Selda Asal

Selda Asal was born in Izmir. She studied musicology and art. She then went to Austria and Italy and studied art at the workshops of G. Eisler, O. Obcrhuber, E. Vedova, R. Bunkin and K. Knippel. Asal is a new media artist whose work reflects her observations and participation of everyday life. She is a creator of communities that serve as a platform for expression, dialogue and interaction. Asal is the initiator of the Apartment Project, a gathering place for artists from all genres and walks of life, located in the area of Tünel in Istanbul. The project reaches out to the surrounding community and to all active in the cultural sphere. The apartment project has always run parallel with the artistry of Asal. She creates solo pieces, and works in collaborative large-scale projects. In 2004, Asal started a postcard project, an exhibition on the move together with Ceren Oykut with the intention of bridging lives between two countries. They invited artist Gül Kozacıoğlu to join them for the postcard project in Botkyrka, a multicultural suburb of Stockholm. Using the name 3 tip, "tip": the Turkish word for "types", three quite different and self-willed artists choose to work as a group Postcards from Stockholm Botkyrka took place in 2006, and consisted of a two week workshops and projections of postcards, each day adding visual material as they met with people, mostly youth living in the surrounding areas. The trio interacted with the place they were in, building a common space, a communal living room from collected things of everyday lives. Besides this project, Asal has had many solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Turkey and abroad. She currently continues her work in Istanbul.

Selected solo exhibitions:

1990, Palimpsests, BM Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul
1992, Palimpsests, Siyah Beyaz, Ankara BM Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul
1995, Achieve 901234 L Stettener Castle, Loerrach, Germany
1998, Sleep, installation art, BM Contemporary Art Center
2000, Aşk İksiri Dükkanı, Apartment project 02
2000, Paris Journal, French Cultural Center, Istanbul
2001, Endscene, Apartment Project 4, Istanbul 
2003, Home Sweet Home, Roxy, Istanbul
2003, Living Room, Ruh Halleri uzerine, Nev Gallery, Istanbul
2007, Hard to die, Arttransponder, Berlin
2008, Who was I, really? - Vem var jag, egentligen?  DSM, Diyarbakir
2008, Com’on, come here, I can not hear you! Collaboration with musician Serdar Ateser, Video Installations, Holstebro, Denmark, Public Spaces in Holstebro - performance and video installation 
2008, Hard to die, video installation, Nev Gallery, Istanbul
2008, Wofuer Kaempfen wir?,  Labour 6, Berlin
2008, Restore Hope: Love is Fake, I wouldn′t quit, if the world upside down, Hard to die, Vita kuben Umeå, Sweden-Solo
2008, See me / Se mig! Video Installation
2008, Who was I, really? - Vem var jag, egentligen? / Video installation in Vagoon -Project: Home not Home, Video Installation, Riksutstalingar / Travelling exhibition: Goteborg, Stockholm, Malmo, Umea, Skövde, Varberg, Lund, Kalix, Katrineholm, Linköping, Ludvika, Osby, Ostersund, Pitea
2008, See me / Se mig!
2008, See me, Who was I, really?, Hard to die, Gallery Alkatraz at Metelkova, Ljubliana, Slovenia
2008, Hey world hear my voice! Tütün Deposu, Istanbul
2009, See me / Se mig!   Video Installation
2009, Who was I, really? - Vem var jag, egentligen? Depo, Istanbul

Selected group exhibitions:

1991, Ani-Bellek, curator: Vasif  Kortun, Taksim Sanat Galerisi, Istanbul
1996, Tessera, curator: Ewald Statzny, Art in Nature, St.Veil / Vienna
1998, Kerteriz, curator: Beral Madra , Ataturk Cultural Center, Istanbul
1998, Export-Import, Volkskunde Museum, Vienna
1999, The Quilt, Ortung, curator: Gottfried Goiginger, Galerie 5020, Salzburg
2000, The notebook, Confidental, curator: Christian Hutzinger, Galerie Ilse Hutzinger,  Ebensee, Austria                                      
2000, 1999, Sleep, Passage de Bosphore, Musee de Picardie, curator: Sylvie Couderc, Musee de Picardie, Amiens, France
2001, House of glass, Bugunku Program, Gelecek Program, Yapi Kredi Cultural Art Gallery, Istanbul
2001, House of glass, From faraway so close, curator: Margrit Brehm, Baden-Baden Kunsthalle, Germany  
2002, me /my self  Cathy Brewster Gallery ,New Zealand
2002, The Trial , Personal Space-Public Space, 22. Nadezda Petrovic curator: Zoran Eric, Lyubisa Simovic 22.,Galery Nadezda Petrovic, Cacak, Yugoslavia
2002, House of glass ,Mirror of Balkans, curator: Lyubisa Simovic, Stevan Vukovic, National Museum and Ogledelo Visual Art Center, Kraljevo, Yugoslavia
2002, Palimpsests, Imagining the book ,curator: Mohammed Aboulnega, The Library of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
2002, Shoe Store, In Search of Balkan, Neue Galerie Graz Landesmuseum Joanneum, Austria, curator: Peter Weibel, Roger Conover, Eda Cufer
2002, The Dream Quilt, Between the waterfronts, curator: Ron Mandos, Fulya Erdemci, Dutch Art, Rotterdam, The Nederland
2002, Dream, Contemporary Art in Balkan Countries, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
2002, Living Room, Ecoart3 – RUSSE, curator: Ivan Ivanova, State Museum of Russe, Bulgaria Bulgaria
2002, The Trial, Transparency, Curator: Emil Mirazciev, Plovdiv Center of Contemporary Art, Bulgaria
2003, Palimpsests, the Third Triennial Vilnius, Lusitania, Frankfurt, Lille
2003, Home Sweet Home, Euro screen 21, PAN-Museum, Emmerich, Kunstpalast Dusseldorf, Germany, Transmediale Berlin, curator: Judith Nothnagel
2003, Home Sweet Home, Novi sad Digital Video Art Festival, Novi Sad, Serbia
2003, Living Room, Eco Art, Russe, Bulgaria
2003, Untitled, The making of Balkan Wars: The game Thessaloniki, Skopje, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Bucharest
2004, Turbulence, the First Balkan Biennial – Cosmopolis, Macedonia Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece, curator: Magda Carneci
2004, Palimpsests, Book Triennial, Lille, France
2004, Turbulence, The Ideal, Center for Contemporary Art, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, curator: Emil Mirazciev
2004, Home Sweet Home, Personal Cinema, Novi Sad, Serbia & Montenegro, curator: Ilias Marmaras
2004, Ctrl-alt-delete, Babylon, Istanbul, curator : Basak Senova, Eyal Danon
2005, Restore Hope, Loosing Control, curator: Galit Elat, Basak Senova, Eyal Danon, Transmediale, HDKW, Berlin,
2005, Egnasia, collaborated with STALKER -Iacopo Gallico, curator: Marina Fokidis Yeni Cami, Thessaloniki, Greece
2005, Vertigo Entrapped, Volume 2, video and photography selection curator: Basak Senova for Attitude video / short & experimental film / photography festival, curator: Biljana Petrovska Isijani, Magaza, Bitola
2005, 2 minute – Attitude, Bitola, Macedonia - Cultural Center "Magaza" (Institute and  Museum) Center for Contemporary Public Arts ELEMENTI + International Art Expo, Italy
2005, House of glass, (In-)Security, curator: Sabine Winkler, The Badische Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
2005, ′Home sweet home′, The Balkan Art, Triennial Exhibition of Contemporary Art, curator: Svetlana Mladenov, Sava Stepanov, The Golden Eye Centre for Visual Culture, Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro
2005, Waiting Room, Apartment Project, Istanbul
2005, Love is Fake, Kunst oder Konigin, curator: Danielle de Piciotto, Arena, Berlin
2005, Ocu, Neurotitan, Berlin
2005, Lost Postcard, Tele-city, Collaborated with Ceren Oykut, Siemens Art, Istanbul, curator: Marcus Graf, Basak Senova
2005, Lost Postcard, Point of View, curator: Judith Nothnagel Fournos, Center for the Art and New Technology, Athens; Museum Wesel, Lower Rhine; and Gallery Noass, Art and Culture Project Noass, Riga.
2005, Audiovisual Festival zemos 98 in cooperation with Endanza, Sevilla; Contemporary Art Museum ex-manifattura tabacchi, Pescara
2006, Postcards Stockholm-Istanbul, collaborated with Ceren Oykut, Interactive Video installation, Botkyrka Kunsthalle, Stockholm
2006, Love is fake, video installation, PRO – arte, Copenhagen
The 12th International Festival of Computer Arts, Maribor ,Slovenia
Odysee, 17th. Cinema weeks Strasbourg
2006, Competing with Genies, Outliners, video installation Art transponder, Berlin and Odysee, 17th. Cinema weeks Strasbourg
2007, Hard to die, video installation, OFF BEAT, curator : Maja Ciric, SKC, Belgrate, Serbia
2007, 2+1, multi media installation, Apartment Project (collaboration with Ceren Oykut and Neriman Polat) 10th. Istanbul Biennial, curator: Hou Hanru, Istanbul 
2007, I wouldn′t quit, if the world turned upside down, Istanbul Now, Video Installation, Galerie Lucas Feichtner, Vienna, Nev Gallery, Istanbul, Contemporary Art Museum, Novi Sad, Serbia
2007, The Trial, video installation, Mediterranean Dialogs, curator: Susan van Hagen, France
2007, Everything is ok!, curator : Ovul Durmusoglu, Radikal Art, billboards in Istanbul Streets, Istanbul
2007, Four days in Cairo, Upgrade! Tel Aviv-Jerusalem, curator: Basak Senova, Contemporary Image, Center (CIC), Cairo
2008, Hard to die, video installation, SAVE AS Contemporary Art  from Turkey, curator: Derya Yucel, Milano, Italy
2008, Home Sweet Home, Pure Expression, curator: Jelena Radic, 13th Art Biennial Pancevo, Serbia
2008, Becoming Istanbul, I wouldn′t quit, if the world turned upside down, Love is Fake, Hard to die, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt
2008, 7.4.4, ′Accumulated: ...put aside, left aside′, curator: Asli Cetinkaya & Isin Onol, 5333 IMC, Istanbul

Reference: seldaasal.com; estival.metu.edu.tr; sanalmuze.org; culturebase.net