Launched as part of Salt's research into the history of art in Turkey, this web project focuses on performances realized in Turkey from 1984 to 1999. The website aims to present a comprehensive inventory of performances from the period in question and serve as a source of reference for further research on the trajectory of performance art in Turkey.

The ongoing archival research has been conducted in light of interviews with participants and contributors to the performances. These accounts as well as the archives informed the inventory of works. Visual and textual sources, including photographs, video recordings, sketches, correspondences, posters and brochures from selected events, formed the basis of Salt’s The 90s Onstage exhibition. The archival materials compiled in this process were presented together for the first time in The 90s Onstage, chronicling individual and collective works that highlight performances. In parallel, Salt Research has initiated the process of cataloging and digitizing these archives to render them publicly accessible.

Constituting the first steps of this extensive research, The 90s Onstage and the Research on Performance in Turkey 1984-1999 web project are realized as part of the European museum confederation L’Internationale’s Our Many Europes program. The web project, launched with the support of Zorlu Holding and Zorlu Performing Arts Center’s Digilogue, will continue to be developed and deepened with new resources as well as texts compiled from publications focusing on Turkey’s history of performance art. 

Research Scope: Performance in Turkey 1984-1999

Research on Performance in Turkey offers insight into performances held in Turkey from the foundation of Bilsak Theater Workshop in 1984 until 1999, marking the passing of the Assos Performing Arts Festival’s artistic director Hüseyin Katırcıoğlu.

The 1990s was a time when Turkey’s art scene foregrounded the concept of “interdisciplinary.” Most artists and educators who participated in such events of the decade crossed paths with Bilsak Theater Workshop in Istanbul from 1984 to 1988. Bilsak’s instructors Beklan Algan, Ayla Algan and Erol Keskin founded Istanbul City Theaters’ Theater Research Laboratory (TAL) in 1988.

Hüseyin Katırcıoğlu, who studied acting in the United Kingdom and worked in the fields of cinema, theater and television, founded Ya Da Theater in 1991 upon his return to Turkey. Directed by Katırcıoğlu and organized in collaboration with TAL, Truva Öyküsü [A Trojan Story] (1993) was developed as an example of “mass theater” where both professional actors and local people of Assos with no stage experience were guided through a collective working process. This project sowed the seeds of the Assos Performing Arts Festival, organized between 1995 and 1999 under the direction of Katırcıoğlu.

In the second half of the 1990s, the festival turned every corner of Behramkale village in Çanakkale and the ancient city of Assos into a stage. It was built on a site-specific working model. Groups, dancers, musicians, and artists invited from all over the world were asked to stay in the village for three weeks, breathe the air and feel the wind of Behramkale while working on new productions. The decor, masks, and costumes were prepared together with the people of Behramkale. At the end of an intense preparatory period based on collaborative work, the works met the audience; the entire village of Behramkale, from the pier on the shore to the temple on the hilltop, including the cemetery, old bridge, and village school, everywhere turned into a playground. Every year, Ya Da Theater directed by Katırcıoğlu staged a show with the participation of local people. The festival, held every autumn from 1995 to 1997, did not take place in 1998 because of the founding team’s restructuring plans. The year 1999 would be the festival's last year with Katırcoğlu's passing, staging only two plays.