Botan Times EnglishA new Kurdish performance-exhibition will display by the Şermola Performans

For the project OUR DISPLACED STORIES, Hicran Demir and Mirza Metin searched for their biographical stories, some of which have remained hidden or have been or are still being consciously and unconsciously censored. It is particularly important to the artists, Hicran Demir and Mirza Metin, to make the effects of repression, isolation and being made foreign tangible and to show what difference this (also) makes to their own everyday lives. In concrete terms, this means that they dared to take an intensive and self-critical look at their Kurdish identity in preparation for this performance. The exhibition will include physical and vocal performances, sound and video installations, and various objects produced for the exhibition.

Concept and idea by Hicran Demir

Texts, content, installations, and performance by Mirza Metin and Hicran Demir

Produced by Şermola Performans and funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste Berlin.

Curated and invited by İhsan Alisan

Our Displaced Stories Exhibition and Perfromance

Mouches Volantes, Ebertplatz 1, Cologne

Vernissage : 18.08.2023 7pm

Performance: 8pm

And daily from: 19.08. – 26.08.2023, 4-8pm

About the artists:

Hicran Demir – www.hicrandemir.com

Performer, Producer

The German-born actress Hicran Demir has experienced an ambiguous approach to identities during her life and work. Isolation and alienation are themes that characterize her artistic work. Demir studied acting in Stuttgart and film and theatre studies in Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin). Since her childhood, Demir has also trained in dance. For over fifteen years, Demir has worked a lot with the body in addition to her acting. She has continued to expand her dance training through various workshops and further education. She also works a lot with the Viewpoints technique in the performance field. Since 2018, she has been realizing theatre projects and performances together with Mirza Metin for Şermola Performans (in Germany). For the projects of Şermola Performans, in addition to acting, she is also active as a producer and co-director. Together they have realized over ten projects. She has performed in the solo plays Unvollkomen, Min’s Monolog and Kêm. She works as a freelance actress for film and theatre productions in Germany.

Mirza Metin – www.mirzametin.com

Playwright and director

He was born in North Kurdistan in 1980 and grew up in Istanbul, has been living in Köln for 5 years. Mirza is involved with theatre since 1995. He studied acting at the Mezopotamya Culture Center and Seyri Mesel Theatre. He studied dance and music for three years at the Istanbul Technical University State Conservatory Department of Folk Dance and went on to graduate from the Istanbul University Department of Dramaturgy and Theatre Criticism, Dramatic Writing.

He co-founded Şermola Performance with Berfin Zenderlioğlu in Istanbul in 2008. Later in 2018, he co-founded Şermola’s Germany branch in Köln with Hicran Demir and founded Şermola’s Kurdistan branch in Batman, in 2021. He was awarded with many Theatre Prizes in Istanbul and abroad and was invited to many festivals and fellowships for the plays he has written, directed and performed. Of the seventeen plays he has written to date, fifteen have been staged either by himself or by other directors. Some of his plays have been translated into Zaza, Turkish, German, English, French and Hungarian.

He is co-founder and artistic director of Şermola Performance and Dîwan International Theatre Academy

Coordinator of the Kurdish Language Commitee of Eurodrama (European Drama Translation Network)

Founder and editor of Dîalog Theatre Magazine