KØS appoints Fulya Erdemci curator
Museum of Art in Public Spaces (KØS)
Photo: Elif Kahveci. Courtesy of Unlimited Publications
The internationally renowned curator Fulya Erdemci was on September 15 appointed the new curator at KØS Museum of Art in Public Spaces in Denmark.
Fulya Erdemci has been dedicated to art in the public domain throughout her career as a curator and writer. For more than 15 years she has curated international art exhibitions and programmes, such as the 13th Istanbul Biennial, Mom, am I barbarian? in 2013, whose main question was how multiple publics can come together, co-exist and act collectively.
From 2008 to 2012 Erdemci was the director of SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Domain in Amsterdam and since 2015 she has been the curator of the Cappadox Festival’s Contemporary Art Programme where she has curated the four site-specific and context responsive exhibitions: Cappadocia Struck, Let us cultivate our garden, Ways Out From The World and the Silence.
Previously, Erdemci was among the first directors of the Istanbul Biennial, curated the Pavilion of Turkey at the 54th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, and initiated the Istanbul Pedestrian Exhibitions in 2002, the first urban public space exhibition in Turkey.
Erdemci has curated art projects in the most challenging surroundings, from the city streets, to the wild nature and often with a backdrop of political turmoil, while always maintaining a strong and critical yet sensitive and poetic sense.
Beside her extensive curatorial experience, Erdemci has also served as an adviser for a number of international art institutions such as Urbane Künste Ruhr, MAXXI – the National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, and been on the selection committee for Berlin Biennalen, the Sonsbeek International, and "The International Award for Excellence in Public Art among others. She has taught at Bilkent University, Ankara, Istanbul Bilgi University and Kadir Has University in Istanbul and did her MA degree at Columbia University in New York and BA degree Bogazici University in Istanbul.
"The public domain is for me where the event happens: society meets, diverse thoughts are juxtaposed and dialogue begins. I am very excited to stimulate and moderate public forums together with the artists and the team at KØS. Today we experience 'a new normal,' which presents new challenges for the art world. We must expand ordinary exhibition formats and our idea of social life and interaction. And I am so happy to take on this quest as the curator of KØS and help develop the many new future projects," says Fulya Erdemci.
“Fulya Erdemci’s unique expertise and dedication to art in the public domain makes her a dream curator for KØS at this exact moment. It is our goal to take art in the public domain in Denmark a big step forward with our new upcoming projects dedicated specifically to creating new public art in Denmark and with a strengthening KØS’s engagement as an international knowledge institution within our unique, exciting and dynamic field of art. Fulya Erdemci has previously shown that she is more than capable of achieving those goals with vision and precision,” says Ulrikke Neergaard, director at KØS. She continues: “It is with great pleasure and pride that we welcome Fulya Erdemci to KØS and to Denmark.”
