Mehtap Baydu: Let Your Rain Fall
The Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden is presenting the largest solo exhibition to date of artist Mehtap Baydu's work in Germany with Let Your Rain Fall (Kendi Ya臒murunu Ya臒d谋rmak).
The exhibition highlights Baydu鈥檚 long-standing multimedia and performative practice, through which she explores culturally shaped images of gender and roles, as well as their transformation over time. She deliberately transgresses boundaries in her works, assuming so-called "male roles", expanding traditional "female roles", and playfully engaging with the gaze of the Other upon the self. Baydu investigates the meanings of various objects and symbols, along with their narratives across different cultures, addressing topics such as the dowry tradition in Turkish and Kurdish contexts, proverbs, religious symbols, and everyday actions. A recurring element is her reference to rituals developed in female communities 鈥� rituals of trust, hope, and silence.
In her performances, Baydu creates spaces where intimate memories and symbolic actions intertwine. In her poetic choreographies, she explores themes of visibility, vulnerability, and solidarity, transcending national and cultural boundaries. She frequently uses her own body as a starting point to reveal and deconstruct socio-political expectations placed on the female body.
Baydu uses role-playing 鈥� sometimes as a man and sometimes as a mythological figure 鈥� and the veiling of her body with traditional textiles and materials as a means of self-empowerment. In her exhibition, Let Your Rain Fall (Kendi Ya臒murunu Ya臒d谋rmak) she brings together new and older works in a transboundary experience that moves beyond prefabricated narratives. Rather than providing clear-cut answers, her works approach the sensitive politics surrounding the female body, questions of migration, and autobiographical positioning in poetic and playful ways. They also address traditional role models within conservative social and political systems. Her works can be seen as quiet yet powerful homages to the unspoken desires that are still carried and shared.
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The Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden is presenting the largest solo exhibition to date of artist Mehtap Baydu's work in Germany with Let Your Rain Fall (Kendi Ya臒murunu Ya臒d谋rmak).
The exhibition highlights Baydu鈥檚 long-standing multimedia and performative practice, through which she explores culturally shaped images of gender and roles, as well as their transformation over time. She deliberately transgresses boundaries in her works, assuming so-called "male roles", expanding traditional "female roles", and playfully engaging with the gaze of the Other upon the self. Baydu investigates the meanings of various objects and symbols, along with their narratives across different cultures, addressing topics such as the dowry tradition in Turkish and Kurdish contexts, proverbs, religious symbols, and everyday actions. A recurring element is her reference to rituals developed in female communities 鈥� rituals of trust, hope, and silence.
In her performances, Baydu creates spaces where intimate memories and symbolic actions intertwine. In her poetic choreographies, she explores themes of visibility, vulnerability, and solidarity, transcending national and cultural boundaries. She frequently uses her own body as a starting point to reveal and deconstruct socio-political expectations placed on the female body.
Baydu uses role-playing 鈥� sometimes as a man and sometimes as a mythological figure 鈥� and the veiling of her body with traditional textiles and materials as a means of self-empowerment. In her exhibition, Let Your Rain Fall (Kendi Ya臒murunu Ya臒d谋rmak) she brings together new and older works in a transboundary experience that moves beyond prefabricated narratives. Rather than providing clear-cut answers, her works approach the sensitive politics surrounding the female body, questions of migration, and autobiographical positioning in poetic and playful ways. They also address traditional role models within conservative social and political systems. Her works can be seen as quiet yet powerful homages to the unspoken desires that are still carried and shared.
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