Ulufer Çelik (b. 1992, Antalya/Turkey) is an artist, who lives and works in Rotterdam, Netherlands. She completed her studies in the MA Art Praxis program at the Dutch Art Institute in 2018. Her artistic practice explores the potentialities of narrative and myth-making, that is expressed through moving image, poetry, drawing, sound and performance. In her work, she constructs on multi-layered planes through a non-linear perception of time. She searches for queer, immigrant, feminist ways of making and thinking with the archaeological, spiritual and spatial traces of memory. She is a member of Eat-House Collective, W1555 Artist Community and a resident at Putsebocht 3. Her work has been exhibited in several shows at Growing Space, Corridor Project Space, Are Projects, Rib, State of Concept, Yellow Brick Gallery, Litost Gallery, Institute for Provocation, Belmacz Gallery and Wuerttembergischer Kunstverein.
Reserv - Framed Gummy Bears, 2023.
Mecidiye II - 120x80 cm, Pastel on Cotton Canvas, Exhibition View at Kiraathane 24, 2022.
Mecidiye in Translation - 2022, 100x140cm, pastel on canvas.
Dreaming Me Back (2021) - Dreaming Me Back, 2020, 120x120 cm, Pastel on Handmade Paper, Exhibition View at Are Project Space.
Dreaming Ruins (2019) - Ulufer Çelik, ‘Dreaming Ruins IV’, 2019, 12 minutes HD video
‘Dreaming Ruins IV’ is an extended reading experience that explores the movement of repetition in loop. It is a form of meditation which allows the viewer into deeper narrations. Construction of identities in daily routines, reinforcement of the norm, repeating, repeating, repeating in advance, and moving away for the future.
While being in search of questions on ritual and repetition and mythology and religion, the footages become the source for lulling one to sleep. The artist asks questions such as, ‘Who has the right to put someone into sleep?’, ‘Is the sleeper a surrenderer?’, ‘Who are we giving the power to when we fall asleep?’ in relation to motherhood as a binary form of home-making and healing. The work becomes available to the viewer through her self-reflection as the image. While the work and text are on loop, the viewer catches the differing details, she might feel empowered or allow herself for a radical change.
*This work has been produced with the generous support of @sahadernegi and curator Ruth Noack for ‘Sleeping With Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life’ Exhibition at @wuerttembergischerkunstverein.
Quintessential Pirateness at the Age of Konijneneiland Adventures (2019) - Our artistic collaboration with Cihad Caner, is a long-term research project on piracy, modes of being, and navigation methodologies. During Summer Lab 2019 Residency Program at Rib Gallery in Rotterdam, we have started to deconstruct and scatter ideas and thoughts to experiment and our project departed from the motive of a sailboat relief found in Rotterdam Zuid. My artistic share includes producing sculptures referring to spatial declarations of flag-making, in relation to ownership and material porosity and to perform and produce series of films including the re-enactment of the selected parts from the play ‘A Christian turned Turk’ written by Robert Daborne in 1612, that addresses the notions of racism and colonial fantasies via conversion to Islam and re-presentation of ‘the other’. We have exhibited films, several sculptures and drawing as the outcome of the process with Cihad Caner at Rib Gallery, and we are still working on our research, and looking for opportunities to produce new films.
Fresh Myths, Different Times (2020) - With artist Merve Kılıçer, we explore together collective memory and performance in relation to pre-monotheistic beliefs and folkloric, imperial and shamanic traditions of Turkey. In our performance & sound collective, we approach heritage as an ongoing dialogue between generations, activating a tone for pain, traumas and bodily memories. My share is to perform and give voice to a sonic and trans-lucid environment expressing a longing for our land and language. We have exhibited and performed our work named as ‘Fresh Myths, Different Times’ in Corridor Project Space Amsterdam, Growing Space Rotterdam and in Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam.
I love it when translation can be found to agree with our weird desires (2020) - in collaboration with Alaa Abu Asad
Available at BOOKS@RET & WALTER books & KIOSK Rotterdam & ARE Project Space
Winner of Volumes 2020 First Publication Award
Do you know what does şemsiye mean? Do you use the word kırbaç for a whip? For around two years, we have been collecting identical words used in both of our languages of Turkish and (vernacular) Palestinian Arabic. A process that can last for good – as long as our friendship lives. We spend time together uttering words that are in common and draw them, whether they carry the same meaning, were slightly different, or were false friends.
Supported by Mophradat 2019 Grants For Artists
Towards A Radical Mythocracy (2017) - Desktop Documentary
