caner teker: killjoy

In the organizer's words:

How do we grieve as a temporary community in the stage space? Based on this question, caner teker explores grief work and its rituals in the choreographic work killjoy.

"For killjoy, I examine the connection between work and mourning using the figure of the "Moira": lamenting women who, as professional mourners, express and embody the pain of the bereaved. In doing so, I look at areas of the "service economy", emotional labor, migrant labor and performative work, including autobiographical references. My own perspective as a German-Turkish person and my memories of my grandmother's ritual farewell broaden my research." -caner teker

Elements of such mourning rituals, such as a ceremonial washing in a basin of water and the use of scents reminiscent of embalming in the mourning rituals of the Muslim tradition, are incorporated into the work. Together with the dancer Élie Autin, caner teker embodies the figure of the "Moira" as a professional mourner who performs ritualized dirges as a service, offering comfort and entertainment to the relatives at the same time. How does this form of work relate to performance on stage and in the theater? How do we create spaces for mourning? Who mourns for what? We move betweengrief as an internalized, private state and mourning andmourningwork as a process of exteriorization, which in this case becomes public. The audience shares the stage space with the performers, who seek a somato-political connection to the audience with their presence. Mourning is understood here as the agreement to undergo a transformation together with those present as active witnesses, the outcome of which is open.

caner teker (Düsseldorf), born in 1994 in Duisburg-Marxloh, is a survivor, supporter and choreographer. caner teker completed a master's degree at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and studied at the SNDO - School for New Dance Development, Amsterdam. caner teker's work deals with the intertwining of identity, work and post-migration in the context of her personal experience as a German-Turkish woman* and the stories of her own family. In 2020, caner teker received the Förderpreis für Bildende Künste of the City of Düsseldorf and was a Guest Fellow at PACT Zollverein. caner teker has shown performances at Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Les Urbaines, Lausanne, Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin and Atonal Berlin, among others. The performance karadeniz was premiered in 2021 at tanzhaus nrw and HAU-Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin. 2022 caner danceWEB was a scholarship holder and performed at the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Haus der Kunst Munich and Tanzquartier Wien. In 2023/24 caner teker was awarded the Ars Viva Prize and the purchase prize of the Museum Ostwall in Dortmund.

Duration: 60 min.