Begüm Erciyas

About

° 1982, Ankara/Turkey, lives and works in Brussels and Berlin.

While studying molecular biology and genetics in Ankara, Begüm Erciyas got involved in various dance projects in Turkey and became part of [laboratuar], a performing arts research and project group. Later, she studied at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Austria. She was artist-in-residence at Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2007/08, at K3- Zentrum für Choreographie Hamburg in 2009 and at the Villa Kamogawa / Goethe Institute Kyoto in 2014.

Between 2014-2016, Begüm was committed to a longer research period around one’s own voice. She wanted to make a performance that is experienced in complete solitude, a performance that happens between oneself and one’s own voice. The resulting performance Voicing Pieces (2016) has kept her busy until now.

From 2018 until 2020, she has been researching the topic of artificial intimacies, while continuing the search for new theatrical formats that would allow audience to have a solitary experience. In Pillow Talk (2019), the audience is invited to engage in a conversation with an artificial voice coming from a pillow, while being immersed in a large-scale collective scenography.

In 2020, during the lockdown, she got interested in the tension between isolation and political collectivity in Sam Melville’s letters written in prison. In Letters from Attica, the fragmented text is passed on from mouth to mouth, from audience to audience, in public space.

Forest Silent Gathering, a gathering of audiences inside a forest, has premiered in Spring 2022 and continues to be presented in different forests throughout Europe.

Begüm Erciyas is artist-in-residence at deSingel Antwerp (2021-26).

www.begumerciyas.com