Although artists from the same era, Fulya Çetin and İlhan Sayın explore gender, nature, and memory through different artistic languages...
bira bira exhibition
The second "Bir Arada" exhibition, held at Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts' Istiklal Street gallery from May 9, 2025, to January 4, 2026, brings together Fulya Çetin and İlhan Sayın, two prominent artists from the same generation who develop distinct artistic languages.
Çetin's exhibition, "Day Dreams," establishes an ecofeminist visual world, centering on the challenging existence of women and nature. Çetin brings socio-political issues such as gender inequality, environmental injustice, and violence into the public eye through her art.
Meanwhile, Sayın's exhibition "Deer Night," inspired by Turgut Uyar's poem of the same name, questions the resistance of nature, the transience of time, and the memory of space.
Despite differing aesthetic orientations, the "Bir Arada" exhibition series, which points to common conceptual grounds in both artists' works, offers an opportunity to examine how themes such as gender, nature, and memory are handled with different aesthetic strategies in contemporary art practices.
Fulya Çetin and İlhan Sayın, the artists in the "Bir Arada" exhibition, curated by Didem Yazıcı and on view at Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts Gallery until January 4, 2026, spoke to T24 about the elements of space that make it worth drawing, ecofeminist art, the meaning of voids on the canvas, the visibility of "disturbing" and marginalized beings gained through art, and the power of art to "bring together."
Ruins, broken structures, abandoned structures, silence, darkness... What makes a place worth drawing for you?
İlhan Sayın: I think the reason I draw ruins, ruins, and abandoned structures is because they are powerful images for me, and because these images resonate with me, perhaps because they resonate with the spirit of the times we live in. These images cause me to consider and reflect on the transience of time, the story of humanity's limited lifespan and its struggle to remain permanent on Earth, the contradictions this effort creates, its domination over other living beings and nature, the ecological disasters and destruction caused by human influence, and the inevitable interaction and conflict between nature, environment, culture, and time. At the same time, when choosing an image or a place to paint, I also consider the pictorial expressive power of that place. This balance of dark and light can be a choice based on more formal, technical, the needs of the painting, or the eye, such as composition.
- You create works that embody poetic narratives. I can give Golden Bird - Nest 2 as an example. Is naming your exhibition after Turgut Uyar's poem "Deer Night" related to this?
İlhan Sayın: Just like in the poem, we can think of "The Golden Bird - Yuva 2" as an image of remaining proud and hopeful for the future despite all the disasters that befall us. I can say that naming my exhibition "Deer Night" wasn't just about this painting, but the combined impact of all the other paintings on me. But if "The Golden Bird" were to stand alone, it would be the closest painting to that poem for me.
Is depicting nature as a character, a subject, more of an aesthetic choice, or does it stem from a sense of ethical responsibility?
Fulya Çetin: First of all, I can say that my relationship with nature, or rather, our relationship with it, is not fictional. I needed to remember and relearn a way of life we knew long ago, a way we belonged to, a way we had deciphered how to live within, a way we had actually forgotten or been made to forget. I needed to close my ears to the promises of modernity and look back and find hope, like the feel of the wind on our faces, the sound of tree branches and leaves, the earth's interior, and the way it repeatedly destroys and recreates life. I turned to nature to escape these and many other things, to hide, to think, to create, and to make time for myself. Before the pandemic, I moved my studio from Istanbul to Olympos to take a break from city life and spend more time together. Creating in nature began with a sense of need, but over time, it evolved into a ritual of observation, understanding, and gazing, but nature was always a part of me. This applies to the woman sprawled out on the ground in the "forest" in 2006, to the snakes and leeches on the wall, and even to the hair blowing in the wind.
- Ecofeminism sees nature not as a resource to be exploited, but as an entity to be connected with. Do you think art can repair this relationship or create a new language?
