage, with 30 golden keys hanging above the cage. She tries to stretch her hand and arm through the bars to grab the nearest key in order to open the door and liberate herself from the cage. What starts like an easy game becomes oppressing as time passes by. She barely moves her arms and hardly reaches out through the grid. Her breathing gets heavier with each attempt; yet, she tries her luck with one key after the other until she finds the right one to escape her self-chosen destiny. Since the ancient times, the golden cage has been one of the symbols of self-inflicted confinement and imprisonment. Similarly, cities – and entire countries as well – can be compared to a golden cage. The golden cage in this performance is used to express the feelings of one’s confinement and suppression.

Videoperformance 2014
Duration of the Video: 8:50 min,
Medium: HD 16:9 ,Mp4, colour, sound
Filmed at Culture Academy Tarabya Istanbul
Camera: Güvenç Özgür, Yunus Emre Aydın
Editing: Branka Pavlovic
Sound: Janja Loncar
Technicians: Artin Ahoron, Volkan Kaplan, Ali Güvenç Atılgan
Costume Design: Nezaket Ekici
Dress cutter: Belgü Moda Evi
Equipment: Golden Cage, 30 golden keys, 30 nylon treads, white pedestal, costume
Photo by Güvenç Özgür

Transmission

In the live online performance Transmission, Ekici explores the QR code as a symbol of the Internet age, aiming to bridge the real and virtual worlds. She uses the distinctive pattern of a QR code, a 2D graphic developed in 1994 by Masahiro Hara in Japan, designed to provide quick access to digital content such as text, photos, videos or music. In her performance, she arranges various black sculptural objects on a white platform to form a 2 × 2 meter floor installation – an oversized QR code. For a brief moment, she brings the code’s abstract digital structure into the physical world. By treating the graphic components as 3D sculptural elements, the virtual becomes tangible. At first glance, the individual forms appear as simple geometric shapes, but together they become a complex, machine-readable pattern. Every link on the Internet remains within the digital realm, referring only to other online content—making each link inherently self-referential. She symbolizes this concept with the link she creates for the audience: viewers can scan the completed QR code with their smartphones and watch the linked video. In this way, at the end of her performance, Ekici returns the audience to the virtual world. [Text by Dr. Andreas Dammertz]

Duration of the Live Performance: 5 hours
Duration oft he video: 21:42 min.
Medium: HD mp4, 16:9, colour, sound
Technician: Malte Yamamoto
Camera and Editing: Branka Pavlovic
Ice Company: Robbi’s party-eis.com
Costume Design: Nezaket Ekici
Dress cutter: Süleymann
Equipment: Pedestals, water, iron, ice block, spotlights, costume‬

Gipfel des Glückes

In her performance Gipfel des Glückes [In the Land of Swings] (featuring four large swings), Nezaket Ekici travels to the mountains of Damüls at an altitude of 2000 meters, wearing five brightly colored costumes layered on top of each other. She hikes for eight hours through the mountainous landscape, swinging skyward on each swing. At each stop, she removes one costume, leaving it behind like a flag on the swing, and then continues on to the next. The following day, she enters the exhibition space wearing her fifth costume, sits on a swing. Under her on the floor you see the projection a excerpt of the Video documentation of her 8 hours Performance in mountainous landcape and reads from her summit diary. Each swing represents a summit of happiness, marked by one of her costumes like a flag.

Live Performance and Videoperformance 2023
Presented at: 1. Perspectival Festival Damüls, 13-16.7.2023 Damüls and Groupexhibition Projekt Nona FIS Museum Damüls 2023
Duration of the Live Performance: 8 Hours
Duration of the Video: HD 16:9, 23:08 min. MP4, colour, sound
Camera and Videocut: Stefano Cagol
Costume Design: Nezaket Ekici
Dresscutter: Süleymann
Equipment: 5 costumes, flag holder, bagpack, 4 swings, water, summit book
Video still by Stefano Cagol

