Sculpture & Performance by Gözde Mimiko Türkkan

Location: Büyük Valide Han

September 14th – 28th

daily – 1:00 pm – 7:00 pm

In Hug Me Harder, Choke Me Tender, by Gözde Mimiko Türkkan the body becomes a site of conflict—where tenderness coexists with violence, and intimacy merges with domination. Using a lifelike MMA dummy crafted from traditional duvet fabric as both partner and opponent, the performance oscillates between gestures of affection and acts of physical constraint, including embraces and rear naked chokes. Through this tension, the piece confronts the blurred boundaries between violence and affection, dominance and desire, consent and coercion.

Framed within the visual language of combat sports and domestic intimacy, the work speaks to both personal and collective politics—touching on themes of relational power, violence, embodied trauma, and eroticism. Hug Me Harder, Choke Me Tender invites the audience into a space where the language of affection is rewritten through physical violence, revealing the fragility—and the danger—of intimacy.

The performance at Midas Touch and the presentation of the sculpture during the exhibition will be realized in cooperation with Pilot Galeri Istanbul.