Huseyin Umaysiz
Vilt (Kulav)
EN Felt (Kulav) is a performative process exploring the connection between body, material, and movement. Rooted in the centuries-old felt-making tradition found across the world, the work focuses on repetitive and physically demanding techniques such as rubbing, fulling, pounding and compressing wool.
In February 2025, the artist collaborated with felt master Kadir Karcı in Urfa, Northern Kurdistan, encountering a distinctive method: using one’s chest to beat the wool, before cleaning and shaping it in unison with breath and rhythm. The act takes on a ritual dimension, embedding physical memory and the feltmaker’s presence into the material. Felt invites audiences to sense the passage of time across places and histories, as bodies engage in a process that slowly unfolds through rhythmic, repetitive movement.
Credits
Research process – Huseyin Umaysiz
Performers – Alan Ciwan, Huseyin Umaysiz
Technician – Robin Appels
Support – SoAP Maastricht, Platform 0090, Theater Expedition Metropolis, C-Takt.
(Vilt is a presentation of the research results and was made possible with the support of a one-year research grant from the Flemish Ministry of Culture.)
Huseyin Umaysiz (1969, Turkey) is a theatre maker and performance artist exploring the human body in relation to nature, rhythm and material. Rooted in traditional practices, his research focuses on how time, repetition and physical labour leave traces in body and matter. Drawing from rituals such as water-based fermentation in Munzur and felt-making in Urfa, he investigates how embodied techniques can be transformed into choreography. His performances balance ritual and research, so that bodily presence resonates with natural forces and ancestral knowledge.