Fulya Çetin: I believe that all languages should be spoken to criticize and dismantle any relationship built upon exploitation and domination, and that they should not be constantly reiterated without considering their usefulness. I don't want to make grand pronouncements, so I can say that I've created a new language in my personal life. I can say that a new language, even a new life, can open up alternative spaces. These alternative life options always excite me, give me renewed hope, and are motivated by this hope.
- While viewing your paintings, I was struck by the gaps in the canvas. They resemble the "empty" areas of your work, "The Book of Birds." What do the areas you don't (or can't) draw tell you?
İlhan Sayın: The emptiness you mentioned has always been an indispensable expression and attitude in my paintings since my first exhibition. I prioritize leaving the viewer breathing space in the painting, not pushing the line to the limit, but opening up space for the viewer's imagination. I view that emptiness not as an absence but as a richness of expression. It's like remaining silent for a moment and listening to what's happening around us. I'm concerned that otherwise, the painting might become overwhelmed by crowded lines.
- With your installation "Underground," you also make room for "unlovely" creatures like snakes, leeches, and reptiles. How did your relationship with this "disturbing" begin?
Fulya Çetin: I want to perceive the world through the eyes of a baby. I wanted to experience the world as a baby seeing everything around them for the first time, reaching out and touching without any prior knowledge, rediscovering and understanding without prejudices and accumulated, unnecessary knowledge, touching and touching things that are disliked, rejected, and repulsed by others, and recognizing the world with zero knowledge and my own definition. I've been looking and searching for ways to define myself, without anyone else's opinion, simply by listening to my own voice.
- Women, queer bodies, snakes, leeches... They're all coded like the "unwanted face" of nature. Your art transforms these images into heroes. Why do you walk alongside others?
Fulya Çetin: It's always been this way; I think I've positioned myself as the other since childhood, and I've felt that way. Actually, I don't believe there's such a thing as the other; perhaps "othering" would be more accurate. There are so many different kinds, no branch ever curves and rises to the sky in the same way again, no one is the same as another, there's a cycle but no repetition. Categorizing this diversity or being pigeonholed seems ridiculous and absurd to me. I admire every living being that lives its life as an other; they learn to survive in the most difficult conditions and continue their lives.
İlhan Sayın: Women, queer people, animals are not "others," but they are indispensable elements of society and life that are being marginalized. Life is vibrant and vibrant on its own when not dominated, but women and queer people are often the first victims of standardization, oppression, and forced submission. Their refusal to consent to oppression, their disobedience, leads to their marginalization, exclusion, and ignorance. I, however, tried to do the opposite. I wanted to show the joy, life, and solidarity in the "unwanted faces" that society seeks to sever, to remind them that simply existing, remaining, and saying "we're here, we're not leaving" can be an act of resistance and carry life energy.
- Do you think art still has the power to "unite" today?
Fulya Çetin: Of course, otherwise, not all governments throughout history would have tried to control art, but you say "still"... I can also say that every thought produced independently, uncontrolled, and freely possesses great power. I always use the word "power" with trepidation, because I don't mean a poisonous power, but the power of companionship. The power that comes from the moment we understand each other with someone I've never met, visiting my exhibition, comes across as the knowledge that we are not alone and will never walk alone.
İlhan Sayın: I think the emphasis on "still" in this question carries a sense of hopelessness. This may be due to a hopelessness that art has lost its former power and become introverted as it has become increasingly commercialized. Depending on the artists' attitudes, I believe art has always had a transformative power, fostering empathy, looking at the world with new and different eyes, raising awareness, questioning social and political issues, and has the opportunity to forge new bonds between people. It will not lose this power, and that is precisely why art "still" has the power to bring people together.
Source: https://t24.com.tr/haber/bagimsiz-ve-ozgur-uretilen-her-dusunce-yan-yanaligin-verdigi-bir-guc-yaratir-fulya-cetin-ve-ilhan-sayin-bir-arada-sergisini-anlatiyor,1255765