TURNING THE TABOOS UPSIDE DOWN OR A STRANGE WEDDING IN MARDIN
Pioneering artist does not see subject matters such as class struggles or sex outside the scope of art but rather right at the center of it. “White, male and genious” artists glorified mostly by the market and the acts taking the micro level as their starting points, opposing their production and questioning the ethnicity and sexuality based conflicts, uncover the “male dominated” structure of the system. The feminist artists and initiatives of 1970’s had treated these subjects in art as well as working to elevate the status of the woman artist. However this has not reached the desired level yet, particularly in Turkey. As long as art is accepted as a "male dominated, serious and graceful" production, certain woman artists in Turkey seem as if they will continue their actions to change this perception.
The Qerasik (Upper Aydinli) village within the borders of the central district of Mardin is one of those villages where traditions are preserved as is the case in villages in most other areas. Among these traditions are of course certain symbols and rituals practiced before, during and after the maritial ceremony. However as is known, not all traditions present us with pleasant looking scenes and one of the most important of such traditions is "the second wife" which is a reality of this geography. A holistic outlook on this phenomenon which needs to be faced and resolved had been set forth by director Müjde Arslan in her documentary: “A Fatal Dress: Polygamy” In the documentary, it was stated that the second wife phenomenon was a part as well as one of the most important reasons of domestic violence and the scars caused by the second wife system which caused little girls to be bought and sold were displayed.
How many women does it take for a man to be complete? The third verse of the An-Nisa surah is as follows: “(…) Marry two, three or four of the women you like (…)”. Don’t we need a revised interpretation of this verse, which causes tragedies, violence and deaths, in our day and in this geography? Isn’t being with many women one of the things men brag about when conversing among themselves? In which manner are the souls and bodies of the women mentioned during these conversations? While speaking of the level of the relationship, how much is the woman’s personal-story emphasized? These are some of the first questions that come to mind. Then, in this context, how can Sükran Moral, who has been playing with taboos through her performance works and videos since the 1990’s, present the second wife phenomenon with an adverse interpretation? In other words, let us ask: How many men does it take to complete a “woman”?
Sükran Moral’s “Marriage with Three Men" performance starts with the bride (Sükran Moral) being taken from the platform where she stands in the arms of two women with ululations. Even at that moment, certain symbolic transformations at the wedding ceremony catches one’s eyes. The bride holds red waistband on her hand while the waistband is actually wrapped around the girl by her father or brothers, representing that she is coming out of the house clean and pure, in other terms, as a virgin.  However, in the performance video, the waistband is not wrapped around the bride’s waist but is in her hands. The groom goes to their home together with the wedding procession and wraps them around the waists of 18 year old young grooms. During the procession of the wedding, the wedding festival has also begun.
The first symbolic transformation that draws the attention takes place here and three young boys from Mardin, who are presented as young and virgin, are taken from their homes by the bride. The bride looks into the eyes of them all and wraps a red waistband around their waists. Howver the bridehas no cloth wrapped around her waist to represent her sexual life. After all, in most areas of this geography, men may brag about the richness of their pre-maritial sexual lives whereas women can not even be friends with the men they will marry let alone any other men.
A table and four chairs for the bride and the grooms may be seen in the village square. The bride lifts her veil, kisses her four grooms one by one and all four of them start to dance the halay. Guns are fired off and the wedding procession expands as much as possible. Men and women of the village have participated in the ceremony and now, they will dance the hayal until they’re exhausted. Those who are watching the ceremony from afar and the roofs of the houses are also witnessing the event. These scenes may be seen clearly in wide angle shots.
Now, it is the time for the marriage gifts ceremony and the grooms are adorned with gifts of jewelry and money.  The singer who has been called in for the wedding, starts to sing a folk song about how not being able to come tohether leads to death but the song that fits the concept of the performance best is the second folk song. The folk song“Derdê Hewiyê” is compiled by Eysa Xan (1938 - 1996) and it is about “second wives”. The words “sjeni wi chare” or  “sjeni te dû dûye” are particularly meaningful in terms of the performance and its construction. The wedding gifts ceremony is completed, the weddingceremony continues with halays and then the bride goes inside the house. Then, in the bridal chamber, the bride unties the waistbands of the men, takes down their pants and takes her place between them.
Taboos and the symbols regarding such are one of the most important subject matters questioned by Sükran Moral and the artist tries to change the perceptions regarding these by turning them upside down. When it was arbitrated in 1994 that she should be deported from Italy, and she was advised by her close friends to enter a marriage of convenience, she had turned this into a performance work in her studio, by marrying not one but three people.  
The works of the artist target the disorderly parts of the system and one of these are the taboos. The conflicting structures of the taboos are exposed and these are attacked. One of the most important subject matters is the “body” and the power created over the body thorough politics of sex. At this point, the artist has exposed not only the woman’s body but also the bodily parts of transvestites in works such as Trans from Naples and Transistanbul Mercan (1998).
The woman is not allowed to enjoy the her vagina, the pain of which she suffers with menstruation and childbirth. Before the marriage, the owners of the vagina are the father and brothers, who act as guards ensuring that the vagina is not used before marriage. What’s at stake is a tissue at the entrance of the vagina but a guilty tissue nonetheless. Woman’s vagina does not belong to her after marriage either and now, it belongs to man whom she married and that man shall protect the vagina, which he owns, until death. However this does not prevent the man from adding other vaginas next to this vagina.
Sükran Moral stands at a point that’s against the modernist artists who do not give reference to anything other than themselves and claim that art has a different “aesthetic outlook" outside the social phenomena. In the work “Marriage with Three Men”, the second wife phenomenon in a society can be observed to have been turned upside down and deconstructed. What results is a performance containing a system criticism that’s much beyond a didactic presentation and has been created in Mardin with people from Mardin, with its playful construct. As a production created by the artist together with different contributors, it must be classified as one of those works that Moral utilizes technical shifts and it is possible to claim that this work is much ahead of the “Love and Violence” performance of the previous year. The task of the viewer is to watch the work until its end, decode the subtle codes that it contains and to constantly think about the social sex criticism.
Firat Arapoglu