Nonstage Performance Sessions | Nikolai Galen

NONSTAGE PERFORMANCE SESSIONS

Nikolai Galen  | Summons

22.03.20234, Cuma / Friday 

Kapı açılış / Door opens > 20:30

Performans başlama saati / Performance starts > 21:00

Bu performans tam veya kısmi çıplaklık içermektedir. Çıplaklık içerdiği için bu etkinlik 18 yaş ve üzeri izleyiciler için önerilmektedir ve izleyici takdirine bağlıdır. // This performance contains full or partial nudity. This event is recommended for audiences aged 18 and above due to nudity and viewer discretion is advised.

[please scroll for English]

[TR]

Ka, ‘Nonstage: Performance Sessions’ iftiharla sunar.   

Bedeni, hareketi ve saf sesi merkezine alan üç ayrı performans, üç gün üst üste Ka izleyicisiyle buluşuyor.   

Nikolai Galen’in ham sesi, hareketi ve dansı merkezine alan performansıyla medeniyetle olan bağlantılarımızı kopartacak, Doğu Topaçlıoğlu’nun çizimlerinin oluşturduğu seslerle kaotik bir özgürlüğe doğru yol alacak ve Ata Can Yıldız’ın karşılıklı etkileşime açık olan gürültü estetiği ve tavrını benimseyerek oluşturduğu performansı Nüde-L-K ile de yaşadığımız toplumsal olayların sanatçı üzerindeki yansımasına şahit olacağız.  

22 Mart Cuma - Nikolai Galen // Summons  

23 Mart Cumartesi - Doğu Topaçlıoğlu // Elocation 

24 Mart Pazar - Ata Can Yıldız // Nüde-L-K

Nikolai Galen, iki solo performans ile sahnede olacak. 'Voice of Shade' ile başlayacak, ardından 20 dakikalık bir ara vereceğiz ve sonra 'Summons' performansı sahnede olacak. Bu sıralama, sesin, hareketin ve dansın ham özüne derinlemesine bir dalış sunarak, sürükleyici bir deneyim sunacak.

Nonstage, sanatçı ve performansına odaklandığımız ve izleyicilerin sessiz kalarak samimi bir deneyim yaşayabilecekleri bir ortamda gerçekleşiyor.

// 

[EN]

Ka proudly presents 'Nonstage: Performance Sessions'.

Centering on the body, movement, and pure voice, three distinct performances meet the Ka audience on three consecutive days.

With Nikolai Galen's raw voice, movement, and dance-centered performance, we will sever our connections with civilization, head towards chaotic freedom with the sounds created by Doğu Topaçlıoğlu's drawings, and witness the reflection of societal events on the artist through Ata Can Yıldız's performance created with a noise aesthetic and attitude open to mutual interaction, embodied in Nüde-L-K.

March 22, Friday - Nikolai Galen // Summons 

March 23, Saturday - Doğu Topaçlıoğlu // Elocation

March 24, Sunday - Ata Can Yıldız // Nüde-L-K

Doors open: 20:30 

Performance starts: 21:00

Nikolai Galen will be on the stage with two solo performances. The evening will commence with 'Voice of Shade,' followed by a 20-minute break, and then the 'Summons' performance will captivate the audience. This sequence offers a deep dive into the raw essence of voice, movement, and dance, ensuring an immersive experience.

Nonstage takes place in an environment focused on the artist and their performance, where the audience can experience an intimate experience by staying silent.

***

Nikolai Galen - Voice of Shade (30-40 minutes)

A solo concert where I improvise with my voice; voice as the sound of my mind-body;

voice as a medium where psyche and body are completely one. I draw on my imagination

and many years of exploring my voice inspired by the work of the Roy Hart Theatre,

Panthéâtre, Don van Vliet, Central Asian throat singing and the many threads of

contemporary vocal exploration as well as extraordinary, traditional voices from the world

entire. To me, this is soul music.

