Could you talk a bit about your education and your beginnings as a painter?

I studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Hacettepe University in Ankara, where I also completed my master's degree. I started painting at an early age and, over the years, I have worked with many materials, but I found my chemistry to be in harmony with oil pastels. For many years now, I have been working exclusively with oil pastels. 

In 2022, during ParisInternationale, you exhibited La part des lèvres, which refers to a Turkish expression that alludes to the safe distance between the lips and a hot beverage. How does your work relate to the idea of distance? 

The title of the exhibition, Dudak Payı (Lip Room), refers to a Turkish expression used to describe the “safe” gap left between our lips and cups filled with mouth-burning hot beverages. The exhibition serves as a reminder that familiar, warm, inviting sounds can be deafening when we get too close. Words that I keep in the reservoir of my paintings might burn our tongues if we don't settle for their distant echoes. Distance creates a gap that is capable of both pushing and pulling. 

Objects play a central role in your painting, often repeating themselves or appearing almost frightening. Could you elaborate on this aspect of your work? 

I try to create a draft line that connects objects with one another in the gaps between them. I attempt to backstab the viewer by reintroducing them to everyday objects and ordinary gaps. I want to enter their most private room when they least expect it. I could say that if my working process is interesting, it is because in order to do this, or at least to try, you first have to go down into your own private caves. I call this whole process as drilling experiments. 

Most of your paintings make use of a main color that shapes the whole composition. How do you work with colors? 

I choose colors based on intuition rather than reason. I try to work not just with my mind, but with the sensations coming from various organs like the stomach, the intestines, and the nose. I focus on maintaining the color harmony needed for the emotion of the scene I’m creating, often concluding a monochromatic piece with just a few additional colors. 

Could you tell us about Des profondeurs de la représentation, the project that you submitted for the residency programme Institut français x Cité internationale des arts? 

In my work, I work with minerals or certain underwater remains. The mind is typically thought of as a dry landscape, whereas for me, thoughts are little empires filled with liquid and electricity. This is where I explore minerals and reefs to try to access the emotions hidden within the mind. Musée de Mineralogie, in Paris, which I often visit, is for me a Musée de la vie Privée (Museum of private life). 

How do you envision your stay at the Cité internationale des arts? What is your relationship with Paris, France, and the French art scene? 

Everything is going well at the Cité internationale des arts and I can work in my own routine. The particular atmosphere of Paris is ever-changing and these changes also affect my paintings. I try to enjoy it, I have the opportunity to see countless exhibitions here and I am always curious to see what contemporary artists are doing. 

What will be next for you after the residency? Do you have any upcoming exhibitions? 

There is an “open studio” event at Cité internationale des Arts in September. In November, Galeri Nev's fortieth anniversary exhibition “Beginnig of Memory” is opening and I will be taking part in the Art Basel Paris Fair the same month. Then, in January, my solo exhibition will be held at the Kaufmann Repetto Gallery in Milan.