17:00-20:00: Open Studio with Çınar Eslek 
18:00-19:00: Çınar Eslek  in conversation with Kate Brehme
Kunstquartier Bethanien, 1. OG Studio 139

nGbK’s current Istanbul-Berlin scholarship holder Çınar Eslek will present her work in an open studio event with a moderation by Kate Brehme. Since 15 January 2025, she has been working on textile works, drawings and observations, and on narrative fragments shaped through conversations and encounters. In her open studio, Eslek will share her thoughts on the creative process, focusing on issues of accessibility, bodily memory, belonging and transformation; she will draw connections between the works on display and her broader artistic practice.

Eslek’s works take shape around bodies, memories and stories that are incomplete, permeable and in a state of constant transformation. During her residency in Berlin, the artist initially set out to observe the differences in physical accessibility between Istanbul and Berlin, focusing on ramps, lifts, public spaces and urban infrastructure. Over time, this research expanded to address broader questions concerning ableism, belonging, and the invisible negotiations constantly experienced by certain bodies within the built environment. Throughout the residency, the artist spent time conversing with people who have experienced migration, disability, loneliness and social exclusion. These encounters have become part of the works through silences, gestures, fragmented narratives and small everyday details.

Eslek approaches accessibility not merely as a physical condition, but also as a social and political relationship; she questions whose pace spaces are designed around, which bodies are expected to constantly adapt, and who is permitted to be present comfortably in public spaces.

About Çınar Eslek
Çınar Eslek’s interdisciplinary practice moves fluidly between the fields of textiles, video, installation, drawing and writing. Rather than approaching these mediums as separate disciplines, the artist treats them as interconnected limbs of the same body. Consequently, the works exist not as isolated objects, but as parts of a living organism held together by loose connections. In her last solo exhibition “Tack, Limb, Ilizarov” at DEPO, Eslek utilized stitched fabrics, found materials (scraps she collected), and video to create hybrid forms that explore bodily possibilities and limitations. Similarly, her contribution to Crip Magazine #5 during the 17th Istanbul Biennial addressed the intersections of disability, identity, and societal structures, challenging ableist norms while offering alternative narratives of embodiment. The artist won the “Borders and Orbits” award (2006, Siemens Art), 26th “Artists of Today” award (2008, Aksanat) and İstanbul Rotary Art Award (2011). She participated at the “Cité des Arts” residency program in Paris. She has also attended renown art events in Turkey which include Çanakkale Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, Mardin International Biennial. As a participant in The Alternative Art School Platform (2022), she engaged with Nato Thompson’s “All the World’s A Stage,” exploring public art, interventionist practices, and art across difference, and Amber Eve Imrie’s “Artists on Social Media,” which examined the dynamics of digital presence.

About Kate Brehme
Dr. Kate Brehme is a Berlin-based disabled independent curator, arts educator, and researcher whose work embraces collaboration, crip joy, and the intersection of access and curating. Her practice explores cripping and queering art history, access aesthetics, and the politics of space. Kate has worked internationally across Australia, Scotland, and Germany, curating exhibitions, organizing residencies, teaching students, advising arts institutions, and leading disability arts advocacy projects. She is the co-founder of Berlinklusion and has collaborated with organizations such as The National Galleries of Scotland, Documenta, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Her practice includes curating exhibitions and residencies, arts education, accessibility consulting, public speaking and moderating, project management, research and writing on disability and contemporary art, curriculum design, and arts advocacy at state and EU levels.

The stipend of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion is made possible in the frame of a cooperation between the neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK) and the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien in Berlin as well as DEPO in Istanbul.