Nikolai Galen - Summons/Çağrı/Επίκληση (30-40 minutes)

a broken ritual 

a neo-shamanic ritual

Ses ve dans aracılığıyla, daha medeni katmanlarımızı soyduğumuzda ortaya çıkardığımız derin benliklerimizi keşfedebiliriz. Tüm çelişkileriyle 'insan doğası' olarak adlandırılabilecek, sesin ve hareketin atalarımızla ve mitolojik ruhlarla bağlantı kurduğu noktayı. İnsan doğası da, gezegenimizin tahribatı, savaşlar ve bağnazlık gibi - belki de çağrıldığımızı hissetsek bile yeterince yanıt veremeyeceğimiz kadar karanlık zamanlar için malzeme sunar. Ve bir şeyler yapmaya, bir şeyleri değiştirmeye çağrıldığımızı hissederken, biz de bir çağrıda bulunuruz. Bu performans, ruhları çağırdığımızda hissettiğimiz kafa karışıklığının bir keşfidir - hayali bir çağrı - bizi yönlendirmeleri için; ancak, eğer cevap verirlerse, cevapları anlaşılmaz ya da yanıltıcı olabilir. Performans bilinen bir dilde değildir. Ses sanatı, umutsuzluk, kara mizah ve ilkel şeylerden ilham alır. Ne müzik ne de dans. Kostüm, performansçının kendi tenidir. 

Bazı ilham kaynakları: Enrique Pardo'nun Pan'a Çağrı yapması, panteist ve mitolojik bir şamanizm anlayışı, Jerzy Grotowski'nin Yoksul Tiyatrosu ve Butoh dansı. Her performans, kullanılan enstrümanlar ve objeler dışında, doğaçlamadır. Her performans, bir ölçüde, öncekilerden ilham alır; bu da zamanla yeni elementlerin ortaya çıkarken, önceki elementlerin terk edilebileceği veya unutulabileceği, belki de canlı rüyaların unsurları gibi gelecekte bir zamanda yeniden ortaya çıkabileceği anlamına gelir.

//

Through voice and dance, we can explore our deepest selves; the selves we reveal when we peel away our more civilised layers; where voice and movement connect with our ancestral and mythological spirits and, what might be called in all its contradictoriness, ‘human nature’. And human nature makes for dark times - the devastation of our planet, wars and bigotry - so dark that perhaps we feel unable to adequately respond even if we feel summoned to. And, as we feel summoned to do something, to change something, we summon in our turn. This performance is an exploration of the confusion we feel when we call for the spirits - an imaginary call - to guide us; though, if they answer at all, their answers may be either unintelligible or misleading. The performance is in no known language. It draws on sound-art, desperation, dark humour and things primordial. It is neither music nor dance. The costume is the performer’s skin. 

Some inspirations: Enrique Pardo’s Calling For Pan, a pantheist and mythological notion of shamanism, Jerzy Grotowski’s Poor Theatre, and Butoh dance. Each performance is improvised except for the choice of instruments and objects it engages with. Each performance, to some extent, draws on its predecessors; meaning that, over time, new elements appear while previous elements may be discarded or forgotten, perhaps to re-emerge at some future time like the elements of vivid dreams.

***

Nikolai Galen is European (originally British), living in Istanbul since 2003. He’s a writer, director, actor, singer and green activist. He’s acted in, and mostly written, the plays and performances Nero, La Planque Aux Anges, Shadow Boxing, Stealing The Show, Pandora's Box, God Is A Shareholder, Pandora's Box, Shut Your Eyes / Ferme Les Yeux, Sinning After Roy Hart, Brain, Lovebed, Hitler (rejoice for we are absolved), move.voice, Chameleon, Short Stories, Yolanda & Nikolai’s Murders off the Orient Express, Memoria Amnesia and Summons / Çağrı / Επίκληση.

He's directed and co-written, the plays Against The Nature of Substance / Maddenin doğasına aykırı and Universe of personal desire. He frequently teaches voice, theatre and movement both in Turkey and abroad. Drawing on many thousands of records collected from all over the world, he programmes music for theatre and dance performances and workshops. He’s given a variety of lectures on extraordinary voices in popular and ethnic music, vocal performance and voice in contemporary art music. He also often talks and chairs panels about live music related topics. His music projects include: solo work, the Shady Choir, The Shrubs, Mecca, Infidel, Galen-Sadko, Raining Spiderlings, Black Paintings, Transsonance, Sleeping Beauty, Hoca Nasreddin, Bewilderbeasts, Eis Ten Polin, Play Dead, and Songs from the Lowlands.

As of Spring 2024, he’s working on a solo album of musicalized poems about war called Luna rising; and as director and co-writer, he’s working on a dance theatre piece called Universe of personal desire together with the Iranian dancer Neda Naser. Some of his sound works are here www.soundcloud.com/galning. A selection of videos can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/nikolaigalen, and also https://www.youtube.com/user/nikolaigalen. 

He has the Facebook pages

https://www.facebook.com/voiceofshade/ and

https://www.facebook.com/movevoice. 

His archival website www.voiceofshade.net is always under construction.