2009

Created for the opening of the 32nd Duisburg Akzente Festival, Surname 2009 was realized through a collaboration between Ve Diğer Şeyler Collective and artist Genco Gülan. Developed within the festival’s theme “Bosporus,” the project transformed Duisburg’s central square into a large-scale Istanbul wedding.
Performers from the collective carried Genco Gülan’s two-dimensional miniature sculptures on their backs as wearable sculptures. The performance brought together 41 mobile sculptures, over 100 performers, and thousands of participants. Alongside Ve Diğer Şeyler Collective, musicians and performers from different parts of the world contributed to the event. Musician John Plenge from the United States and the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra supported the project, while groups of predominantly Turkish-origin folk musicians and performers from Duisburg and the Ruhr region actively engaged with the audience in the square.
The project aimed to reinterpret the tradition of the wedding as a multilingual and multicultural experience. The title Surname refers to the Ottoman term meaning “festival book” or “book of festivities,” while coincidentally also meaning “last name” in English.
Combining video projections on surrounding buildings, music, mobile sculptures, and live performance—along with interactive elements such as dancing halay with the people of Duisburg—this public square performance was conceived as a one-time event for the festival’s opening.