Aykan Safoğlu

Born in Istanbul, Aykan Safoğlu graduated from the ‘Art in Context’ MA program at Universität der Künste, Berlin. He received his MFA in Photography from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, NY. Departing from the basic principles of analog photography, Aykan Safoğlu constructs form-fluid works to pose questions related to queerness, migration, and dispossession.

In his durational works and interventions, Safoğlu challenges our notions of resilience, celebration, and most recently, mourning.

For his first gallery exhibition in Turkey, 'weekend' the artist will be showing the second essay-film of a trilogy on death — ziyaret/visit, along with a new body of work. Aykan Safoğlu, ziyaret / visit, 2019, essay-film, 12’30’ with Gülşen Aktaş, Nurşen Aktaş and Şirin Aktaş editing: Mertcan Mertbilek sound: Berk Sivrikaya DoP in İstanbul: Gizem Bayıksel supported by the Senate of Berlin through a research stipend, (2018) and realised on the occasion of Aykan Safoğlu’s artist residency at Akademie Schloss Solitude (2018/2019) with the kind permission of Zwölf Apostel Kirche. © 2019 * Cemetery Gates, The Smiths, 1986

Still from "Ziyaret / Visit", 2019

In ziyaret/visit, the artist performs an introspection on why he has not been able to take photographs for a long period of time. In ‘weekend' a solo exhibition by Aykan Safoğlu at THE PILL

Still from "Ziyaret / Visit", 2019

Reminiscing

Safoğlu’s cessation from capturing images marks a turning point in his life, as well as an ‘unspeakable’ event of rupture in our collective memory. In other words, the artist mourns his traumatized former self who is reluctant to take photographs, whilst appreciating his slow reconciliation with photography.

Exhibition view of "Ziyaret / Visit, 2019" from 39th EVA International (Photo: Jed Niezgoda)

Dog Star Descending

In Dog Star Descending, with shredded and reassembled photographs, artist reminisces about intertwined stories of a family trip to the island of Imbros and of his education at a bilingual German-Turkish public school in his own voiceover.

Still from "Dog Star Descending", 2020

Installation view from Berlin Biennale "Zero Deficit", 2020 (Photo: Mathias Völzke)

Dreams Revolving

In this young series of works, the artist reproduces the strings of photographs that he finds in his personal archive—which are different from each other, yet integrated in itself. When these personal but also collective moments are manipulated and reorganized, long and monolithic prints emerge. 

Exhibition view from Kıraathane Istanbul Literature House, 2020 (Photo: Selim Süme)

Detail from Revolving Dreams (Athens-Istanbul, May 4–7, 2006), 2020

More about the artist

In addition to his solo show ziyaret/visit at Kevin Space, (AT, 2019); Off-white Tulips at Ystads Konstmuseum (SE, 2016), he participated in group exhibitions: Imagined Communities, 21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil (BR, 2019); Class Languages, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (DE, 2018); ğ– soft g – queer forms migrate, Schwules Museum (DE, 2017); Father Figures are Hard to Find, nGbK (DE, 2016); Home Works 7, Ashkal Alwan (LB, 2015); Sight and Sounds: Turkey, The Jewish Museum (US, 2014). 

In 2018, Safoğlu was a fine arts fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. He was an artist-in-residence at Beirut’s Ashkal Alwan in 2016, as well as at Rijkakademie van beeldende kunsten’s SAHA Studio in Amsterdam during 2014-2015. 

Recipient of the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen at the 59th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (DE, 2013), Safoğlu was invited to participate in the public programs of the 15th Istanbul Biennial (TR, 2017) and the March Meeting 2017 at the Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE). 

Aykan Safoğlu