Elif_Suesler_Portfolio

PORTFOLIO
SELECTED ARTWORKS
elif süsler
// www.elifsusler.com
// elifsusler@gmail.com

EDUCATION
March 2018-... M.A., textil.kunst.design, Kunstuniversität Linz, Linz, Austria.
2008-2009 M.A. (Erasmus exchange student), L’Ecole Supérieure D’Art de
Grenoble (ESAG), Grenoble, France.
2016 Three Legged Table, in collaboration with Şafak Çatalbaş & Didem Erk
Gallery REM, Istanbul.
2013 No Man’s Table – in collaboration with Can Kazaz
live one night interactive performance with the audience
Organized by The Saints of the New Age, Kargart, Istanbul.
2010 Les 4 Eléments
16ème Biennale International de l’Image, Nancy, France.
2009 Decorator
ESAG Exhibition Hall, Grenoble, France.
ABOUT ME
2007-2009 M.A.with thesis, Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design
(VACD), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), Sabancı University (SU),
Istanbul, Turkey.
2001-2006 BA, VACD, FASS, SU, Istanbul, Turkey
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 Club Butterfly, Gallery Apel, Istanbul.
TWO ARTISTS-EXHIBITIONS
2013 Balat 2020
curated by Marcus Graf
Plato Sanat Residency Program exhibition, Plato Sanat, Istanbul.
2010 Light Courses
curated by Elena Forin, Proje 4L / Elgiz Museum, Istanbul.
COLLABORATIONS
member of collective ‘Çokayaklılar’ with Aslı Narin and Şafak Çatalbaş.
member of BAU the space, Vienna.
2019 Zusammen, collaborative project with Merve Akyel on Otto Neurath and
living together.
BAU the space. Making Truth, Vienna Art Week, Vienna.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 min. 12 g/qm, artspace on display, Linz.
a room stuffed with stuff, Galerie WHA, Linz.
2018 Beyond Discomfort: Of Working on the Community
SOHO in Ottakring, Elektropathologisches Museum, Vienna.
The Sketch Version, Galeri 5, Istanbul.
2016 A Sharp Cliff After A Soft Landing
curated by Mehmet Kahraman, Gaia Gallery, Istanbul.
2015 Work presentation of Artists in Residence 02/2015 of KulturKontakt Austria
Ausstellungsraum des Bundeskanzleramtes, Vienna.
Connective Corridor
curated by Ursula Maria Probst, fluc, Vienna.
Reunion, Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM), Istanbul.
2012 Trace Back
National Museum of Contemporary Art Chang-dong Studio, Seoul, Korea.
Distance and Touch, Baksı Museum, Bayburt, Turkey.
2008 Chairos, 13th Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and Mediterranean
Fiera del Levante, Bari, Italy.
RESIDENCIES
2015 - Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, the Arts and Culture in cooperation
with Kultur Kontakt Austria , Vienna.
2013 - Balat? Plato Sanat Artist-in-Residency Programme, Istanbul.
2012 - National Museum of Contemporary Art, Chang-dong Art Studio, Seoul,
South Korea.
2010 & 2011 - Art-Homes, An intercity artist exchange project between Istanbul
(2010) and Munich (2011).
GRANTS
Artist-in-residency, Austrian Federal Ministry of Education,the Arts and Culture in
cooperation with Kultur Kontakt Austria, Vienna, 2015
UNESCO Aschberg Bursaries for Artists, 2012
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Chang-dong Art Studio, Seoul, 2012
Erasmus Grant, 2008-2009
Stars Wandering Below, performance with ‘Çokayaklılar’
Digestion: Public Programme curated by birbuçuk (Ecology and Art Collective)
in Seventh Continent, 16th Istanbul Biennial, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud.
2017 Blow-up: Kavunu gördüm, performative exhibition with ‘Çokayaklılar’
performed and exhibited at SALT Galata, Istanbul.
2011 Art-Homes. An intercity artist exchange project between Istanbul (2010) and
Munich (2011)
A residential apartment in Munich, Germany.
Art-homes
Berufsverband Bildender Künstler München (BBK), Munich, Germany.
Sabanci University Full Scholarship for MA, 2007-2009
Sabanci University Full Scholarship for Undergraduate Studies, 2001-2006

2019
The void is where the
home is, and it is red,
black and yellow
Installation, Carton, cut-out
advertisement catalogues
This geometrical ensemble is taking inspiration from the visual
elements Otto Neurath had used in a series as background
to explain and highlight the number of human figures living
in a household. He created simplified versions of visual
representations of things, in order to make quantitative
information understandable and reachable for the people who
sees this information on paper. The colors used on the other
hand come from the backgrounds of the advertisement booklets,
which are left in my mailbox every day and are free from any
visual and textual information, which promote consumerism, but
contains only the color itself. The work brings together Neurath’s
series and everyday life paper chaos by simplifying them into a
basic form and color into an aesthetic and stylized composition.

