Between the Lungs and the Liver

2025 Performance, Text
Close view of the performative reading and acupuncture collaboration. A person with a long pale blond braid, wearing a black T-shirt and layered silver necklaces, holds a smartphone while another person gently stimulates meridian points on their forearm through tender, soft touch, their fingertips resting lightly against the skin. Tattoos are visible on the arm and hand.
Photography: Yanka Smetanina

Between the Lungs and the Liver is a performative reading in collaboration with P.B. A reading is performed by Leman while P.B. works through acupuncture on the lung and liver meridians, where grief and anger are accumulated. The text traces the ghosts that appear on queer sick bodies today, found in archives, reports, social media, and literature, offering a glimpse into what haunts the present.

The performance begins with a note acknowledging the roots of traditional Chinese medicine, honoring its origins.

A first collaboration of Leman and P.B., an acupuncturist from Berlin with whom Leman learns and practices Chinese medicine, it brings together care, touch, and the body as a site of memory, pain, and vital force.

A5 print developed from photographic documentation of the performance, on a white background. At the center, a small rectangular image in saturated blue, lavender, peach and green shows overlapping hands touching an arm during the stimulation of meridian points. A line of small text runs around the outer edges of the print.
A5 print developed from photographic documentation of the performance, on a white background. A small horizontal image at the center, rendered in saturated blue, turquoise, red, orange and green, shows hands touching an arm during the stimulation of meridian points. Small text runs around the outer edges of the print.
A5 print developed from photographic documentation of the performance, on a white background. A vertical image at the center, rendered in saturated purple, blue and green, shows a bent arm and several hands engaged in the tender stimulation of meridian points. Small text runs around the outer edges of the print.
A5 print developed from photographic documentation of the performance, on a white background. A small vertical image at the center, rendered in saturated blue, turquoise, purple and bright green, shows hands gently touching an arm during the stimulation of meridian points. Small text runs around the outer edges of the print.
Reverse of an A5 print developed from the performance, on a white background, carrying a centered excerpt from the performance text in black type. The text begins, “No period exists and of its lines — no one is lonely, none of us alone — really?” and ends with the signature “Leman, June, 2025, Berlin.”
Source photography: Yanka Smetanina · Image manipulation, text and design: Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu

Following the performance, manipulated images made from the performance documentation were developed into a series of A5 prints. On the reverse, each print carries an excerpt from the performance text. The prints are an open edition, available on a sliding scale, and conceived as accessible collector items.

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Physical A5 print, developed from photographic documentation of the performance, standing upright on a white surface against a pale textured wall. The front contains a small image in saturated blue, lavender, peach and green, showing overlapping hands gently touching an arm during the stimulation of meridian points, surrounded by small text running around the edges of the print.
Reverse of a physical A5 print developed from the performance, standing upright on a white surface against a pale textured wall. A centered excerpt from the performance text is printed in black type on the off-white card.
Physical A5 print, developed from photographic documentation of the performance, standing upright on a white surface against a pale textured wall. The front contains a small vertical image in saturated purple, blue and green, showing a bent arm and hands engaged in the tender stimulation of meridian points, surrounded by small text running around the edges of the print.
Photography: Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu
Presentations
A Poetic and Performative Gathering Around the Body, curated by Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, as part of Having a Body, curated by Jonas Büssecker, Schau Fenster, Berlin, DE, 2025
Credits
Between the Lungs and the Liver, by Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, performative reading, 40 minutes, 2025
Collaboration and acupuncture: P.B.
Acknowledgment: Manuela Heider de Jahnsen
Prints Credits
Between the Lungs and the Liver, by Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, digital print with manipulated performance documentation and text excerpts, A5, open edition, 2025
Source photography: Yanka Smetanina
Image manipulation, text and design: Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu
Text performance biopolitics chronic-disease illness precarity crip friendship-kinship-bonds ghosts collaboration archive
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