DJ İPEK İPEKÇİOĞLU
Artist Residency - Winter 2024
Residency presented by Middle East and North African Studies Program (MENA)
Co-sponsoring units: Department of Anthropology, Colloquium for Global Iran Studies, Department of German, Kaplan Humanities Institute, and Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program
About İpek İpekçioğlu
Based in Berlin and Istanbul, queer-living DJ, producer, and curator İpek İpekçioğlu aka DJ İpek has an established reputation across nightlife scenes worldwide. İpek İpekçioğlu is regarded as one of the most popular and diverse DJ’s of the Berlin club scenes and is internationally known as "Queen" of Eklektik BerlinIstan.
Inspired by her passion for ethnic music and genre-hopping dance, her Eklektik BerlinIstan set provides surprising breaks to the steady course of club music today.
In her musical spectrum, psychedelic Turkish funk meets Disco, Balkan to Minimal, Anatolian Folk to Deep House, Armenian Halay to Electro, Kurdish Gowend 2 Moombahton, from Dabke to Reaggaton, Iranian Bandari to Techno. Her EthnikFolkElektronikMix is free of conventions, and it refuses to be limited by style, tempo or genres. At her electronic MidEast’Elektro’ sets, İpek takes participants into deep-house, tech-house, minimal and techno spiced up with ethnic-folk tunes, fueled by kicking beats and dramatic basslines and live-mixes.
Besides djaying and producing music, İpek İpekçioğlu has a strong social-critical agenda related to women, immigrant, queer and gender topics. She focuses on contemporary, everyday issues and transports these issues into her music.
İpek is known for her collaborations with well-known musicians including Aynur Dogan, Brenna MacGrimmon, Selda Bagcan, Petra Nachtmanova, Kinan Azmeh, Baba Zula, La Nuit d’Antigone, and Hakan Vreskala.
EVENTS
JAN 29, 2024 | MONDAY
12:30 - 2:00 pm
University Hall 201
MENA MONDAY LECTURE
Main presenter: Middle East and North African Studies Program (MENA)
EKLEKTIK BERLINISTAN: QUEER PATHWAYS THROUGH BERLIN’S MIDDLE EASTS
Home to one of the largest Middle East and North African diasporas in Europe, Berlin is also renowned for its queer spaces and lives. Internationally renowned music producer, DJ, and queer activist İpek İpekçioğlu will take us through their intersectional and non-binary pathways through what they call Eklektik Berlinistan—a queer space that straddles and reassembles Berlin and Istanbul, sex and gender, struggle and joy. İpek will be joined in conversation with Assistant Professor Emrah Yildiz (Anthropology and Middle East and North African Studies).
JAN 31, 2024 | WEDNESDAY
12:30 - 2:00 pm
Harris Hall 108
KEYMAN WEDNESDAY LECTURE
Main presenter: Keyman Modern Turkish Studies
PROTEST MUSIC AND CULTURE OF CRITIQUE IN CONTEMPORARY TURKEY
What does protest music look and sound like in contemporary Turkey? How do we understand this contemporary conjuncture within the broader history of music, dissent, and critique in the cultural history of protest music? Internationally renowned music producer, DJ, and queer activist İpek İpekçioğlu will probe these questions in conversation with Keyman Modern Turkish Studies postdoctoral fellow, Kenan Sharpe. İpek will present her 2022 Aşık Mahzuni Şerif remix, Yuh Yuh, to get us all started! A 30-minute Q&A will follow the conversation.
MARCH 6, 2024 | WEDNESDAY
12:30 - 2:00 pm
Harris Hall 108
GERMAN STUDIES WEDNESDAY LECTURE
Main presenter: Department of German
COLLECTIVE FEELINGS ACROSS LANGUAGES IN TRANSITION
Internationally renowned music producer, DJ, and queer activist İpek İpekçioğlu will present a performative reading from Esther Dischereit's "Blumen für Otello – Flowers for Otello." In this performance, Ipekcioglu pairs excerpts from Esther Dischereit's works, "Klagelieder" and "Flowers for Otello," written in response to racially motivated killings by the National Socialist Underground between 1998-2007 in Germany, with music she has composed in this multilingual presentation across languages in transition.
MARCH 9, 2024 | SATURDAY
9:30 - 11:30 pm
Louis Room - Norris Center
Free! No tickets needed!
Main presenter: Kaplan Institute for the Humanities
LIVE SET PERFORMANCE / DANCE PARTY!
Come and dance to the tunes of internationally renowned music producer, DJ, and queer activist İpek İpekçioğlu in a live-set performance in honor of International Women's Day. Ipek will play a mix of Middle Eastern, Kurdish, North African, psychedelic Turkish funk, Anatolian folk and other genres.