Salt, in collaboration with the BBVA Foundation, announced the recipients of the Research and Production Grant Program. Geared towards artists from Türkiye who investigate contemporary social questions through interdisciplinary methodologies, the grant program aims to provide a dynamic space for artistic research and production and encourage engagement between creative practitioners and their communities across the region.
This year’s selection committee comprised Vasıf Kortun (Curator), Elvira Dyangani Ose (Director, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona), Manuel Segade (Director, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía), Ala Younis (Artistic Director, Akademie der Künste der Welt), Fatma Çolakoğlu (Director, Salt Research and Programs), and Juan Pujol Rodríguez (Assistant Director, BBVA Foundation).
Looking at Osmanbey: Social and Spatial Entanglements of Fashion Trade
After evaluating 193 applications, the committee selected Aslı Uludağ’s project Geothermalisms for the Artistic Research Grant. The committee awarded two projects for the Production Grant: Ali Taptık’s Looking at Osmanbey: Social and Spatial Entanglements of Fashion Trade and Merve Mepa’s An Interwoven Network: Threads and Trace. Regarding the selections, the committee has stated: “The Research Grant has been unanimously awarded to Aslı Uludağ for her project on the material politics of geothermal energy development in the Aegean Region of Turkey. The proposal stood out for its exceptional depth, commitment to the research topic, and scholarly elaborateness of its approach. Both finalists for the Production Grant, Ali Taptık on fashion trade in Osmanbey and Merve Mepa on the interactions and intersections between humans, craft, and technology, presented compelling proposals with substantial artistic merit. The jurors opted to support both projects, considering their exceptional nature. We acknowledge that their projects represent different artistic approaches, and we believe funding both will contribute to a more diverse artistic landscape.”
Aslı Uludağ will receive 20,000 Euros for the Artistic Research Grant; Ali Taptık and Merve Mepa will receive 10,000 Euros each for the Production Grant in funding support for their projects. The supported artists will present their work at Salt (Türkiye) and the BBVA Foundation (Spain) in 2025.
