Eşref Yıldırım traces Joseph Beuys’ legacy through nature in his new performance Camouflage, created as part of a collaborative project between the Marina Abramović Institute and Museum Schloss Moyland.
Organized as an international initiative, the project brings together 13 contemporary artists from different parts of the world to reinterpret Beuys’ performative legacy. The concept of a “living archive,” initiated by Marina Abramović in 2005 with her restaging of How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare at the Guggenheim Museum, forms the conceptual backbone of the project. Following a one-month research period into Beuys’ works and archives, participating artists—including Yıldırım from Turkey—present site-specific performances in response.
Merging the Body with Nature
In Camouflage, Eşref Yıldırım intertwines Beuys’ philosophy of nature-human-animal interrelations with today’s emotional and political urgencies. Instead of a controlled gallery setting, Yıldırım stages the performance in the natural landscape of Museum Schloss Moyland. Covering his body with aquatic plants, he quietly immerses himself in the environment—listening, observing the local fauna, and simply being. This state of silent witness not only challenges anthropocentric perspectives but also seeks new ways of engaging with animals and nature on equal terms.
The personal motivation behind the work adds an emotional dimension: the artist’s bond with his late dog, Yağmur, intersects with current debates around animal rights legislation in Turkey. Loss, mourning, and social responsibility are deeply embedded in the performance. Camouflage thus emerges not only as a performance but also as a form of memorial, inquiry, and resistance.
Born in 1978, Eşref Yıldırım is a visual artist based in Istanbul. Known for expanding his long-standing practice in painting with performative expressions, he engages with themes such as power structures, gender roles, and invisible forms of violence. His work often incorporates recycled materials and installation strategies, as seen in exhibitions like Diary of Defeats, Dust and Mold, and Night Residuals, where personal experience meets collective questioning.
This international initiative at Schloss Moyland not only keeps Beuys’ legacy alive but also offers contemporary artists a free space for critical thought and creative expression. Documentation of the performances—including videos, photographs, and archival material—will contribute to a growing dialogue around art and legacy. A documentary film by Kirsten Becken will accompany the project, available both online and in the museum shop.
If Yıldırım’s Camouflage is a way of listening to nature, perhaps its most powerful element is this: a narrative without words, inviting us into the space where language itself falls silent.
