Paper short abstract:

The paper considers the contemporary dance piece 'Biz' (2014) as a dramaturgy of loss emerged in the Gezi protests' aftermath. Its touring to the Belgium-based Europalia-Turkey festival will be analysed to highlight the contradictions and shortcuts in the creative reworking of the protests' failure.

Paper long abstract:

The paper considers an Istanbul-based performance art environment to interrogate processes of group identity re-construction, re-signification and outreach after the political turmoil of the Gezi park protests. It will try to understand how a public dramaturgy of loss came to mark the emergence, as well as the failure, of a novel plural collective force which had mobilized in creative ways against irresponsible speculative investment projects and an increasingly authoritarian regime.

An intimate and embodied exploration of social bonding and vulnerability in the protests' aftermath nourished for instance Bedirhan Dehmen's contemporary dance piece, significantly entitled Biz (litt. 'We'). Through a puzzling reworking of the musical and bodily legacy of the often brutally targeted Alevi groups, Biz concretized a site for elaborating grief, thus subtly challenging the state enforced repression on public bereavements which often followed the death of some of the protestors. As a dramaturgy of loss, Biz did not only offer a meaningful horizon to reassemble after the protests, but also provided professional opportunities and political challenges.

The emphasis on loss and the body memory of resistance in the dramaturgy came however to be often textually silenced in the context of some public presentations, not only in Turkey, but even more deliberately when Biz was presented into internationally visible platforms, such as the Belgium-based Europalia festival which was dedicated to Turkey in 2015. The paper will analysis this specific event of international fruition to unpack the contradictions and shortcuts clashing at the wake of the upheaval's failure.