Aykan Safoğlu

Aykan Safoğlu presented ziyaret, visit (2019), an essay film set in the non-denominational cemetery Alter Sankt-Matthäus-Kirchhof in West Berlin. The film transforms an inactive place of remembering and mourning into a site of memory for a future imagination of possible alliances unimpeded by official histories. Through polaroids, middle-format photographs, and the artist’s narration, it reflects on Safoğlu’s and Gülşen Aktaş’s— an activist and Safoğlu’s long time friend—visit to the cemetery and their attempts of stitching together neglected stories of queerness, class, migration, and resilience.

Aykan Safoğlu’s participation formed part of Little did they know, the Guest Programme of the 39th EVA International, curated by Merve Elveren.

Biography 

Aykan Safoğlu graduated from the ‘Art in Context’ MA program at Universität der Künste, Berlin and the MFA in Photography at Bard College, NY. Safoğlu is currently a PhD-Candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. His work cultivates relationships between cultural, geographical, linguistic, and temporal boundaries.

Safoğlu’s solo exhibitions include The Pill, Istanbul (2020) and Kevin Space, Vienna (2019). He has also recently participated in the group exhibitions, The Crack Begins Within, 11th Berlin Biennale (2020) ; Imagined Communities, 21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil (2019); Klassensprachen, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2018); ğ – soft g – queer forms migrate, Schwules Museum* Berlin (2017); Home Works 7, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2015); and Sight and Sounds: Turkey, Jewish Museum, New York (2014). Safoğlu was an artist-in-residence at Istanbul’s Tarabya Cultural Academy (2019), Beirut’s Ashkal Alwan (2016), and SAHA Studio at the Rijkakademie, Amsterdam (2014 – 2015). He was a fine arts fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (2018). Safoğlu participated in the public programs of the 15th Istanbul Biennial (2017) and the March Meeting 2017, Sharjah Art Foundation. He was the recipient of the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen at the 59th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2013).