Hayal Gezer
Bio
Hayal is an interdisciplinary practitioner who is currently residing in the north of Cyprus. She finished her BA Hons. Arts and Media in UCA, and did her MA in Digital Media and Film in EMU. She has been participating in various art exhibitions on both sides of Cyprus since she moved back to Cyprus. Her works dwell on identity, sense of belonging, the relationship between the body and space, and open communication. She participated as an actor in the play “Lysistrata” directed by Brian Micheals as part of Paphos 2017 European Capital of Culture. In 2019 she had her first solo durational performance as part of “Kesin bir ÅŸey yok / Nothing is Certain” named “all the sweet things they whispered into her ear”. Currently, she works as a freelance art director and photographer and as a communications specialist. Her photographic work “45º” exhibited as part of “Crossing: I always confuse south to north, north to south” group exhibition in Gothe Institut 2020 as well as “Mirrored Reflections Memories of Tampered Identities” EVOHK artist run space, in 2021. Again in 2021 she also took part as one of the photographers of InsideOut project in Nicosia organized by Visual Voices. She devised several workshops where she combines storytelling techniques with mindful movement methodologies to accommodate safe space for open communication. “AA Meetings (Artists Anonymous)” held in NiMAC, 2017 and “Howling Workshop” held in Buffer zone during Respublika festival, 2017, “Wilder Healer” mindful movement workshop in 2018 as part of Mind Body Spirit Festival, and “territorially”, a participatory performance workshop as part of Xarkis Festival Art Residency in October 2021, were results of her effort in combining her studies in different disciplines into an applicable methodology. She participated in OpenUp Performance Laboratory organised by NiMAC under Open-Up EU Programme and lead by Lia Haraki February - December 2021 in order to establish a more performative practice, and often combines performative aspects in her photography work. In 2023 She produced a short video art for Stories of shifts as part of Open Up EU programme, and she also presented a 15 minute participatory performance, "Undysregulated", during Open-Up Festival 18-22 October.
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"All the sweet things they whispered into my ear", is an attempt to exorcise some of the damaging language I have been subjected to, solely because I am a woman. Let it be an ex-boyfriend, a friend, a lover, or a complete stranger who consciously or unconsciously used an objectifying, belittling, demeaning, disrespecting, dismissing, damaging language that left its own unique watermark.
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The piece is a durational performance, that took place in House of Strange as part of "Nothing is Certain / Kesin birÅŸey yok" (23.04.2019), a collective happening in response to uncertainty and fluidity of the past, present and future, gender-identity, sexual orientation and body politics.
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An installation was set up and used as a stage of the performance, accompanied by a melodic sound piece composed of the language I have been subjected to. The performance continued until the end of the night where I was actively engaging with the audience in a character, conversing and offering bubble wrap to be popped.
*Video coming soon.