Zeynep Yılmaz’s gaze focuses on the potential of everyday things to take on leading roles. As a writer, they relate to writing together with the auditory, contextual, and semantic uses of language. In approaching text as act - a tool to process that which already exists, they present it with possible interventions that come through the action. Action therefore foregrounds the imagery that emerges along the path traversed in motion. They attempt capturing a feeling that have occurred at a given time and space by means of creating the appropriate conditions for the feeling to reoccur and be re-presented. Exploring dismantling and reconstructing hierarchies within comparative thought structures built across different contexts, their work is concerned with thinning the boundaries between the performative and the ordinary. Hovering at the intersections of autobiographical narrative, irony, and unguarded realism, Zeynep Yılmaz transforms their process into texts, performances, publications, installations, sound and video works. They have ongoing curiosities towards sculptural translations based on material’s capacity for movement and repetition as a fertile concept for meaning-making. Zeynep Yılmaz lives and work in İstanbul.


Zeynep Yılmaz’ın bakışı, gündelik şeylerin başrol üstlenme potansiyeline odaklanır. Bir yazar olarak yazıyla dilin işitsel, bağlamsal ve anlamsal kullanımlarıyla birlikte ilişkilenir. Metne bir eylem - hâlihazırda var olanı işlemek için bir araç - olarak yaklaşırken, eylemle gelen olası müdahalelerle beraber metni sunar. Böylece eylem, hareket hâlinde kat edilen yol boyunca ortaya çıkan imgeleri de kapsar ve görünür kılar. Belirli bir zaman ve mekânda ortaya çıkmış bir duyguyu yakalamaya, o duygunun yeniden ortaya çıkmasını mümkün kılacak uygun koşulları yaratarak çalışır. Farklı bağlamlar arasında kurulan karşılaştırmalı düşünce yapılarında hiyerarşilerin sökülüp yeniden kurulmasını araştıran üretimleri, performatif olan ile sıradan olan arasındaki sınırları inceltmekle ilgilenir. Otobiyografik anlatı, ironi ve korunmasız gerçekçiliğin kesişimlerinde dolaşan Zeynep Yılmaz, sürecini metinlere, performanslara, yayınlara, yerleştirmelere, ses ve video işlerine dönüştürür. Malzemenin hareket etme kapasitesi üzerinden heykel çevirilerine ve tekrarın anlam üretimindeki verimliliğine yönelik süregelen bir merakı vardır. Zeynep Yılmaz İstanbul’da yaşıyor ve çalışıyor.


zeeynepyilmazz@gmail.com
@zeeynepyilmaz
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2024 8th term resident, SAHA Studio, İstanbul, TR

2019-2021 BA Leiden University Arts, Media and Society
& Minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies


solo

2024 COPYWRITER, 5533, İstanbul, TR
2024 durun anlatayım, 400x118, İstanbul, TR
2022 Decent writers don’t feed the narrative, Snacks Amsterdam, NL
2022 Devir-Teslim, De Perzen carpet store, The Hague, NL


group shows & performance programs

2025 Periodical Observations, SAHA x Artworks Greece, İMÇ, İstanbul, TR
2025 Listening Biennial, AVTO, İstanbul, TR
2025 Mountain as a Living Archive, PAKT Foundation, Amsterdam, NL
2025 Family Reimagined (Rotterdam x İstanbul: reimagining family year through art),
Saye Kolektif, İstanbul, TR
2025 Portiko Okumaları ve Performansları, Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat, İstanbul, TR
2025 Network Nihilism: Soft Infrastructures, Pasaj @ Barın Han, İstanbul, TR
2025 The Echo Chamber, Deptford Town Hall, London, UK
2024 Urban Acoustic Speculations, arthereistanbul & Aberdeen University, İstanbul, TR
2023 Chills & Quills, Büyük Valide Han, İstanbul, TR
2023 inanınca göreceğim, Büyükada, İstanbul, TR
2023 aspace isa space is a space, Lab23 The Hague, NL
2023 Tip of The Tongue, Garage Gallery Prague, CZ
2022 Flipchart at Instrument Inventors, iii, The Hague, NL
2022 Filling the Void with The Spectrum Space, The Grey Space in the Middle, NL


publications & featured writings

2025 virgül / comma, Periodical Observations, curated by Nikolaos Akriditis, edited by Mina Gürsel Tabanlıoğlu, designed by Benjamin Rouzaud, printed with the support of SAHA Association and Artworks Greece, presented in İMÇ, İstanbul, TR
2025 veya tutkal, full-lenght poetry book, 1000 copies, designed and printed independently in collaboration with zaten stüdyo, İstanbul, TR 
2024 bir olay-oluşum için metin / text for a happening, self-published, 50 editions, with the support of and presented during SAHA Studio, İstanbul, TR
2024 Havuz problemi ve gramer hatası / A pool problem and a grammatical error, 212 Magazine, edited by Merve Arkunlar, İstanbul, TR & London, UK
2024 which meant, mnemotope 004 by bog bodies press, NL
2024 COPYWRITER, Gaipten Sesler hosted by Merve Ünsal, Apaçık Radyo, TR
2022 Digestion Fundraiser, Mushroom Radio, KABK, The Hague, NL
2022 Politiks Kills Poetry, in collaboration with Babi Badalov, commissioned by Les Conseils Superflus, 100 editions, designed and printed in Amsterdam, presented in Billytown, NL
2022 decent writers don’t feed the narrative, self-published, 15 editions, presented in Snacks Amsterdam, NL
2022 3 poems feature at Sunday Mornings at the River Summer Anthology, NL
2021 by now I know, longlisted and published in LS Poetry Contest Anthology, Leiden, NL


exhibition texts for

2023 bir an için gerisin geri / for a moment, re-turning back (Gülnihal Yıldız), Kairos Gallery, İstanbul, TR
2023 As long as I remember, as fast as I remember, as strong as I remember, (Ferdinand Waas), West Den Haag, NL / Art Weekend Zurich, CH
2023 Plug’n Play (Onur Tayranoğlu), MUU Contemporary Art Center, Helsinki, FL
2022 Metallic Taste of Patience (Ester Gasparova), Royal Academy of Art The Hague, NL
2021 UA006050455LV_ (Ferdinand Waas & Tim Rosenbaum), KHiO White Box Gallery, Oslo, NO


press

unlimitedrag.com
artfulliving.com
ofluxo.net
saliva.live
artdogistanbul.com
plumemag.comsanatokur.com
parool.nl
parsomenfanzin.com