Cocoon

Envisioned as a video performance, the work centres on the cocoon Mehtap Baydu has knitted around her naked body using the shirts of thirty-three men with whom she interacted on a daily basis. Baydu took photos of the male owners of the shirts preceding the performance, then secluded herself in the spare space of documenta- Halle in Kassel, Germany to knit herself a cocoon with the strips she cut from these shirts. Realised without the presence of an audience in eighteen days, the performance is testified by M. Uwe Kroll and Christoph Neugebaueur’s video footage, the artist’s photographs and the cocoon she has produced.

"Words Are Very Unnecessary", exhibition view, Arter, 2019.

Photo: Hadiye Cangökçe