Turkish Delight

Turkish contemporary artist Şükran Moral, who is Turkey's answer to Tracey Emin and Marina Abramovic, largely due to her provocative works about female power, circumcision in Muslim countries and the European slave trade,  made love with a female partner during her latest performance Amemus (Lovemaking) on Thursday December 2  at the Casa Dell Arte Gallery in Istanbul.

 "You have these angelic girls dancing around the table, they don't know this is what they'll end up like."

Guests at the event, who hadn't been warned about the content of the show were shocked when a young woman, wearing only a g-string and bra, went onto a bed on the stage and started to have sex with the artist Moral, who was wearing the same.

“Excuse me, but they had real sex in front of people; I mean it was not a fiction or anything,” said one of the viewers. Most of the audience left the venue in the first 10 minutes. 

“I was really embarrassed. Everyone was in shock,” said another guest. Twenty minutes later, in an almost empty gallery space,  Moral was still having sex with her partner, one feels compelled to commend her  enthusiasm.

Speaking about the event, Moral said her performance had no particular purpose.

“Generally speaking, the purpose was to bring a new expression to the language of performance art and of course to break taboos. My goal was to annoy the viewers of the performance. I don’t want to make a performance that does not annoy people and make them excited and confused.”

She said: “I have always had a problem with taboos in all my performances. Sexuality is one of the fields banned by governments. Making love in this performance is an artistic event. It is not a ‘sexual show’ but discussing a moral problem.”

Because of the outrage and for security reasons, Moral has canceled her exhibition of the same name, which was to feature photos of the performance and was scheduled to open Dec. 9.

In a 2007 performance piece entitled Peace...Fucking Fairytale, Moral shatters a glass on which lipstick prints have been used to spell out the Italian word for "peace."

Her acclaimed film Bordello about female empowerment and the permeable membrane that separates art and prostitution was shown   over 2 days at the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan. The reactions  of passers-by are revealing. 

Shame. 

But you can watch Mediation / Meditation, the ongoing conceptual artwork conceived by Daniel Rothbart here