Dear Stranger

2020 Performance, Text

Wide view of the performer seated cross-legged on layered patterned textiles on a wooden floor, writing by hand at a low dark table. Wearing a dark sleeveless top and dark trousers, they bend forward over a white sheet of paper, their head lowered toward the page. Handwritten and blank sheets, notebooks and writing materials are arranged across the table and floor, with a glass water bottle nearby. A large rough, unfinished wall fills the background.

The performer sits beside the low table with their upper body bent forward and one hand supporting the side of their head. Their gaze is lowered toward the papers in front of them. Handwritten pages and blank sheets lie across the tabletop and surrounding floor, while their body folds closely around the small writing area.

The performer sits upright behind the low table, their torso facing forward and their head raised from the papers. Their gaze is directed outward, away from the page. Handwritten letters and loose sheets spread across the table and floor around them, with the writing materials remaining within reach.

The performer leans heavily sideways beside the low table, supporting their head in one hand while their upper body folds toward the floor. Handwritten letters and loose sheets are spread across the table and surrounding area. The other arm remains near the papers as the body is held in this low, asymmetrical position.

Photography: Ceren Saner

Dear Stranger is an invitation to reimagine solidarity and non-virtual forms of connection within the “new normal.” The performance consists of two parts, online and offline. The first part was livestreamed through the artist’s Vimeo account as part of Stay LIVE at Home for three consecutive days, eight hours each day. During this time, Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu wrote individual letters addressed to strangers—people they had never met before.

Following the three-day livestreamed performance, Darıcıoğlu took the letters into the streets for the second part of the work. They distributed them without knowing their recipients, placing letters in residential mailboxes and attaching them to building doors and other locations encountered along the way. This part of the performance took place entirely offline and was only documented. The letters found their recipients by chance through their circulation in public space.

Photographic collage composed of multiple documentary images of handwritten letters and the places where they were left. White sheets densely covered with handwriting appear in close-up alongside photographs of letters positioned at residential entrances, doors, gates, letterboxes and other exterior surfaces. The individual photographs vary between close views of paper and wider views that show each letter within its surrounding architecture.

Long vertical photographic collage formed from a sequence of small documentary images. Handwritten letters recur across different residential and street settings, appearing at doors, entrances, letterboxes, gates, bicycles and other exterior structures. Close views of handwriting alternate with wider photographs of façades, thresholds and street details, tracing the letters across a succession of different locations.

Photography and collage: Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu

Presentations

Stay LIVE at Home, Performistanbul, Istanbul, TR, 2020

Credits

Dear Stranger, by Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, performance, 3 days, 8 hours each day, 2020

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