USA
SAHA is pleased to announce a new residency collaboration with Swiss Institute, offering a three-month program to an artist from Türkiye each year for expanding their network in New York while developing new works. ,Selected from among the nominations by a committee ,of curators ,as the inaugural resident of this collaboration, İz Öztat will spend April – June 2025 in New York City conducting research on “Es” – an ongoing project connected with their fellowship in the Berlin Artistic Research Programme.
In her collective and individual artistic practice spanning diverse media defined by her research, İz Öztat explores the persistence of violent histories through forms, materials, space and language. She responds to absences in official historiography through spectral, intergenerational and speculative fictions. Öztat fabricates the (auto)biography of Zişan (1894-1970), who appears to her as a historical figure, a ghost, and an alter ego. She takes on Zişan’s archives and interprets them through her practice to construct a complex temporality of action that enables the suppressed past to intervene in the increasingly authoritarian present
Öztat is a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Programme (2024-25). Her academic articles, essays and fictional texts have been published in various media. ,She has worked at the intersection of art and education in self-organized, institutional, and academic settings. ,Selected exhibitions include ,Self-determination: A Global Perspective, IMMA, Dublin (2023), ,The Colony, Schwules Museum, Berlin (2018), ,Tamawuj, Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017), ,Land without Land, Heidelberger Kunstverein, (2016), and ,Salt Water: A Theory on Thought Forms, 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015).
Nominators: Lara Fresko, Fatoş Üstek, Aslı Seven, Duygu Demir, Merve Elveren, Işın Önol, Zeynep Öz, Eda Berkmen, Övül Durmuşoğlu, Naz Cuguoğlu, Karoly Aliotti
About Swiss Institute
Swiss Institute (SI) is an independent non-profit contemporary art institution dedicated to promoting forward-thinking and experimental art making through innovative exhibitions, education, and programs. Committed to the highest standards of curatorial and educational excellence, SI serves as a platform for emerging artists, catalyzes new perspectives on celebrated work, and fosters appreciation for under-recognized positions. SI is committed to being an organization that is diverse, equitable, accessible, and environmentally conscious in its work, structure, and programming. Open to the public free-of-charge, Swiss Institute seeks to explore how a Swiss context can be the starting point for international conversations in the fields of visual and performing arts, design, and architecture.
