Orientalien

In her multidisciplinary art practice, Ceylan Öztrük seeks to transform existing situations and settings. For her exhibitions, she designs sculptures, installs lighting devices, and sometimes writes texts. The visit is as much a spatiotemporal experience that combines the sensory and the reflexive, as it is a questioning of the production of knowledge, and its use on both a poetic and political level.

In Orientalien, Öztrük tells the story of adoption, self-transformation and the embodiment of otherness through a self-theoretical performance. Delving into the roots and meanings of the words “orient” and “orientation,” she asks: how does being an oriental foreigner orientate the body? From alienation to orientalism, this performance presents oriental dance (a term historically used to describe belly dancing) in an existential experience within a set design of mirrors and lights.