Zilberman | Berlin is hosting Neriman Polat’s solo exhibition Groundless. Following the artist’s exhibitions Merciless (2018) and Roofless (2023), this third chapter focuses on a state of absence, expressed through the shared suffix “–less”: merciless, roofless, groundless… In this trilogy, Polat investigates the loss of protection, structure, and stability on physical, social, legal, and existential levels. The fragility of freedom, the cracking of foundations, inequality, democracy, and the search for new footing amid crisis form the core themes of the exhibition.
Since the 1990s, Polat has played an active role in collectives such as STT (The Art Definition Group), In Between (Arada), and Hafriyat. In Groundless, she once again draws from the idea of collective action. The exhibition title refers not only to “being without ground” but also to “the loss of common ground.” Working together, sharing responsibility, and searching for new forms of solidarity are central elements in the artist’s practice.
The exhibition walls are painted concrete gray, creating an atmosphere that brings the outside into the gallery. A balcony installed on one wall functions as a threshold wavering between inside and outside, between intimacy and the public sphere. The rose-patterned tulle fabric hanging from the railing takes on new meaning: a material traditionally used to obscure sight becomes, here, a tool that renders the interior visible. Painted in shades of black and gray, these fabrics transform a romantic motif into images of loss, violence, and memory. In works such as Rose and Kaybolan (The Missing), roses emerge as signs of mourning and resistance, dedicated to women who have been killed.
Neşet Ertaş’s folk song Gönül Dağı
The phrase “yas gizli gizli” (“grief in secret”), which Polat adds to the lines from Neşet Ertaş’s folk song Gönül Dağı — “sel gizli gizli, yol gizli gizli, dil gizli gizli” (“the flood in secret, the path in secret, the tongue in secret”) — reinforces the recurring motif of the “hidden” that appears throughout the exhibition. Without uncovering what is concealed, but merely making it visible, the artist evokes echoes of pain, memory, and compassion.
Loss, Threshold, and the Trace of Touch
In the photograph Kayıp (The Lost), a red child’s jacket hanging from a branch extending beyond a wall evokes both a sense of protection and closeness, as well as the thresholds that cannot be crossed. Through painting, darkening, and stitching on everyday fabrics, textiles from local markets, and mass-produced materials, Polat reveals traces of personal experience.
In works such as Kırık (Broken), Döşemelik (Upholstery), and A Fall of the Net Bag, drought, cracks, deprivation, fires, and tremors become visual counterparts to ecological and economic crises.
The Body of Death, the Voice of the Earth
In On the Road, Polat embodies the figure of Death with her own body, set within a nearly mythical landscape of Western Anatolia. This distant walking figure, surrounded by the piercing hum of cicadas, transforms into an image that points to the ancient relationships between justice, return, and memory.
Neriman Polat’s practice is built upon questions of social power dynamics, gender roles, conditions of visibility, and how fragility can transform into resistance. As the artist brings to light the invisible marks accumulated on domestic surfaces and everyday materials, she simultaneously upholds a call for collective responsibility.
Opening on 29 November 2025, Groundless will be on view at Zilberman | Berlin until 7 February 2026.
