Ayse Balko

The Voice is a 2 video projection on 3D objects sculpted by the artist. It is commisioned by the Arts on The Run, for the Migration Matters Festival. The Voice, explores the struggle to find their voices of immigrant/refugee artists in the UK. 2 video and audio installation on sculpted and distorted 3D surfaces. The project was funded by Arts on The Run and Migration Matters Festival i 2016. Artist: Ayse Balko

It was such a successful night. Thanks to everybody who came and joined us. What a beautiful feeling to share a work which has been in a development for a while. It has worth every second of all those intense moments and thoughts. We have created two paintings during the performance. Space was full and we had to turn down some people.  This project is a beginning of many others. It is going to be a platform for artists to share pure and honest experiences with audiences. ---------------- I am so excited and a bit nervous. I know how strong the images created during live performance. So strong, intense, sharp... To be honest unique...  My anciety is not for the quality of the work, but we are going public... Everything we do, Joao, Mina and I is depending on our true honest emotional sharing and polylouge, creating new language during our non-verbal ex-change of dialogue. Here is ArtReach's invitation to powerful live performance art project: "ArtReac...

Studio Session 1: with Mina Salama and Joao Simoe We started the session one hour late around 2.30 pm at The Creative Arts Development Space (CADS) in Sheffield on 9/01/10, Thursday. We can only actually, physically start the session around 4.30. It sounds easy to do, Mina is playing live music with his oud and ney flute, I will be dancing on the board and painting with my body movements, my feet are my brush. What we do is not the actualisation of structure, we have to feel and connect with each other and one hundred percent mindfully being together is what enables me to create the paintings and enables Mina to compose his music. There were long discussions on the story and journey and how to blend them together to make our individually personal stories visible to the audience. Different experiences in a structured but also free form style come together and become a separate personality in itself. It all resolved when I went for a half an hour walk as the director-curator ...

A Journey of UnBelonging combines live action painting, music composition and video projection and featuring three artists, two from refugee backgrounds. After a series of (so many) discussions, story/experience sharing, story boarding sessions, personal investigations & three development sessions in different warehouses in Sheffield, Mina Mikhail Salama (Egyptian composer/instrumentalist), Aysegul Balkose (Turkish/British performance & visual artist) and Joao Paulo Simoes (Portuguese independent director & film maker) . Conceptualised, produced and performed by Aysegul Balkose. It has been commissioned by <a href="www.journeysfestival.com">Journeys Festival</a>, ArtReach which is supported by Arts Council. The piece is opening a journey of a refugee to the audience.  The piece premièred to an audience of 100 at the Curve theatre. Around 40% of the audience were refugees or asylum seekers and had never step foot in a theatre before. The atmosphere...

Movement Reflections is my new project which I have been working on it for the last 6 months on and off basis.  The idea first came as an hunch at my old studio at bloc studios which I made my first Movement Reflection painting based on Tai chi movements and called the painting "Tai Chi Warrior" It is very exciting to see the project becoming alive now. I will be doing my first public performance on 5 December in Sheffield  at CADS for The Confluence Project, Contemporary Art and Music Collaborations , between 7pm till late. I will be performing on live Jazz band and on to Algorave Techno, live coder-DJ Alex Mclean. I will be painting with my feet onto a wide board feeding my tai chi and dance based movements with music and reflecting the 3 dimensional momentum into 2 dimensional paint marks. Here are some links to my collaborators and to the event. The Confluence Project AlgoRave with Yaxu CADS

"A Journey of UnBelonging" is a series of paintings, one short film with music composition created during 3 development sessions in different ware houses in Sheffield by refugee and immigrant artists in the purpose of expressing their own journeys of "UnBelonging". The expression of the conceptual inner journey of not-belonging is reflected on a large board in the form of painting through movements of the performance artist (Ayse) based on tai chi, acrobatics and dance. Ayse action paints with her feet by her dramatic movements directly influenced by Mina Salama's live improvised music. The piece is exploring and reflecting the dramatic change of the inner perception of refugee's journey towards finding sanctuary. But is there ever a sanctuary? The piece brings together three dimensions of artistic expression within the theme of cultural displacement - featuring Aysegul Balkose and Mina Mikhail Salama". The project is produced by Aysegul Balkos...

Maurício de Almeida Gomes, grandfather of Indipendent film maker, director, Joao Paulo Simoe.   When Joao made a  conscious decision to translate the work of his grandfather's into English, he would't have guess that he would be entering a Historical context of what is perhaps the most influential Angolan poetry of its time.                                          "A lonely, visionary flare sent towards the stars…Into the uncertain, troubled future…Communicating to all those who were to think of themselves as alone and unheard that it is possible......That conscience and courage can make us who we want to be…" I recommend you to read the http://mauriciodealmeidagomes.blogspot.co.uk blog that is dedicated to this great refugee poet by his grandson, Joao Simoe. http://mauriciodealmeidagomes.blogspot.co.uk   If my homeland is coloured... my ho...

It is a project which brings together three dimensions of artistic expression within the theme of cultural displacement . I am proud to announce new commissioned collaborative performance + art  piece for the ArtReach, Contemporary Arts and Development Agency, as a development project. Premier performance will be held at mid February. Journey of Un-Belonging is a collaborative and challenging performance project between Egyptian composer ,musician , ney flute and oud player Mina Mihail  Salama (Refugee),  Turkish originated Turkish/British performer, visual artist and photographer Aysegul Thornett and significant theme member Angolian originated Portuguese director and independent film maker Joao Paulo Simoes. We are aiming to create more awareness on the un-settled , un-belonging journey of refugees through real life experience and story of Mina Salama. The expression of the conceptual inner journey of not-belonging  will be reflected on a l...

2meter x 2 meter …for a word that isn’t even in that isn’t even in the dictionary, ‘Unbelonging' itself seems to carry a long of weight. This project part of our exhibition group 'The Confluence Project’, Ayse whom I’m currently working with for this collaborative piece came up with the idea of ‘Unbelonging’. It can relate to many aspects, even when broken down into a syllable form UN-BE-LONG-ING, each aspect has a form or relativity to it’s neighbour.   ‘U' - could mean directly addressing the self or somebody. Links to self esteem as 'you’ think about ‘you’; you are you…(this could get confusing). Including non-verbal-communication, if your pointed at and somebody says ‘you' it can be referenced to this form of selection, order or even threat. As I like film, it also reminds me of 'U' being universal…so Universal You?! You are Universal?!?!! A cocktail of word play. When you turn the letter 180 degrees it becomes ‘n’.   ‘Un' - the un-doing...

At the Parkway Towers in Leeds, a concrete slab fall from one of the high floors to the ground.  When I went to Parkway Grange, and amazed by the astonishing view from the roof.   At this article, you will find  brief information about Parkway Grange,  block towers in ancient times,  block towers in UK and main building material of Brutalist architecture, concrete. PARKWAY GRANGE TOWERS A seventeen storey H-plan tower block (Parkway Grange Tower) and two fifteen-storey tower blocks built as public housing.  Seventeen-storey block contains 99 dwellings, fifteen-storey blocks contain 88 + 88 = 176 dwellings in total.  Construction was approved by committee in 1965and finished in 1967. The primary use of the Parkway Grange Tower is residential. 47m roof height, 17-storey (floor) H-plan. Construction was approved by committee in 1965 and completed in 1967. Address and area:  1-100 Brooklands Crescent, Killingbeck , Seacroft, Lee...