about

Artist and filmmaker Pınar Öğrenci (1973, Van, Turkey) lives in Berlin. Displacement, migration, survival, and resistance are cornerstones of Pınar Öğrenci’s films and installations. Driving her works are difficult, everyday struggles: the stories she hears, observes, experiences, collects, and documents from different geographies. In earlier works, Öğrenci followed the rarely-spoken stories of migrating communities around the Mediterranean, the Aegean, and in Berlin. She has a background in architecture, which informs her poetic and experiential video-based work and installations that accumulate traces of ‘material culture’ related to forced displacement. Her works are decolonial and feminist readings from the intersections of social, political and anthropological research, everyday practices, and human stories that follow agents of forced migration.

Her works have been exhibited widely at museums, art institutions including documenta fifteen 2022 in Kassel, Berlinische Galerie (2023), 12th Gwangju Biennial (2018), 6th Athens Biennial (2018), Sharjah Biennial13 (2017), Survival Kit (2019), Tensta Konsthall Stockholm (2018), Württembergischer Kunstverein (WKV) Stuttgart (2017), MAXXI Museum, Rome ( 2016), SALT Galata, Istanbul (2015-6). Her first solo exhibition abroad was realized at Kunst Haus-Hundertwasser Museum in Vienna, A Gentle Breeze Passed Over Us” in 2017. 

Öğrenci used to work as guest lecturer at Master Studies of Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee Raum Strategies. She has been nominated for Böttcherstrasse Kunst Prize 2022 in Bremen and won Villa Romana Art Prize for 2023. Her films nominated for film competitions by many film festivals including Visions du Reel (2023) and İstanbul Film Festival (2022-3). Her first documentary film ‘Gurbet is a home now’ won Special Jury Prize of Documentarist Film Festival in 2021. She is the founder of MARSistanbul, an art initiative launched in 2010. Since the late 1990s, Öğrenci has extensively written on contemporary art and architecture in magazines, including Agos, Radikal, ArtUnlimited, m-est, SALT Online, Arkitera, Arredemento Mimarlık, İstanbul, dissident blog of Swedish PEN among others.

She has participated in residency programs in HIAP, Helsinki, Finland, 2017; Henie Onstad Kunstcenter, Oslo, Norway, 2016; R.A.T., Mexico City, 2015; Willa Waldberta, Munich, 2010, as well as in festival, workshop and research programs, such as ‘Contemporary Geographies, Summer School (Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Kuldiga, Latvia, 2018), Migration and Symbols, Lecture Series (Leuphana University, Luneburg, Germany, 2017), Public Calling Conference at National Theatre Oslo, 2016; Middle East Festival, Henie Onstad Kunstcenter, Oslo, 2016; “Plataforma Editable, Desplazamientos Curatoriales: Santiago, Valparaiso, Antofagasta, Tarabacain Chile, 2015; “Public Space and Museumsat the CIMAM conference in Rio de Janerio, 2013. 

solo shows 

2023 The Avalanche, Video Room, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin.

2018 Mawtini, Tensta Museum Project, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm.

2018 Un Peso, Bilsart, İstanbul.

2018 LED Light City Istanbul, Between You and Me Video Platform, Tilburg.

2017 A Gentle Breeze Passed Over Us, Kunst Haus Wien-Hundertwasser Museum, Vienna.

2017 Under the Red Sky, Depo Istanbul.

2015 Awaiting The Onset of The Sense of Life, MARSistanbul, Istanbul.

 

selected group shows

2023 Unfair Game, Exile Gallery, Curated by, Vienna, Austria.

2023 Moved or What my Bones Know, Galeri Nord Kunstverein Berlin, Germany.

2023 Vielheit [Multiplicity]: Stories from the postmigrant society, Kunst Meran, Italy.

2022 documenta fifteen, Kassel, Germany.

2021 Offener Prozess, Stadtmuseum, Jena, Germany.

2021 Angst Keine Angst, Fear No Fear, Times Art Center, Berlin.

2021 Get Real: Exhibition about the housing question and new forms, Luda Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.

2021 Die Balkone, Prenslauberg, Berlin, Germany.

2021 Aksayanlar, Galeri x-ist, Istanbul.

2020 Porous City, Kunstraum Bethanien Kreuzberg, Berlin.

2019 3rd Art Encounters Biennial, Timişoara, Romania.

2019 7th Sinop Biennial, Sinop, Turkey.

2019 Survival Kit, Latvian Contemporary Center for Art, Riga, Latvia.

2019 Say Shibboleth, Jewish Museum, Munich, Germany.

2019 Ce sont les îles qui se déplacent, Passerelle Contemporary Art Center, Brest, France.

2019 Revolt She Said, District Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

2019 Gitmek mi zor kalmak mı?, Agah Uğur Collection Exhibition, İstanbul, Turkey.

2019 Last Acquisitions, Agah Uğur Collection, CI, İstanbul, Turkey.

2018 12th Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju, South Korea.

2018 6th Athens Biennial, Athens, Greece.