Hullabelly

In the video performance Hullabelly, the artist, veiled by a headscarf, dressed in trousers and a skirt, moves with a hula-hoop to Oriental belly dance music. She uses only her head and neck to rotate the hula-hoop. Ekici gives the everyday hula-hoop a political and cultural twist as she spins the glittering hoop around her veiled head. By using the hula-hoop — an emblem of modernity — Ekici alters its meaning by restricting her performance to her neck, where it makes repeated contact with her headscarf, a symbol of traditional life. Ekici challenges our expectations by using a playful object to illustrate a cultural field of tension, merging tradition with modernity and blending Western lifestyle with the traditional Oriental way of life. One could say that she harmonizes modernity and tradition in the ancient Greek sense of the word harmonia, which essentially means assembling, using some force to create a beautiful proportion and an aesthetic fit. As live performance for example was presented at the 2003 Venice Biennale, lasting three hours to the point where the hula hoop appeared to almost suffocate the artist. This work was part of a collective exhibition of performance installations entitled Recycling the Future.

Videoperformance 2002
Duration of the Video: 2:04
Medium: DV 4:3, in Mp4, colour, sound
Camera: Susanne Winterling
Editing: Nezaket Ekici
Equipment: Hullahoop, Headscarf, Costume, Belly Dance Music
Video still by Susanne Winterling

Blind

With her performance, Blind the artist Nezaket Ekici refers to the picture holy Cäcilie (1923) of the painter Max Ernst. Following the legend, Cäcilie lived 500 p.chr., showing Cäcilie in her martyrdom. The picture of Ernst shows Cäcilie fixed in a wall, where she ought to die. But she survived because of her strong believe in god. Similar to this scene the artist shows up in her performance fixed in a Wall of gypsum. Only her naked arms are towering out of the gypsum form. It looks like a sarkophargus. In her hands, the artist holds a hammer and a chisel. Form the moment onwards, when she intends to use these instruments to free herself, the viewer finds himself in a dilemma. Shall he belief, that the artist will win out and free herself? The scene transforms more and more into an allegory of ones own life, standing for a fight to avoid stranding. Every single smash with the hammer speaks about the ambiguity within succeeding and stranding in our own lives.

Performance Installation since 2007
Presented at: Performance and Solo Exhibition Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, (Lange Nacht der Museen), 17.3.-1.4.2007
Duration of the Live Performance: 2 h
Duration of the Video: 7:00 min
Medium: DV 4:3, in Mov/Mp4, colour, sound
Camera: Andreas Dammertz
Editing: Nezaket Ekici
Equipment: Plaster, hammer, chissel, costume, sculpture
Photo by Andreas Dammertz

Human Cactus

The artist shapes a cactus mimeticaly. The dress, occupied with 4000 toothpicks, deceptively appears as a defensive desert plant in the video performance. There must be something human-like at a cactus, otherwise the artist would not be able to pretend beeing a cactus. If the cactus would be able to, it would probably look for water, like the artist does, because it is the striving for water that made the cactus what it is.

Duration of the Video: 4:04 min
Medium: 16:9 HD, MP4, sound colour
Camera and Editing: Branka Pavlovic
Costume Design: Nezaket Ekici
Costume Fabric Stylist: Christine Büschel
Music: Sneaky Snitch (Creative Commons, Royalty-Free music for download), Royalty Free, Kevin MacLeod
Copyright Kevin MacLeod 2006.
Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/‬
verify at ‪http://www.incompetech.com
Video still by Branka Pavlovic‬

Pars Pro Toto

The artist works in a costume with apron and 6 kettles as well as a steam iron and an ice block (50x50x50 cm) on a metal base. The ice block lies on a perforated plate, so that the melting water can flow off downwards. Below this is a collecting basin (approx. 6 litres) on which a drain valve (water tap) is mounted. The kettles and the steam iron are connected to the electricity. Spotlights illuminate the scene. The splashing of the melting water in the collecting basin is transmitted loudly via a microphone. She starts ironing the ice block and ejects warm steam with the iron. The ice melts slowly and single drops fall through the holes. The artist scrubs the ice with a cloth and sucks up excess water, which she then wrests into the collecting basin. The artist fills the kettles with the collected water and heats them. She pours the heated water onto the ice block to speed up the dew process and fill it again into the kettles via the tap at the bottom. She repeats the processes with the iron, the kettles and the cloth until the ice block has melted. The artist works in a closed energy and water cycle and melts the ice block with her work. The art work deals with climate change, which is influenced by human activity. The cycle that the artist exemplifies „pars pro toto“ stands for all human activities around the globe.

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