Manifesta purposely strives to keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centres of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography.
Atiye Altül, TR
Kravat / Die Krawatte (The Tie), 2016. Acrylic and watercolour on silk, steam-fixed 135 × 7 cm.
Atiye Altül works at the intersection of the natural world and inner life. Working in acrylic and watercolour as well as on silk, she seeks a language for what cannot be said directly through landscapes and botanical forms – exploring how the surface of a river or the weight of a branch might carry anxiety, longing or the process of coming to terms with something. For Altül, painting is never purely observational. She once drew her mother's portrait to work through a difficult relationship, hung it on the wall, and simply looked at it. That act revealed something essential: art as a way of sitting with what cannot be resolved.