X

2016 Performance
Overhead view of a person seated on a wooden chair at a small rectangular wooden table in a dark, enclosed space. An oversized black-covered book lies open across the tabletop. The person holds a red pen over the right-hand page, where repeated X marks form rows across its upper section; the left-hand page is already covered with many more loosely arranged X marks. A small open container, a glass of water and a small round object sit beside the book.
Video still from a video by Burak Serin.

X is an effort to at least bring into existence those who do not exist anymore and whose existence has been converted only into statistical data by embodying their non-existence.

Originated from the report of Talat Paşa which shows that 3/4 of Armenians who lived on Ottoman lands between the years 1915 and 1917 have disappeared, the performance consists of filling 3/4 of a "book covered in black" with the letter X, using a red pen. This way, it is aimed to experience over an extended period of time in an area open for people to view how the body count, where the body becomes only statistical data, in fact corresponds to human life.

Side view of a person in a white buttoned shirt seated at a wooden table, looking down at a large black-covered book opened in front of them. Repeated red X marks cover part of the left-hand page while the facing page remains blank. The person holds a red pen above the book in one hand and a small open container in the other. A glass of water and a small round object rest on the otherwise bare tabletop.
Presentations
44A, Istanbul, TR, 24 April 2016
Credits
X, by Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, performance, 6 hours, 2016
Acknowledgements: Argun Okumuşoğlu, Burak Serin, Derin Cankaya, Derya Bayraktaroğlu, Haziran Düzkan, Işıl Eğrikavuk, Luiz Bakar, Madi Efe Fırat, Sevan Değirmenciyan, Sevinç Altan, Zafer Kanyılmaz, Zeyno Erdost
Performance Necropolitics Biopolitics Nationalism Grief Mourning Ghosts Collective Memory
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