German artist thrills guest at interactive live performance in Accra

Local and foreign guests at a live art performance and documentary were inebriated by a German performance artist with Turkish root in Accra, who uses her creative sense abilities to mix cooking scenes with people's personal life stories.

Nezaket Ekici, the artist, currently touring five continents in the world for her interactive performance and documentary films, chose Ghana as her destination to represent the African continent for her classic project dubbed: "Five Senses in Ghana".

The Goethe Institute, a cultural Institute of the Federal Republic of Germany with global reach in Accra, facilitated Ekici's choice of Ghana for the project.

In the "Five Senses in Ghana" documentary, an event to sensually experience the Ghanaian culture filmed in Accra, Twifo Praso and Cape Coast, Ekici shows different people cooking their favourite dishes, where she also mixes in the film with scenes of her video performances of using and playing with cooking ingredients that people cook in the video.

"Ghana is my fourth continent. I have done the same Five Senses in Brazil, South America; in Turkey, Europe; and in Vietnam, Asia. My final continent will be Australia after which I will bring all the collections together to be presented in German," Ekici told the Ghana News Agency at the Institute on Thursday during the live performance.

"I go to countries I don't know the people and I am curious in the way they cook their traditional meals and then learn a little about their lives and finally I bring these people together and invite people to come to learn, cook themselves and eat,"

Known for her dynamic and culturally atmospheric art performances, Ekici believes as an artist it is always important to go to different countries and places to see cultures and get inspiration and to learn something new.

"This is a beautiful world and because of that I have the possibility to see people in their houses, who opened their doors to me. If I come into Ghana as a tourist, I would never have this great opportunity in just ten days."

In the interactive live performance, which precedes the documentary, invited guests were made to prepare themselves three different Ghanaian traditional foods - Fufu and palm nut soup; "Waakye" (rice and beans) and "Kelewele" (fried ripe plantain).

Ekici installed an empty space to a kitchen and an eating place. All guests cooked amidst some cultural displays and ate the same dishes they prepared during which they watched the documentary on a large screen.

“For the first time we have this great artist coming to Ghana to bring people together and senses together. This brings something new to the people as we watched in the movies and she plays with foods like onions and tomatoes," Director, Goethe Institute, Robert Sabotta said told the GNA.

“At the same time it's traditional foods and we have people from many countries that have come to learn to cook, have fun and share experiences together.

“Ekici likes bringing together. Those here are not only people from Ghana, but some from German, Turkey and Madagascar.