COPYWRITER is a performance based on a text that Zeynep Yılmaz started writing during her working hours in the office where she previously was part of the team as a copywriter.
The act of writing transiently moves across various contexts concerning motives and relevancies. An instinctive action performed out of sight is positioned in contrast to the distortions that occur when external gaze comes into play; examining how these distortions affect the action itself. The performance stages assumptions, expectations, concerns attributed to institutions versus beliefs, aspirations, inconsistencies attributed to personal production.
Appearing as an inner voice, the performance is repeated in sessions spread over five days. It explores the tension between the creative act and the different contexts in which the act is practiced. Accompanying the performance are installations and objects that help depict the same tension.
Pinterest boards, curated from a public pool of images offering representative aesthetics and merely a glimpse of what is to be created, are carried into the physical space as they expose the infrastructure for the research on COPYWRITER, mirroring their workplace utility.
In line with the satirical content and the contradicting form of the narrative, motivational quotes essential for today's work environment are incorporated into the fictional world created by the artist. Reviewing the relationship between content and form, the slogan “Poor words hide behind good graphic design” is included in the exhibition as a fabricated discovery in collaboration with Michaela Cagáňová and Can Yıldırım.
*Posters are available for sale.
The artist's money detector installation, exhibited for the first time in May 2023 at Garage Gallery Prague, is transferred to the back corridor of 5533, measuring something new as it moves away from its function. The pedestal carrying the detector is designed in collaboration with Can Küçük.
The writing desk and chair, which have been present in the artist's practice for many years, are detached from their daily contexts and put back into use for COPYWRITER. The support that helps position the chair as a performative instrument is made in collaboration with Can Yıldırım.
The props featured in the exhibition reinterpret the emotions and attitudes present at the initial moment of writing the text. Each repetition of the text being delivered is a form of rewriting.
Text: Ekin Tümer, Zeynep Yılmaz