Arkin University of Creative Arts and Design (ARUCAD) Acting Department hosted a webinar titled “On Body and Space”, bringing together students with Prof. Tuğçe Ulugün Tuna—an award-winning choreographer, contemporary dance and interdisciplinary performance artist, body reader, and academic. The session took place at BA SPE 03 and was moderated by Instructor Şafak Ersözlü.
Throughout the webinar, Tuna highlighted that site-specific creation is not merely placing a work into a location; rather, space acts as a hidden subject that shapes the work’s structure, the audience’s positioning, and the experience of witnessing. She also reflected on how transformed or abandoned architectural environments carry layers of memory that influence meaning, and responded to students’ questions by underlining that the relationship with space can transform both the body and the idea within the creative process.
Emphasizing space as a driving force in her practice, she stated: “For me, space is the hidden subject—the invisible skeleton of the work. Before I begin producing, I spend time there, sit with the silence, and ask: ‘What does the space give me, what does it trigger in me, what weaknesses does it confront me with?’ In site-specific works, what matters most is creating entirely there, presenting it there, and then leaving, because you cannot easily summon the same space again under the same conditions. And when I first enter a space, I always ask: ‘Did I fall in love with it?’”
The full webinar recording is available here:
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdJeBXyNa9k"
