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Can Altay was born in Ankara in 1975. He graduated from the Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design in the Institute of Art and Design at Bilkent University in 1997. He completed his master’s degree at the same institution in 1999. He continued his doctoral degree in the Critical Studies Post-Graduate Program at the Malmo Art Academy, Lund University, Rooseum Centre for Contemporary Art in Sweden for a year, and achieved his Ph.D. from the Department of Environmental Design and Architecture at the Institute of Art, Design and Architecture at Bilkent University in 2004. Although Altay continues to teach and move in architectural circles, he is better known as an artist. His installations of videos, mappings, textbooks and photographs incorporate different forms of research on human interaction in urban environments. To create these dense works, Altay studies symptoms of ‘mis-use’, or improvised spatial architectures in the city, as well as hidden structures of support, unauthorized systems of organization and models of co-habitation.
As an architect, artist, designer, and scholar, Can Altay is interested in unorthodox appropriations of the built environment. Influenced by Georges Bataille′s ideas on transgression, Michel Foucault′s ideas on power and non-nor-mativity, and Henri Lefebvre′s conceptions of social space as well as by art history, Altay approaches his subject matter from a number of discursive directions. He describes his practice as, ‘established within the realms of architecture, art, design and theory. It deals with the spatial appropriations, social encounters and forms of human improvisation within urban structures.
His works have been included in exhibitions such as the Istanbul Biennial (2003), Havana Biennial (2003), and Busan Biennial (2006); and in museums and galleries such as the Walker Art Center (USA), VanAbbe Museum (Netherlands), ZKM (Germany), P.S.1 MoMA (USA), and Platform Garanti (Turkey). His works have been featured in periodicals such as Contemporary, Frieze, Spike and in many books including the [un]common place (ed. Pietromarchi). Besides his installation based work, Altay is currently working on his ongoing publication project “Ahali: a journal for setting a setting”, collecting texts from various authors as well as continuing to write on art, architecture and urbanity.
Solo Exhibitions:
2006, "Can Altay: No Bar, Just Bottles", The Abstract Cabinet at Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain. (curated by Leire Vergara)
2007, Spike Island, U.K.
2008, "Setting a Setting/Forecasting a Broken Past" - Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
2010, Iman Issa - Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2000, "Ankara´da Genc Sanat-3", Cankaya Centre for Contemporary Arts, Ankara, (curated by Vasif Kortun, organized by a+A (UNESCO AIAP))
2001, "Becoming a Place", Proje4L/Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art, Istanbul, (curated by Vasif Kortun)
2003, "4D: four dimensions, four decades", 8. Bienal de La Habana - La Bienal de La Habana, Havana (curated by RAIN)
2003, "Poetic Justice", 8th International Istanbul Biennial 2003 - International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul (curated by Dan Cameron)
2003, "Making Space", Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, (curated by November Paynter)
2003, "How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age", Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turino (curated by Philippe Vergne (on tour))
2003, "How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age", Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, (curated by Philippe Vergne)
2004, "Manyfacture", Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland
2004, "How Latitudes Become Forms", Arte en la era global - Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Internacional Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City (curated by Philippe Vergne (on tour))
2004, 6. Werkleitz Biennale - Common Property / Allgemeingut - Werkleitz Biennale, Halle (Saale)
2004, "Can Altay, Bauer and Krauss, New Beginnings", Signal, Malmö
2004, "How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age", Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX (curated by Philippe Vergne (on tour))
2004, "Call me ISTANBUL ist mein Name", ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe (curated by Peter Weibel, Roger Conover, Eda Cufer)
2004, "Common Property - Allgemeingut 6th Werkleitz Biennial", Halle
2004, "How Can You Resist? - L.A. Freewaves 9th Biennial Festival of Film, Video and New Media", Los Angeles
2004, "STARSHIP space debris", BÜRO DC, Köln
2005, "Day Labor", P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center-MoMA, New York City, NY (curated by Amy Smith-Stewart)
2005, "Eindhoven Istanbul", Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (Netherlands), (curated by Eva Meyer-Hermann and Charles Esche)
2005, Normalization - Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul
2005, "Karou Arima - How latitudes become forms - Arte en la era global", Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey MARCO, Monterrey, NL
2005, "...Art for 2", Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul
2005, "Cork Caucus", Cork, Ireland. (curated by Charles Esche and Annie Fletcher)
2005, "NowHere Europe", Polo Museale Veneziano Alla Misericordia, Venice, (curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi), Collateral event of the 51. Venice Biennial
2005, "Arbeitshaus: Einatmen, Ausatmen (House of Work: Inhale, Exhale)", KunstHaus Dresden (curated by Christiane Mennicke and Annette Weiser)
2006, "How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later ", CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA (curated by Will Bradley)
2006, "A Tale of Two Cities: Busan Biennale", Busan, South Korea, (directed by Manu Park)
2006, "NowHere Europe - Trans:it", Moving Culture Through Europe - National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest
2007, "Spike Island´s Autumn Exhibitions", Spike Island, Bristol
2007, "says the junk in the yard", Flowers Galleries - Kingsland Road
2008, "New Ends, Old Beginnings", Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2008, "New Ends, Old Beginnings", Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
2008, "Social Diagrams", Planning Reconsidered - Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Stuttgart
2008, "Representations of the artist as an intellectual", Kunstraum D21, Leipzig
2008, "Candid Stories", Insa Art Space, Seoul
2008, "Post-it City", Occasional Urbanities - CCCB - Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona
2009, "Pete and Repeat", Arcade Fine Arts, London (England)
2009, "The columns held us up", Artists Space, New York City, NY
2009, "There is no audience!", Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz
2009, "Fantasy for Allan Kaprow", Contemporary Image Collective - CIC, Cairo
2009, "Can Altay / Jeremiah Day", Arcade Fine Arts, London (England)
2010, "One Leading Away from Another", 303 Gallery, New York City, NY
2010, "As the land expands", Al Riwaq Art Space, Manama
Reference: culturebase.net, latitudes.walkerart.org, frieze.com, universes-in-universe.de, .initiativeandinstitution.net, artfacts.net, platformgarantilinks.blogspot.com
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