Zeynep Yılmaz is a writer and an artist that works through writing. Their gaze focuses on the potential of everyday and personal things to take on leading roles in larger and interconnected narratives. They relate to writing together with the auditory and timely layers 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 act. Exploring to dismantle hierarchies and regroup thoughts across different contexts, their work is concerned with an attempt to deal with both the fascination and the weight of growing, becoming, and their inevitable movement. The intersections of auto fiction, irony, and unguarded realism feels like a good temperature so they try to roam around the fields of thinning the boundaries between the performative and the ordinary. They currently live and work in İstanbul.

Zeynep Yılmaz bir yazar ve yazıyla beraber çalışan bir sanatçıdır. Bakışı, gündelik ve kişisel olanın daha geniş anlatılar içinde başrol olma potansiyeline odaklanır. Yazıyla dilin işitsel ve zamansal katmanlarıyla birlikte ilişki kurar. Bu bağlamda hisler ve deneyimlerin ölçeğiyle ilgilenir. Metne ve şiire bir eylem — hâlihazırda var olanı işlemek için bir araç — olarak yaklaşırken, eylem aracılığıyla ortaya çıkan olası müdahalelerle birlikte metni ve şiiri sunar. Hiyerarşileri söküp kurarak ve düşünceleri farklı bağlamlar arasında yeniden bir araya getirerek, çalışmaları büyüme, oluş hali ve beraberinde getirdikleri hareketliliğin hem büyüleyiciliği hem de ağırlığı etrafında şekillenir. Otokurgu, ironi ve savunmasız bir gerçekçiliğin kesişimi doğru bir yer gibi hissettirdiğinden, performatif olan ile sıradan olan arasındaki sınırları incelten alanlarda dolaşmayı dener. İstanbul’da yaşıyor ve çalışıyor.




zeeynepyilmazz@gmail.com
@zeeynepyilmaz
soundcloud
Vimeo
Substack




education
2021 BA Leiden University Arts, Media and Society
& Minor degree in Gender and Sexuality Studies

residencies
2026 Garp Sessions, “that which passes between us” hosted by Anı Ekin Özdemir and Dimitris Chimonas, Babakale, TR
2026 “Languages, Please” hosted by Francisca Benítez, curated by Nina Fiocco and Gaia Martino, UNIDEE Citadellarte, Fondazione Pistoletto, IT
2024 SAHA Studio, İstanbul, TR
2024 SOU.L / map the city, arthere İstanbul, TR
2023 (self-conducted), Garage Gallery Prague, CZ

solo showings
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
2026 şimdi bunu düşünüyorum / now I’m thinking of this, artist publication of 50 edition, printed by Hür Adalar Press, presented at İmalat-Hane, İstanbul TR
2026 ölçek meselesi, “Sahanlık Gazete”, edited by SAHA Studio 11th term artits, İstanbul, TR
2026 5 Saat, 55 Dakikalar, Tekrarlar, part of “Katlanan Mesafe” translation residency hosted by Nihan Somay and Özgür Atlagan, presented in İmalat-Hane, İstanbul, TR
2025 virgül / comma, Periodical Observations, curated by Nikolaos Akriditis, 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
2026 Monoton Otonom (Elif Yalım), Benta, 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 (Onu 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

workshops and lectures
2025 “Sanat Tarihinden Manifestolarla: Kendi Manifestonu Yaz”, Atelier Zeramos, İstanbul, TR
2026 “Varmış Gibi: Çağrışımsal Yazı Atölyesi”, Arter Öğrenme Programı, İstanbul, TR
2026 “Güncel Sanatta Metin Kullanımı ve Yazarlık”, guest lecturer for Contemporary Art, İstanbul Techincal University, TR 

press & features
unlimitedrag.com
artfulliving.com
ofluxo.net
saliva.live
artdogistanbul.com
plumemag.comsanatokur.com parool.nl
parsomenfanzin.com
ofluxo.net
manifold.press