Gülçin Aksoy – I Had Something in Mind
February 4 @ 18:30 - March 28 @ 18:30
Opening: Tuesday, February 4, 18:30
Curators: Ahsen Zeynep Özdemir, Buse Kökcü, Derya Ülker, Mert Çağıl Türkay, Reyhan Polat
Exhibition assistants: Dilara Altınkepçe Arslan, Şule Güzeller
Depo presents Gülçin Aksoy’s solo exhibition I Had Something in Mind, a selection of the artist’s works curated by her students and her daughter.
My name is Gülçin Aksoy, GA for short.
I Had Something in Mind features works by artist and academic Gülçin Aksoy, who passed away in 2024. The exhibition is shaped by sentences from the artist’s notebooks and includes her works in diverse mediums. Spanning different periods of GA’s practice, the selected works display her long-term concerns with issues pertaining to academia, gender, body and existence, and the politics of nature and power. The exhibition, which also features previously unexhibited works, will be on view at Depo between February 4 – March 28, 2025.
Gülçin Aksoy has become one of the prominent figures of contemporary art in Turkey, known for her distinctive art practice centred on issues surrounding language and cultural signifiers, her interdisciplinary approach, and her unique ability to bring people together. GA began her academic career at Mimar Sinan University in 1990 and, in 2008, took over the Tapestry Studio, which she had co-directed with Zekai Ormancı between 1992 and 2008. During her time, the studio was transformed into a versatile common space open to interdisciplinary production and interaction, evolving with the needs of students. Aksoy seamlessly integrated her artistic practice with her identity as an educator, and embraced a multi-faceted approach of teaching, learning and producing all at the same time. In addition to her solo works, GA was a member of various artist collectives such as Hafriyat, Arada, and Atılkunst. She coordinated numerous projects, including Learning Process and Ortak Mekik. She has had solo exhibitions in Istanbul and Munich, and participated in many group exhibitions in Turkey and abroad.
Ekmel Ertan, Nazım Hikmet Richard Dikbaş, Nermin Saybaşılı and Zeynep Sayın contributed to the exhibition with texts on Gülçin Aksoy and her artistic practice. These contributions have been translated and edited by Ahsen Zeynep Özdemir, Esra Oskay, Merve Vural and Nazım Hikmet Richard Dikbaş.