Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu (Berlin & Istanbul) is a multidisciplinary artist specialising in long-durational live performances, complemented by video, installation/sculpture, and public intervention works. With a focus on chronopolitics and necropolitics, Leman’s work centres on the vulnerability and resilience of marginalised, especially queer, bodies. They are interested in queer re-appropriation methodologies from a Southwest Asian perspective within a deal with violence and privilege dynamics, referring to the past and current hegemonies, totalitarian regimes, and dictatorships in some parts of the world, and rising fascism and conservatism all over.
Viewing the body as a repository of fears, traumas, and emotions, Leman pushes the boundaries of the physical and emotional body in their performances. Through performances that blur the line between vulnerability and resilience, they interrogate how cis-heteropatriarchy and colonial necro-capitalism render certain bodies vulnerable and explore the to-be-emerged potential and strength of the body. Leman’s corporeal methodologies, ranging from body intervention methods, long-durational performance practice, re-interpretation of tableau vivant technique, rituals and impossible movement scores, adapt to the demands of each work.