Welcoming theatergoers at Kundura Sahne with two performances in March, GEÇEN GÜN is co-directed by Naz Erayda, the new guest of the #inspiringwomen series. We asked Erayda, whom we know well as one of the founders of Kumpanya and as the award-winning art director of many films such as “Where’s Firuze?”, “Egg” and “Grain”, about her sources of inspiration.

Sounds

Nathalie Stutzmann, the sounds the sea makes as it comes and goes, striking the pebbles/rocks/wooden piers on the shore, the sounds of walking on dry leaves, the rustle of paper, Wind, Forest, Mountain, Whistling, Double bass, Saxophone, Amy Winehouse, Nina Simone, Zeki Müren, Müzeyyen Senar, Aynur Doğan, Philippe Jaroussky, the whistles of the ferries in Istanbul, Glenn Gould humming as he plays the piano, silence..

Books

Yavaş Günlük, Anita Sezgener, Nod, Istanbul, 2023

Aritmi Koridoru, Anita Sezgener, Everest Yayınları, Istanbul, 2020

Yanık Saraylar, Sevim Burak, Adam Yayınları, Istanbul, 1982

Afrika Dansı, Sevim Burak, Adam Yayınları, Istanbul, 1982

Sahibinin Sesi, Sevim Burak, Adam Yayınları, Istanbul, 1982

Uçuşan Etekler Bir Ağıt (Flying Skirts: An Elegy), Yves-John Berger, translated by Beril Eyüboğlu, Metis, Istanbul, 2014

Everest My Lord, Sevim Burak, Adam Yayınları, Istanbul,1984

Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf, translated by Tomris Uyar, İletişim Yayınları, Istanbul, 1999

Ateşler (Fires), Marguerite Yourcenar, translated by Sosi Dolanoğlu, Metis Yayınları, Istanbul, 1997

Manuel Bir Daktiloya Ağıt (Requiem for a Manual Typewriter), Jonas Mekas, translated by Baran Bilir, Lemis Yayın, Istanbul, 2023

Cities

Cities where at any moment I might come across unexpected sights, events, smells, colors, textures, past and present lives are exciting, even if, for the same reasons, they leave me open to bad experiences. Istanbul, London, Marrakesh, Venice, Berlin, Paris..

Films

Blue, 1993, Director: Derek Jarman

Because it is mesmerizing to look at the screen bathed in blue, almost as if hypnotized, and listen to what is being told in an extraordinarily calm voice.

Anatomy of a Fall, 2023, Director: Justine Triet

Because it expresses an entrenched and crude sense of morality through a different approach.

The Power of the Dog, 2023, Director: Jane Campion

Because of its subtle, deep and powerful approach to homosexuality and homophobia, set in the chosen period and the harsh atmosphere it builds.

The Piano, 1993, Director: Jane Campion

The way the director suddenly drops everything to chase after strange details affects me deeply. Everything complements everything else.

Youth, 2015, Director: Paolo Sorrentino

I find it delightful how it expresses the notions of stopping, looking, watching/peeping and seeing in an unexpected language. The colors and the visual language are also very beautiful.

The Lobster, 2015, Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

It is exciting that it is at once very realistic and surreal. It builds its own reality through both its visual language and the characters and story it creates.

Una Giornata Particolare, 1977, Director: Ettore Scola

Because it expresses the notion of resistance through an unusual story and with an elegant approach.

Carrington, 1995, Director: Christhoper Hampton

A strong female character with weaknesses, a moving story, understated and convincing acting.

The Hours, 2002, Director: Stephen Daldry

Because it expresses, through a different sense of time, the perhaps indefinable emotions of characters who are outside the norm, caught in between, and who feel loneliness deeply.

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance, 1994, Director: Michael Haneke

I am struck by the way the film tells of the impulse toward violence in a different language, through its different sense of time and its fragmented structure.

Women

Laurie Anderson / Artist

Because of her interdisciplinary creativity, the fact that she cannot be defined by familiar molds, her disregard for boundaries and rules, and her free-spirited, original and profound approach.

Louise Bourgeois / Artist

Because of her stance, which is mysterious yet plain to see, scattered yet rooted, both trembling and strong.

