SAHA Studio presents the new works of its January–June 2025 artists-in-residence between June 25–28 at its program space in Istanbul’s IMÇ Complex.
Following the open call for the January–June 2025 term, SAHA Studio welcomes audiences to discover new works by Mert Acar, Mathilde Melek An, Nejbir Erkol, Merve Tuna, and Sevil Tunaboylu at its space in Block 5 of the Istanbul Manifaturacılar Çarşısı (IMÇ).
The five artists, joining from Istanbul, Ankara, and Mardin, hosted 18 art professionals from Turkey and abroad in their studios over the past six months, sharing their creative processes and receiving feedback on their projects. Additionally, within the scope of the SAHA Curatorial Program and in collaboration with YBYTU, they engaged in regular meetings with guest curator Érica Burini from Brazil, contributing to her research and fostering a mutual exchange of ideas.
The artists shared their research and pre-production processes with the public during the midterm presentations held on March 14–15, 2025. In May, as part of the program, they also visited the 16th Sharjah Biennial.
SAHA Studio Open will be accessible to visitors starting at 3:00 PM on Wednesday, June 25. Alongside presentations and conversations reflecting the artists’ production processes, the program will feature a series of public events.
For detailed information, please visit SAHA’s website and social media accounts.
SAHA Studio Open Program
Wednesday, June 25
15:00–19:00 – General visits
18:00–19:00 – Conversation | Merve Tuna & Meral Erten
Thursday, June 26
12:00–19:00 – General visits
14:00–15:00 – Artist-led tour
18:00–19:00 – Talk | Mathilde Melek An & Sevil Tunaboylu
Friday, June 27
12:00–19:00 – General visits
16:00–17:00 – Conversation | Mert Acar & Erdem Varol
18:00–19:00 – Conversation | Nejbir Erkol & Eylem Ejder
Saturday, June 28
12:00–19:00 – General visits
14:00–15:00 – Artist-led tour
Artists and Projects
Mert Acar explores transitional zones on the peripheries of Istanbul, following routes shaped by abandoned or incomplete construction sites. His work invites viewers to reflect on urban memory while questioning the sufficiency of photography as a medium. Acar expands his practice at SAHA Studio by incorporating writing into a semi-fictional artist’s book. In addition to this book, spatial prints and installations evoke a sense of temporary landscape within the studio environment.
Mathilde Melek An’s ongoing project Geçmiş Gelişim (Past Development) centers around the archive of her family, who once worked in IMÇ Block 4 in the early 2000s. Returning to the IMÇ, where she spent her childhood, An reinterprets photos, documents, and videos from her personal archive. Presented through various production techniques within the space, the project creates a new narrative of memory, transmission, and place.
Nejbir Erkol takes the notion of “fault” as a conceptual starting point and connects it with “border,” drawing from personal experiences during her SAHA Studio residency. Her installation titled I’ve made a mistake and yet I made something reflects on her 2024 deportation between Germany and Poland. Bringing landscapes from border zones into the studio, Erkol creates a space centered on the subject, gathering similar past experiences across time and geography.
Merve Tuna continues her long-term project The Fleeting Subject, which investigates body-centered questions. Defining loss and the void it creates as opposites of the body, she draws on psychoanalysis and mathematics to express absence through sculptural forms. In this phase of the project at SAHA Studio, instead of presenting a reconciled whole, she brings together fragmented and manipulated body parts. These disconnected yet coexisting forms create an impression of a body that endures alongside the void.
Sevil Tunaboylu questions the contexts in which craft traditions transmitted through migration can be addressed, using her family archive as a starting point. Following her research trip to Skopje conducted within the program, she is working on a publication that combines fictional storytelling with historical inquiry. A draft version of this publication is presented in the studio alongside oil paintings, sculptural interventions, and wall-based works.
