| Art Profile |
: |
Gülsen Bal, Assoc. Prof, Dr., is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University. She has an academic position as a lecturer in the Faculty of Arts at Arkin University of Creative Arts and Design in Cyprus. Bal was appointed as a Departmental Advisory Consultant at Istanbul Bilgi University, where she was a full-time lecturer and Head of Department, Course and Program Coordinator, NABA and Domus Academy liaison and Erasmus co-ordinator for the period of 2013-17. At the same time, she lectured as a Visiting Professor at Istanbul Yeditepe University for the MA degree program between 2013 and 2017. She taught at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) in the Department of Visual Culture from 2008 to 2013.
She completed her undergraduate degree in time-based media in London and her MA in Critical Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, where she also completed her doctorate. Her research has involved exploring the temporal and strategic conjunctions of differential structures, seeking to understand the implications and complexity of the “production of subject” formulated in multiple strategies within creative strand.
Bal is a curator and an art and visual culture theorist. In 2007 she initiated the non-profit Open Space – Zentrum für Kunstprojekte within its multi-layered constituents. The Open Space program aims to offer the most vital facilities for contemporary art in Vienna on the basis of an essential geopolitical standpoint in which an artistic agenda offers the potential for new interactions between creative and ‘not-yet-formalized’ practices in search for new outlines of contemporary arts. She has received several awards for the distinguished delivery of the programs in recognition of the best accomplishments of its activity and demonstrating considerable commitment to contemporary art.
Her recent curatorial practices include: “too much, too little” at Open Space (Vienna, 2018); “Lost in Europe: in the wake of Britain’s inner emigration” at Open Space (Vienna, 2018); “Demanding the Impossible at Unexpected Turns” at Open Space (Vienna, 2017); “What is Left?” at freiraum/ MuseumsQuartier Wien (Vienna, 2016); “To what end?” at Camera Austria (Graz, 2015); “Say what?” at Galeri Zilberman (Istanbul, 2015), “Places of Transition” at quartier21 INTERNATIONAL/ MuseumsQuartier Wien (Vienna, 2014); “BALKAN(S) NOW” – Status seminar and artistic survey” at Vienna Art Fair - ‘VIENNA Live’ (Vienna, 2013), Mestna galerija (Ljubljana, 2013) and Remont (Belgrade, 2013); “It’s in the ‘can’” at Open Systems (Vienna, 2012); the 12th edition of the renowned festival “PIXXELPOINT: Let’s Get Ready” at Metropolitana Gallery (Nova Gorica, 2011), Nova Gorica City Gallery (Nova Gorica, 2011), Tir Gallery (Gorizia, 2011) and the Mostovna Cultural Centre (Gorizia, 2011); “Ist dies alles?” at Open Space (Vienna, 2011); “No Ifs, No Buts” at DEPO (Istanbul, 2010) and she is also one of the co-curators of the 28th Biennial of Graphic Art: “The Matrix: An Unstable Reality” at Gallery Škuc (Ljubljana, 2009). Among others, she was selected by London’s Saatchi Gallery as one of a hundred curators from all over the world to participate in “100 CURATORS 100 DAYS” for the largest exhibit of its kind on a global platform in 2012.
She is the author of NEGATION OF COMPLICATED MIRRORS – An Examination of Differential Structures within the “Production of Subject” Realised through Creative Practice, Lambert Academic Publishing House (Saarbrücken, 2016). Apart from numerous essay publications, she has also edited The READER: Tomorrow is not Promised!, Lambert Academic Publishing (Saarbrücken, 2017); Past Futures Manifested, b-flex publishing (Istanbul, 2014); A special issue: Reader: BALKAN(S) NOW, Journal of Open Systems (Vienna, 2014); A special issue: Of Many Worlds!” / Aus vielen Welten!, Journal of Open Systems (Vienna, 2013); A special issue: Is this all there is?, Journal of Visual Art Practice, Intellect Publications in association with the National Association for Fine Art Education (London, 2012); Open Space –what is possible in the political potentiality... / Open Space – Mögliche Umrisse politischer Potenzialität..., Divus (Vienna, 2011); Open Space – what is possible in creative practice / Open Space – Mögliche Umrisse von Kunstpraxis, Divus (Vienna, 2010); Open Space – Mapping contemporary creative practice / Open Space – Schnittpunkte Aktueller Kunstpraxis, Divus (Vienna, 2009); A special issue on Turkey: The Space of Min(d)field, Third Text Magazine – Routledge (London, 2008); Türkiye’de Dün-Bugün Dönüs?ümleri, Taylor Francis Publications (Istanbul, 2008); Gone City: re-reading cultural turn in mobility, Bucher Verlag (Bregenz, 2008).
Bal sits on the Advisory Board of Third Text – Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture Magazine (Routledge, London) and the Cultural Critique Journal (The University of Minnesota Press), Minneapolis. She has been called upon as a juror on several boards.
She has curated and contributed to Art Fairs and Biennials and participated in talks in various places and venues internationally as well as in Turkey. She has published wide range of numerous articles in peer reviewed journals and magazines besides edited fifteen books. |
