KIZ GIBI DÖVÜŞ / FIGHT LIKE A GIRL
Kız gibi Dövüş / Fight Like a Girl
2022, performance & installation 1 Ed. + 1 A.P (Agah Uğur Collection)
In Muay Thai also known as Thai boxing, contradictions such as strength and vulnerability, rivalry and solidarity, courage and fear coexist. Creating a confrontation area for these supposed oppositions, combat sports also function as a transmission and sharing space in the lives of the most disadvantaged individuals of the society, who are subjected to sexism and discrimination both outside and inside the ring.
Mimiko, whose practice is based on observing, understanding, and experiencing the body, body identities and socially constructed identities, steps into the ring to face the writer and art critic Bihter Sabanoğlu. Believing that people rather choose a path with familiar hardships and pain in a life full of uncertainties, the artist transforms the combat sport, which she suggests some may perceive as a controlled simulation of life, into a performance. The performance is concerned with distorting perceptions of the body, particularly the societal view of women’s fragility, and reflects on the question “How can rivalry in a ring evolve into solidarity, and the need for self-defense into exploring the strength and capability of the body?” The manifesto / text read between the rounds touches upon the different states of being within and inside the ring as well as in life in relation to the expression ‘fight like a girl’.
To watch the video here vimeo.com/753826248, please type kzgbdvs
