Fatma Belkıs was born in Antalya in 1985, and she now lives in Istanbul. She is interested in narratives of individuals going through a transformation, particularly those who prefer not to go through it alone. The artist works with text, video and printed matter. While problematising structures built on friendship and comradery, she focuses on contracts and the breaches thereof regarding such structures. Belkıs therefore aims to weave a web that ties notions such as loss, grief, negotiation, conflict, digestion, disappointment and failure. She finds marshes fascinating, and she thinks that cats are ideal roommates.
Her works have been exhibited at the Istanbul Biennial and the Sharjah Biennial as well as at institutions including Istanbul Modern, DEPO, nGbK, Tensta Konsthall, SALT, and La Tôlerie. The films she directed have also been shown at international festivals.
Onur Gökmen (b. 1985, Ankara) currently resides in Berlin. His works across sculpture, photography, video, installation and performance address reality as something perpetually informed by the entwinement of past and future. The artist also explores collective histories, past events and myths by mapping an archaeology of the self. Taking up reduced forms, his works reference architectures uncovered via excavation, the skeletal structures of the living body and the vocabulary of minimalism—calling into question the very foundations that inform our sense of historical hierarchy. Gökmen has presented works and performances at venues including SALT, Istanbul; MMK, Frankfurt; Reina Sofia, Madrid; the Asia Culture Center, Gwangju; Sharjah Biennial 13; and the Delfina Foundation, London.