Sevim Burak / Writer

Because of her original and daring works, which create a different way of perceiving through her skewed gaze.

Maya Kurdoğlu / Artist, Designer

Because of her free-spirited, innovative, subtle, deep and original approach

Aytül Kipkurt, Artist

Because of her courage, her stubborn persistence in her original outlook, her innovative attitude and her powerful ideas, ahead of their time.

Seçil Yersel, Güneş Savaş, Özge Açıkkol (Oda Projesi) / Artists

I have always been moved by the way these three women artists determinedly sustain their creativity by creating conditions of collective production that are open to others.

Duygu Aykal / Choreographer, Dancer

The way she tried to cheer us up by telling stories and laughing out loud while face to face with death left a deep mark on me.

Naz Erayda

Director, designer, art director, educator. She completed her education at Mimar Sinan University and the Bilsak Basic Acting and Stagecraft Workshops. In 1991 she founded Kumpanya together with Kerem Kurdoğlu. Taking as her starting point the identity of a building, a neighborhood or a person, a concept, a photograph, a sentence and sometimes a written text, she has worked on creating a theatrical language in which “the text becomes the actor, the actor the voice, the voice the space, the space the light, and the light the costume,” and on generating different modes of perception. Focusing on the concepts of “space, time, memory, movement, rhythm, stopping, fragmentation, repetition, multiplication, approaching, moving away, disappearing,” she designed and directed plays built from fragments of sound, word and movement by combining different disciplines, for open and enclosed spaces outside and inside the city as well as for indoor theater venues. She wrote a conceptual play she called “Çizelge Oyun.” She has led workshops on new theatrical language in Türkiye and abroad. She edited the book “Ne Bileyim Kafam Karıştı,” which covers the work of Kumpanya, and served as editor-in-chief of the contemporary theater magazine Gist. She has been a founding member of several theater and artist initiatives, including the Contemporary Performance Artists Initiative, Tiyatro Devran and 5. Sokak Tiyatrosu. She has served on the advisory board of the Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat Theater Seminars, on the jury of the Afife Jale Theater Awards, and on the juries of the Antalya Film Festival (Antalya Golden Orange Festival) and the Istanbul Film Festival. In theater she has worked as a director and as a set and costume designer, and for short and feature films, commercials and TV films she has worked in production design, art direction and costume design. She has led workshops and taught courses on “different approaches in theater” at the Department of Architecture of İstanbul Technical University, the Faculty of Art and Design of Yıldız Technical University, the Department of Theater Criticism and Dramaturgy of İstanbul University, İzmir Dokuz Eylül University and Eskişehir Anadolu University. Between 2006 and 2023, she taught Experimental Design at Mimar Sinan University, Art Direction at Bilgi University, and a course titled “Improvisation: Space-Time-Body” at the Theater Department of Okan University Conservatory. Among the plays she has directed are “Ya Seni Rüyasında Bir Daha Hiç Görmezse”, “Sansürcü”, “Nurşen”, “İstanbul By Naz”, “Yine Ne Oldu?”, “Kesişmeler”, “Everest My Lord Roman 3 Perde”, “Everest My Lord’ Birinci ve İkinci Bölüm”, “Everest My Lord’dan Kısa Bir Bölüm”, “Kim O?”, “Doğum, Canlanan Mekan/ Uzun Zamandır Ölmekte Olan Bir Kentin Tiyatral İzdüşümü” and “Burada Kalmak İstiyorum, Pencereyi Rüzgar Kapatmış…”. Among the collective works whose concepts she developed are “Uzun Bir Yıl: Yürümek, Durmak”, “Ölmek Üzerine Bir Çalışma”, “Duruş”, “Yemek”, “Nurşen”, “Beni Duyuyor musun?”, “Ay Tedirginliği”, “Hücre” and “Zapturapt”. She has received awards in theater and cinema from festivals and institutions such as the Theater Critics Association, the Avni Dilligil Awards, SİYAD (the Turkish Film Critics Association), the Antalya Film Festival, the Adana Film Festival and the Ankara Film Festival.