2018 Exclusively Inclusive, Gerdarsfan Kópavogor Museum, Iceland.

2018 Konst och affarer, Tensta Konsthal, Tensta Centrum, Stockholm, Sweden.

2018 How the weather will be tomorrow?, Between Bridges, Berlin, Germany.

2018 Remote Memory, Abud Efendi Konağı, Istanbul, Turkey.

2018 Say Shibboleth, Jewish Museum of Hohenems, Hohenems, Austria.

2018 First Raunt, Selection from Banu-Hakan Carmikli Collection, Greek School, Istanbul, Turkey.

2018 A Future of Travel / The Journey of the Artwork’, NOKS Art Space, Istanbul, Turkey.

2017 Bahar, the Istanbul off-site project for Sharjah Biennial13, Istanbul, Turkey.

2017 Post Peace, Württembergischer Kunstverein (WKV), Stuttgart, Germany.
2017 Non Persons, Spaces, Situations, Bruthaus Galeri, Waregem, Belgium.
2017 Artist At Risk Pavillion, Athens, Greece.
2017 Camouflaged Pearls, Bruthaus Gallery, Waregem, Belgium.
2016 Luminous Perception, Galerie Michaela Stock, Vienna, Austria.
2016 Inverse Greyscale, Pasinger Fabrik, Munich, Germany.
2016  When Home Won’t Let You Stay, University of Applied Arts (Angawandte), Vienna, Austria.
2015-6 Apricots From Damascus, SALT Galata, Istanbul, Turkey.
2015 İstanbul: Passion, Joy, Fury MAXXI Museum, Rome, Italy.
2015 1th. Frontiers Bienal, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
2014 4 th. Çanakkale Biennial, Canakkale, Turkey.
2014 5 th. Sinop Biennial, Sinop, Turkey.
2014 Technical Ecstasy, KUAD Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey.
2014 Learned Helplessness, Bergsen&Bergsen Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey.
2014 Homo Homini Lupus, m1886, Ankara, Turkey.
Solo screenings, installation and presentations

 

2023 Inventory 2021, Neu National Galerie, Berlin.

2023 Aşît -The Avalanche, Double Future, Schirn, Frankfurt.

2023 Turkish Delight, Film Screening and Discussion with Anne Bitterwolf, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin.

2023 Aşit, Film Screening and Discussion, Art, Ancestors, Ghosts & The Death, Protocinema, New York.

2023 Gurbet is a home now, Film Screening and Discussion, Architecture Centre Museum Quarter, Vienna.

2023 Turkish Delight, Film Screening and Discussion, Syros Film Festival, Syros.

2023 Gurbet is a home now, Film Screening and Discussion with Jörn Schafaff, Kunst Meran, Meran.

2023 Aşit, Film Screening and Discussion, Muthesius Kunsthochshule Kiel.

2023 Gurbet is a home now, Film Screening and Panel Discussion, Celebrating New Wave, Freiburg.

2022 Aşit, Film Screening and Discussion, HFBK, Hamburg.

2022 Gurbet is a home now, Film Screening and Panel Discussion, Vienna Art Academy.

2021 Gurbet is a home now, Film Screening and Panel Discussion, Berlinische Galerie&ARCHplus, Berlin.

2021 Gurbet is a home now, Film Screening and Discussion, Brücke Museum, Berlin.

2021 Gurbet is a home now, Film Screening, İstanbul Modern, İstanbul.

2021 Inventory 2021, Film screening of ‘Inventory 2021’ and discussion with Zelimir Zilnik, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin.

2021 ‘Gurbet is a home now’, İstanbul Film Festival, Documentarist, Munich Doc Fest, Uçan Süpürge Film Fest.

2019 Resisting Forest, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Performative Reading.

2019 Purple Panic:43, District Berlin, Lecture Performance.

2019 Only Dead Fish Go With the Flow, Agah Ugur Collection, CI, Istanbul.

2019 A Gentle Breeze Passed Over Us, Jewish Museum Munich, Workshop.

2019 Whisky, Chocolate and Lipstick, Bellevue di Monaco, Munich, Reading.

2019 New Comers, Friedrichshain Kreuzberg Museum, Workshop.

 

Awards and Nominations

2023 Nominated for Visions du Reel, International Medium Lenght Film Competition with Aşit.

2023 Nominated for National Documentary Film Competition of Istanbul Film Festival and

selected for Syros International Film Festival with Turkish Delight.

2023 Villa Romana Prize, Florance, Italy.

2022 Nominated for Böttcher Strasse Kunst Prise 2022, Bremen, Germany.

2021 Nominated for İstanbul Film Festival, National Documentary Film Award Competition

with ‘Gurbet is a home now’.

2021 Documentarist Film Festival, Special Jury Award with ‘Gurbet is a home now’.

2016 Nominated for ‘Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics’ at the New School in New

York with ‘Im Walking for Peace’ Initiative.

 

Selected Film Festivals

2023 Visions du Reel, Medium length Film Competition with Aşît (The Avalanche, 2022)

2023 İstanbul Film Festival, National Documentary Film Competition with Turkish Delight (2022).

2023 Syros International Film Festival with Turkish Delight (2022).

2023 Ayvalık Film Festival with Turkish Delight (2022).