Onur Karaoğlu, “In Vain – An Anthology As A Form Of Resistance”, performance

14 & 16 June 2022, 19:00

Inspired by Turkish poet Mahzuni Şerif’s song “Boşu Boşuna” (In Vain), theatre maker Onur Karaoğlu draws on the epic Ashik song tradition to deplore the latest repercussions of the global climate catastrophe. In his performance the artist summons four different storytellers from Istanbul whose accounts intersect at the disastrous marine mucilage of dead micro-organisms that covered the Sea of Marmara off Karaoğlu’s home city in 2021: an oceanographer from the Middle Ages, a sea that has long since disappeared, a poet from the last century, and a young, contemporary writer. The audience experiences the performance in four different groups, listening to one of the protagonists from different moments in history, and is invited to collectively assemble an anthology of poetry in the Ashik tradition. Karaoğlu’s interactive performance poetically spans the ages, opening up new meaning in the face of crisis.

Written, directed and performed by Onur Karaoğlu.
Audio performances by Kathryn Hamilton, Fatih Gençkal, Burak Çevik, and Can Eskinazi.

Onur Hamilton Karaoglu works between performance art and theater. Since 2010, his original and adapted writing and directing pieces have been presented by places like garajistanbul, bomontiada Alt, Volksbüehne Berlin, and Rotterdam Schouwburg.

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