As part of the performance programme curated by the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI) in dialogue with Joseph Beuys, artists Eşref Yıldırım and Isaac Chong Wai present new long-durational works at Museum Schloss Moyland between July 13 and October 26, 2025. Both performances emerged from residencies at Museum Schloss Moyland and are part of an extensive programme that reconsiders Beuys’s legacy through contemporary performative practices, exploring themes of nature, memory, and embodied resistance.

Isaac Chong Wai presents Choreographing Gravity: Dance Rehearsal, a durational performance performed by Ryota Maeda, in which the artist imagines an altered gravitational field. Drawing on Marina Abramović’s methods and Beuys’ movement studies, the choreography unfolds within a rotated rehearsal space. The body resists gravity’s usual pull, opening up a poetic realm where orientation, repetition, and resistance transform space into a site of disorientation and introspection. The performance will took place between July 13 - 27.

In Camouflage, Eşref Yıldırım reflects on Beuys’s belief in meaningful dialogue not only between humans but also with animals. Referencing I Like America and America Likes Me (1974), the artist draws from a personal moment of grief and broader political discussions on animal rights in Turkey. Yıldırım stages his intervention not in the gallery but within the local ecosystem of Schloss Moyland’s natural environment, covering his body in aquatic plants and silently moving through the landscape. The performance will took place between July 13 - 20.

Images: Isaac Chong Wai at the Venice Biennale 2024, Photo by Rachel Jiam   
Eşref Yıldırım, Solitude Every Morning, Bilsart, 2022

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