2019
SALE
silkscreen on silk and cotton,
90 x 90 cm.
This scarf design is inspired by Hermes’ classic 90 x 90 cm scarf
format.
Consumption of space by people or by nature or by time.
A shopping mall from Bangkok is selling scarves to celebrate this
glorious moment of being unique.
An ephemeral moment and then it doesn’t exist anymore.

2019
Landscape of Remains
Pattern collection in a collage with
drawings (ink and watercolor on
paper & digital), transfer print on
fabric.
working with my personal archive of drawings, which I copied
from encyclopedias,
collecting records of everyday life:
coffee stains
faint visual remains of information
and a sketch of an unrealized project
a map, a riddle,
a landscape of remains

night
to day
complexity
to simplicity
stars
to stars
loops
to obstacles
universe
to the earth
neighbours
to neighbours

order
to border
sun
to material
boredom
to a kingdom
moon
to the sound
edges
to the center
somewhere
to anywhere

2019
O, 0, C
Installation, watercolor and drawing
on paper, each paper: 50x70 cm.
A pattern design changing in space, as people change their
perspective. The hazardousness of the watercolor contradicts
with the precision of the line, which completes a quarter of the
circle. They all exist by themselves as coffee, tea or wine stains,
hence they highlight the absence.

2019
Imitation
Photography series
dimensions variable.

2018
A Curtain for One
Person
Installation, silk-screen print (overall
pattern print) on fabric with fringes.
300 (height) x 80 (diameter) cm.
Curtain functions as a border between the inside and the
outside. In a metaphorical sense, a curtain can also symbolize
the line between the inner self and the outside. With this project,
I created a room, small enough for just a single person to fit,
which is at the same time reminiscent of a changing cabin.
As the person enters inside, he/she becomes surrendered by
anonymous faces. The work hopes to evoke some possible
questions: How does an individual experience loneliness and
void? Is it even possible to find a room for that? Have we ever
been individuals, are we really different from the others, which
we call ‘other’?

2018
Work in progress...
Installation with digital-transferprint
on fabric & print on paper.
patterns: 30x50 cm / small photos
(with frames): 30 x 30 cm / big
photos: 30cm x 40cm
I’ve been enlarging touristic photographs I took and cropping
the people out from the backgrounds. It aims to bring forward
the unseen subjects during the act of recording what is
considered as important. In other words, the extras of the
photographs are becoming the main actors of the scene,
although they remain still anonymous because of the pixelation
due to extensive enlargement of the photographs. Everyday
can also be a source of inspiration. Patterns and ornaments
can also be read and are as important as the ‘main motif’,
and patterns on textile suggest a new performativity with
wearability.

2018
Concrete Connection
(Sandleiten)
wall installation with electric cables
exhibited in Beyond Discomfort: Of
Working on the Community, SOHO
in Ottakring, Elektropathologisches
Museum, Vienna
‘Concrete Connection’ focuses on the capacity and power of
electricity and human interaction. This installation was shown
in Elektropathologisches Museum in Sandleiten, Vienna.
This building was completely abandoned and the walls were
demolished. I wanted to repair it with the cables, who act
like hand stitches. It was also an attempt to point out how the
neighborhood in Sandleiten is connected. The capacity of
connection is at the same time concrete and abstract: more
concrete, because the electricity passes through the bell switch
and the cable is spatially fixed, abstract, because the places,
which connect and separate, no longer have to border each
other.

2019
Concrete Connection
(Kunstuniversität Linz)
wall installation with electric cables
shown in Rundgang, Linz.

Title of the book: Circassian Tales
2016
It was an ordinary day
or the end of a couple
of centuries.
wall installation with 127
photographs of history book covers,
420 x 130 cm.
exhibited at Gaia Gallery, Istanbul.
In this work, I am deconstructing and reinterpreting the linearity
of time by organizing the photographs of history book covers
through another fiction I created by using the records of an
ordinary day that belongs just to myself. I wrote a story which is
reminiscent of science-fiction and crime genres by looking at the
touristic photographs I took while visiting Berlin. Later, I created a
visual archive by photographing the cover pages of history books
from bookstores and libraries. I intentionally chose the covers
which reflect the story emotionally and visually, and then I paired
the sentences with those images. The viewer is invited to follow
the story as the snake shaped shelf structure leads them into a
certain direction from left to right, right to left, and so on.

Title of the book: How is the History Written?
he turned towards me and smiled
very big for the first time.
the sky has opened, became all blue.
one person came out from one door.
they became three four,
have they lost something?
I, as well, joined into their game
I put my sunglasses on and
found my own way

