Catharsis Circle

Özgül Arslan’s performance Catharsis Cycle examines the dynamic relationship between body and space from an objective perspective. Presented from a bird’s-eye view, the work foregrounds the stark contrast between the artist’s white attire and the black background, thereby emphasising the existential fragility of the body and the ambiguity of its boundaries. The transience of the foam material concretises the individual’s endeavour to safeguard personal space and, in parallel with anthropologist Edward T. Hall’s theory of personal space, reveals the perpetual vulnerability of the “personal space bubble.”The performance interrogates the interplay between body and space through movement and action, reflecting its broader social and political implications. The work engages with themes of rebirth and the body-space dialectic by foregrounding the dialectic between transience and permanence, individuality and collectivity, and destruction and creation. The Catharsis Cycle invites viewers to reflect critically on the cyclical nature of existence and transformation processes.