Come on bro!
Live performance
7 hours
As part of “Unboxing: Masculinities” at Hochschule Osnabrück
With the curatorial support of Performistanbul
2021
7 hours-long drag-king performance Come on bro!, is an investigation of manhood’s body gestures and movements with the reference of Zeybek dance which is a folkloric dance from Aegean region. The name comes from guerrilla fighters of the region lived between 17 – 20 centuries: Zeybeks. They fought with a vengeance against non-Muslim forces during the Turkish War of Independence and since then, they have seen as nationalist heroes. The strictly gendered dance indicates man’s bravery and valor, contains some space holding movements, gives a eagle/hawk shape to man body. Some version of Zeybek contains also a female dancer who dances always delicately and acts like maintaining man’s space with a continuous watching the man. Today it is performed in many ceremonies at the region (including military ceremonies).
Taking the folkloric Zeybek dance, the dance which has been one the references of the Turkish Republic as a starting point, in Come on bro! Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu questions the lines between gender and imitation, the body and performativity as well as the relationships between nationalism and masculinity.
During the live piece, Darıcıoğlu as a drag-king, does Zeybek by imitating the dance through watching its video from the screen placed in the space.