2019
COLLABORATIONS
Stars Wandering Below
performance and video collage
with ‘Çokayaklılar’, duration: 30
minutes.
performed in “Digestion: Potato”
Public Programme curated
by birbuçuk (Ecology and Art
Collective) in Seventh Continent,
16th Istanbul Biennial.
url of the documentation: https://youtu.be/_
lNqv9EzmWk?t=7045
The public event POTATO forms around issues of agriculture,
stock farming, food, soil and seed policies. We trace the
correlations between industrial agriculture, corporate seeds
and disease, discuss the burden that industrialisation and
specialisation lays upon life and the planet, and discuss topics
including the commodification of food, the perception of
wilderness, estranged labour, financial difficulties and migration.
Brought forth are holistic views, traditional agriculture, local
seeds, adaptation, gene pools along with the importance of
farmers, local wisdom, generations living together, food politics
and the social movements emerging from these politics. In the
expression of POTATO, we try to explore materiality, the urge to
control time, flow, mythology, street whispers, memory, repetition
and expression, collective consciousness, and the current
moment. (from the biennial catalogue)
Çokayaklılar was living in three different countries this year. They
used the stars above and below to communicate on the surface.
They wrote about their experience, recorded their search, and
the story came together as they read and shared.
Artworks at the background by Güneş Terkol & Güçlü Öztekin: For the biennial they built a space that is a meeting
point for visitors and artists in the show. The space contains paintings, tulles, curtains, sculptures, masks and costumes.

2017
COLLABORATIONS
Blow-up: Kavunu
Gördüm (I saw the melon)
performative group exhibition
performed and exhibited at SALT
Galata, Istanbul for 4 days from 12
pm to 6 pm.
Blow-up: Kavunu Gördüm is a process based collaborative
performative exhibition, realized with the collective Çokayaklılar
(Şafak Çatalbaş, Didem Erk, Aslı Narin, Elif Süsler).
url of the documentation: https://vimeo.com/216309119
https://vimeo.com/217489366
The melon is one of the most ancient fruits of which the seeds
are domesticated and it has been witnessing our collective and
private actions. Melon testifies to all times. It widens the present
time of everyday life. He dreams that all times exist at the same
time. Its story is a utopian and dystopian present. It spreads
hundreds of its seeds into space, and four artists fall into the
same room.
exhibition poster made by Elif.
photograph is from Şafak’s performance recorded by Elif.

During the preparation phase, Şafak Çatalbaş made a performance where
she left a melon at different places in the city and ran away. She also
collected ‘‘whispers’’ from everyday life conversations, which she had
listened to secretly.
During this process, I recorded her performance through photography
and video. Then, on computer, I enlarged them and extracted details from
the background of the main event, so I singled out the mundane which is
happening outside of the absurd intervention of the artist.
Şafak brings the dialogs, voices and whispers from the street to the
exhibition space and keeps typing them on a typewriter. Sitting and
meditating in the middle of a melon circle during her sessions throughout
the day, she re-performs these “quotations from street” as an improvised
monolog for the duration of the whole exhibition, i.e. for four days.
During the exhibition, I am trying to come up with a fiction/story which
has a partial continuity with the cords growing everyday, as I reorganize
extracted and enlarged details from Şafak’s performances in the streets.
When Şafak is performing a meditative séance in the melon circle, she is
trying to remember the whispers she collected and speaks them out loud,
with mistakes and different combinations. I am taking notes of them and
create new quotes to add underneath the images alongside the quotes
in my collection from dystopian and surrealist novels. The text becomes
a mix of everyday life sentences from private conversations and quotes
from books.
I am creating a fictitious story by attaching different characters in the
images from real-life, with a text, intending to create a natural flow
growing over time, also with an evolving relation between my artist
friends at the project space.
Aslı is unifying the circle between the performance in the project space
and the act recording, as she records our actions with photography and
sound. Then, she creates another fiction in a foldable book and sound
collage format.

He/She thinks digging
graves is a serious business.
Every pause is a step backward, a step
back to mud.
The most frightening aspect of hatred
was that although there was no
obligation to participate,
it was not in the human’s hands to do
otherwise.
Filling the lungs with air when
surfacing water is not cowardly.
This language is suitable to fully express rich,
harmonious and little thoughts.
Poverty is not more surreal than wealth.
The woman was clapping and
clattering.
He had breakfast, kissed his child and wife,
closed the door.

Dreams Prefer Shortcuts
Non-heroes don’t need changing cabins
video collage with public images from Google Map and texts taken from
dystopian and absurd novels, duration: 7 min. 20 sec.
url: https://vimeo.com/227085640
Parallel to my approach with the installation, I am creating
another fiction with people, who had been captured in the
process of documenting the streets of Istanbul. I took a virtual
trip at the exact sights where we recorded performance videos
and photos by following streets in panoramic images put on
Google Map. I wasn’t first afterall, who recorded the city, and
the faces of the passer-by’s were already blurred to keep their
anonymity. I again looked for and enlarged these unseen actors
and searched for a poetic relationship with quoted texts.
url: https://vimeo.com/230444051
One of the videos is showing again the figures
and scenes happening at the background of the
performance videos. After the recordings, I again
tried to follow people, animals or the objects with
video editing programs, by enlarging and reframing
the compositions.
Dreams prefer shortcuts.
These two strands, I teared apart from my hair, will fall on
earth and free her from her load.
Sometimes you cannot understand this. ‘‘O brave new world!’’ It was a challenge, a command. His effort was ridiculous.