Neither here nor there! – A performance by Nejbir Erkol (Mardin). Duration: 45 minutes.
May 21, 2022 | 11:00 a.m. | German Headquarters

Erkol's performance explores the possibilities of precariousness arising from an incident in 2019, when a mortar shell fired from across the border landed 97 steps in front of his home in Nusaybin. The wet ground from the previous day's rain prevented the shell of the mortar shell in question from exploding. Using the metaphor of the canary grass (Phalaris) collected from the crater left behind by the shell, this performance will take the form of a fictional narrative, addressing the concepts of safe space, natural resilience, and fragility. Grass sketches will also be featured in the show.

Waves of Despair as a Guide: Marginal and Methodical Erosion – A performance by Bint Mbareh (Palestine / United Kingdom). Duration: 45 minutes.
May 21, 2022 | 3:00 PM | Develi Han

Bint Mbareh's performance in Mardin takes the pain and sorrow created by dispossession as its starting point. These are profound and compelling moments where exclamations to prophets and saints serve as necessary channels for the widespread and painful. In this context, the artist explores how sonic exclamations, as they travel from one body to another, break down and transcend boundaries without regard for what a false or imaginary boundary dictates and what kind of violence it provokes, thanks to the material that constitutes the sound it possesses. The artist's research generally focuses on the temple mythology in Palestine, how the temple is a neighbor, and how the saints and prophets of the communities expelled from Palestine continue to connect through neighborly ways mediated by sounds that still seamlessly transcend time and space.

Shared Notes – A musical collaboration between Kathyayini Dash (India), Petra Nachtmanova (Vienna), Erkan Çanakçi (Istanbul), and Çağrı Koç (Mardin). Supported by Tarabya Cultural Academy.
May 21, 2022 | 4:00 PM | Develi Han

This performance brings together the worlds of poets from the Anatolian poetry repertoire and poets from Kabir Saheb's Indian Bhakti poetry repertoire. Using the Turkish Yunus Emre and the Indian Kabir Saheb as starting points, this musical exploration illuminates not only the synchronicity of these two poets but also their omnipresent existence. Like their shared vocabulary, their music reflects a familiar longing, a special bond between crying and laughing; drawing us into a unifying immersion; bringing people together in ways only the heart can understand, ringing a bell that represents the bridge between the Sufi and Bhakti movements, dynamic across the Eurasian plains, and the two ships of our poets' time.

Feast Days: A food-based engagement by Bhagwati Prasad (India).
May 20–25, 2022 | various times | Develi Han

The artist invites the public to a meal centered around a social-ecology formed around language in this food-based activation of her project Begumpura – A Place Without Sorrow. The inhabitants of this nomadic utopia are united by the belief that everything has the ability to exist within and pass through everything else. A makeshift shelter set up in Old Mardin becomes a space where intimacy is imagined through shared experiences of language and food. Bon appétit!

Reading Room by border_less collective
May 20 – June 20, 2022 | 12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Kebikeç Sahaf Cafe

The Reading Room, brought together by the border_less collective, an independent archiving and publishing platform, allows for further reading on the concepts addressed by the 5th Mardin Biennial, enabling a gradual exploration of these concepts in depth. Throughout the Biennial, the Reading Room, which consists of an intimate library-café, will host parallel events coordinated by artist Baver Doğanay. The bibliography was compiled by Karan Shrestha, Ritu and Tenzing, Abdessamad El Montassir, Merve Ünsal, Lara Ögel, Gülşah Mursaloğlu, Merve Akar Akgün, Ilgın Seymen, Fisun Yalçınkaya, Baver Doğanay, Adwait Singh, and border_less.

Democratize Knowledge Economies: A self-directed discussion on alternative publishing initiatives in art, copyright permissions, patent resistance, and the future of the internet.
May 21, 2022 | 12:00 p.m. | Kebikeç Sahaf Café

Participants: border_less collective (Istanbul), İpek Hamzaoğlu (Vienna), Lara Ögel (Istanbul), Merve Ünsal (Istanbul), Sibel Horada (Istanbul), and Thukral and Tagra (New Delhi)

Mystical Cosmopolitan and Uncompromising Sonics: An exchange between Dina Amro (Palestine/United Kingdom), Zahra Malkani (Pakistan), and Kathyayani Dash (India/South Africa)
May 22, 2022 | 12:00 p.m. | Develi Han

Eray Caylı and Erkan Özgen Talk:
May 24, 2022 | 2:00 p.m. | 13 Square Meters

SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2022
2:00 PM Adwait Singh Talk – Loading / Diyarbakır

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022
2:00 PM Event Hosted by Zahit Mungan – Zahit Mungan Workshop

JUNE 10, 2022