Prayer

Prayer, 2021

Performance & Installation

Diren Demir

//

The artist performs prayer as a reaction to the radical Islamic regime rising in their country. A heavy stone, which does not allow Diren to put their forehead on the ground throughout this performance, is tied to their hair. On an individual level, this heavy stone represents the ego and limits performance to only minimal range of movements. This long-term performance, in which the artist experiences the painful limits of their own body, ends when the artist cuts their own hair, which had been growing for two years, and is freed from the power and weight of the stone. The ritual of sacrificing hair has been practiced throughout history. The Prayer performance is a reinterpreted ritual model that performs the Diren’s unburdening and transformation while targeting a nationwide sociopolitical conflict. With the idea that the entire universe is a mirror of our inner world, Diren triggers their own transformation by using art for the political change of the outer world.