Göksu Kunak

Göksu Kunak (Ankara, 1985) is an artist, researcher and writer based in Berlin. Göksu’s interest lies in especially chronopolitics and hybrid texts that deal with the performative lingo(s) of contemporary lifestyles as well as non-Western/unorthodox dramaturgies. As a non-native English writer, their texts play with multilingualism and syntax. Influenced by Arabesk culture and late modernities, Göksu imagines new situations out of real encounters that point out the problematics of hetero-patriarchal structures. Orientalism, self-Orientalization (the perception of the 'Eastern', and how the Eastern sees themselves through this construction), as well as camouflage, self-censorship and science fiction are other interests of Göksu. Recently Göksu has been working on score-based performances and installations that focus on simulacrum and muscle as an object, body-as-sculpture. 

Göksu was nominated for The Dieter-Ruckhaberle-Förderpreis and was one of the winners of Live Works Prize Vol. 8 at Centrale Fies with their piece Cabaret Portrait: Döner Blackout III. In 2023 funded by Haupstadkulturfonds and Freischwimmen Platform, they performed Ajaib Mahluqat (Acayip Mahlukat) co-produced by Sophiensaele Theater Berlin. With the support of the Berlin Senate and Sophiensaele Theater, they made the piece AN(A)KARA in 2021. Previously, they exhibited their solo exhibitons Dhikr at Number1MainRoad Berlin and and Bygone Innocence at Pilevneli Gallery Istanbul, both curated by Léon Kruijswijk. Göksu performed at Performa Biennial NYC, Neue National Galerie, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, De Singel Arts Center, Kaaitheather Brussels, Montag Modus Berlin, Next Waves Theater Volksbühne, Akademie der Künste Lab of Contested Space curated by Junge Akademie, The Parliament of Bodies curated by Paul B. Preciado and Viktor Neumann as a part of Bergen Assembly 2019, KW Institute for Contemporary Art Pogo Bar invited by Léon Kruijswijk, Centre d'Art Contemporain Geneva to CAMP invited by Andrea Bellini and Julian Weber, HAU Berlin City Lights (invited by Meg Stuart and Maria F. Scaroni), Bâtard Brussels 2016 (invited by Tom Engels), 3hd 2019 (HAU Berlin) and 2nd “<Interrupted =“Cyfem and Queer>“ curated by Creamcake, 1a Space Hong Kong as a part of the exhibition 'Hactivate Yourself', Broken Dimanche Press reading series at Tropez Berlin, Pioneer Works NYC curated by Belladonna* Collaborative, TABLOID PRESS Readings and Montez Press Radio, NYC. As a performer Göksu works with choreographer Josep Caballero García and invited by choreographer Jos McKain, they appeared on stage with Fischerspooner at MELT! Festival in 2018.

In January 2018, their first book #225 I thought this would was published by Belladonna* Collaborative, NYC. Their texts and poems have appeared in the book Portrait Wayne McGregor, commissioned by The Bavarian State Ballet, on the official page of The Absence of Paths, the Official Tunisian Pavillion of the 57th Venice Biennial and on the blog The History of Painting Revisited in collaboration with Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle for the Fahrelnissa Zeid Retrospective.  

In Bygone Innocence, Göksu Kunak presents a multimedia artistic intervention based on the car accident in Susurluk in 1996. Weapons were found in the wreckage. Among the victims: the former chief of the Istanbul police and a member of the Grey Wolves organisation who was sought by Interpol. This constellation uncovered the existence of a controversial criminal network in Turkey. Kunak’s work explores the politics of concealment and interprets the notion of the crash as a fetish – all systems down between drama and soap opera.

Bygone Innocence was conceptualized for PİLEVNELİ, Istanbul.
In cooperation with Kunsthalle Krems.