De Morgen – February 8th 2008, written by Liv Laveyne
“Tonight the fourth edition of the Turkish art festival 0090 starts in Antwerp, with sculptural art, music, dance, literature and film. De Morgen went to Istanbul for a preview and found, behind shopping streets, parkings and livingrooms a blooming contemporary art scene. […] Art at home: Hareket Atolyesi. A grey block behind the Istiklal, the busy shopping street of Istanbul. The elevator doesn’t work, electricity cables are out in the staircase hall. The surprise is big when seconds later we arrive in the beautiful appartment where Hareket Atolyesi is having an open rehearsal. It looks a bit like a tea party, the club of women that gathers in the livingroom of Zeynep Günsur, doctor of performing arts theory. Nine giggling girls who fill the time between dancing and talking mostly by eating, while amidst this group of different ages and educations there is a cook. Next to a former prima ballerina of the state ballet, there are a dentist, a sociologist, an architect and a retired teacher in Hareket Atolyesi.
0090 will be their first festival abroad, there they will perform the movement theatre piece The Human(ly) Condition. It’s a performance where they portray their daily lives with a lot of humour. ‘Because contemporary dance can use some humour’, Günsur says. And so they perform a dance with garbage bags on their heads as modern burka’s. ‘We tell eachother our most embarassing experiences and a lot of times they end up in our performance,’ Günsur smiles. ‘You could call our creations therapeutic.’”
De Standaard – February 6th 2008, written by Mark Cloostermans
“There are the Turks. Friday the fourth edition of 0090 starts. The festival brings Turkish arts to Antwerp. To have a taste in advance, we went to Turkey and talked to two theatre makers: Sahika Tekand and Aydin Teker. […] Turkish theatre companies have to play to gain their income. Companies as Studio Oyunculari or the female dance troup Hareket Atolyesi (also to be seen on 0090) consist mainly of part-time actors or amateurs, with some ‘professionals’ as driving force. […]”
Het Nieuwsblad – February 8th 2008, written by Eline Bergmans
“Art festival 0090 starts today. During two weeks different locations in the city give you a taste of the work of contemporary Turkish artists. We picked out two productions that shouldn’t be missed.
With a bag over their heads six Turkish women parade across the stage. No professional dancers, but a sociologist, a teacher, an architect, a dentist and a cook. Their common ground? Their love of moving and a lot of humour. We took a look in their work shop in the heart of Istanbul where Hareket Atolyesi (Turkish for movement atelier) worked on The Human(ly) Condition for two years: dance theatre that portrays daily life or a love poem for a humanly condition.
We watch you desperately trying to get a computer started, hastily stumbling or dancing with a bag over your head. Do these scenes reflect your own lives?
Zeynep Günsur (founder of Hareket Atolyesi): ‘In our atelier we work mostly by improvising. For The Human(ly) Condition we started from our daily occupations. Those can be very concrete things as taking out the trash or a dispute with your husband. By experimenting with space, sound, movement, text and film we have translated these daily occupations into bodily expression.
The scenes are mostly recognizable, but some are less understandable for a common Belgian spectator. Which typical Turkish uses can we see in The Human(ly) Condition ?
Some movements are inspired by bellydancing and that’s typically Turkish. And at the very start of the performance we knock on the Floor rythmically and touch our ears. That use means in Turkey that we hope that God protects us. (like touching wood in Dutch, red.) Because the different dancers imitate those movements from the others, it gets a comical effect.
How important is humour to you?
Very important. Because we start from daily situations and frustrations that sometimes are nearly dramatic, we try to see the irony in them with The Human(ly) Condition. An example: a few years ago I had to tackle financial problems and found a job as a chef in a restaurant. When working my first day, I was so nervous that I started running. I got hit by a taxi and all witnesses were very much in panic. Except for me, because I was only trying to get to work on time so I wouldn’t lose my job. This is a situation that’s dramatic and hilarious and that’s the feeling we try to portray in our performance.
Is the Human(ly) Condition therapeutic?
To us, definitely (smiles). Rehearsals are almost a necessity to us. Working and creating together helps one to develop. Hopefully the audience feels this too, then the performance has succeeded.
Knack – February 6th 2008, written by Liv Laveyne.
“[…]Taksim Trio opens the festival with a concert at Zuiderpershuis. The Human(ly) Condition, a performance by Hareket Atolyesi (movement theatre) can bes een there as well: nine women sketch a portrait of their daily life and aren’t averse to humour when they parade the stage as walking plastic bags.[…]”