Ayşe Erkmen
° 1949, Istanbul (TR) – lives and works in Istanbul (TR) and Berlin (DE)
Ayşe Erkmen, whose practice, and in particular, site-specific works are etched in memory, takes the social and physical environment that she is in as a starting point and repositioning the existing structure in her particular style, impels viewers to think about space. Her works, which make spaces experiential, do not exhibit a concern for forming a formal language. Instead, the artist invites her viewers to engage in a dialogue with the physical, visual, social, and psychological dimensions of environments, such as museums, gallery windows, exhibition spaces, parks, rivers and squares.
The contemporaneity of Erkmen’s works is derived from her pointing to the already-existing in different forms. While she makes ‘sculptural’ propositions in her temporary interventions, taking the space as is in exhibition locations, she adds on as few ‘foreign’ elements as possible. Reconfiguring the objects and relationships in spaces that we encounter daily or sporadically by disrupting or getting rid of them, Erkmen interweaves art and life, forming singular areas. The artist thus makes visible models of socializing that open up reality; the works are complete only when there are viewers present.
(courtesy of Dirimart)
Ayşe Erkmen – Prize, 2016, at Cappadox in Cappadocia, Turkey
Ayşe Erkmen – exhibition view of A, at SM.A.K., Ghent in 2016
Ayşe Erkmen – Broche (Photo by Michiel Devijver)
Ayşe Erkmen – Broche
Ayşe Erkmen – Bluish, 2009
Ayşe Erkmen – On Water, 2017
Ayşe Erkmen had solo exhibitions in S.M.A.K., Ghent; The Barbican, London; Bregenzer Kunstverein; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Kunstverein Freiburg; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; K 21, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen; Magasin 3, Stockholm; and Sculpture Center, New York.
Erkmen has participated in numerous international group exhibitions, among others various editions of the Istanbul Biennial; the biennales of Shanghai, Berlin, Gwangju, and Sharjah; and the Pavilion of Turkey at the 54th Venice Biennale. Ayşe Erkmen will participate in Münster Sculpture Project with a new project in june 2017.
Ayşe Erkmen is represented by the following galleries;
click through to discover more of her work.
