Material: Connections

Contemporary Art and Ecological Experiments (Production Workshop for Artists)

“Material: Connections”

Workshop Facilitator: Öner Taylan Öztürk

Date: March 2 - 4, 2026

Time: 19:00 – 21:00

The history of the Earth is an infinite segment of flow that began long before human domination — a collision of chaos, movements, and different forms of intensities. Within the inevitability of being human, looking beyond the limited egoism we have created requires not a change of identity, but infiltrating the invisible labyrinths of ecosystems that structural constructs attempt to keep us outside of.

Under the speed of technology that challenges our cognitive capacities, surveillance mechanisms, and the enclosure of digital networks, how can a new human perspective be organized — one that searches by sensing and “wandering” beyond given ideas? While examining the inner workings of systems and structures that impose the concept of constant “progress,” is it possible to seek a path toward a human existence that moves, listens, and feels?

If concepts such as family, memory, self and other — the impulses at the roots of our species and the structures that drive them — are traversed through thinking, constructing, and imagining other dimensions, what emerges? Non‑speaking beings, organisms whose temporal perceptions differ entirely from ours, and disembodied algorithmic intelligences invite us to think beyond established relations of domination and to form new connections. This workshop is a search for a new “material” precisely within these intersecting clusters.

Öner Taylan Öztürk (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Painting); constructs his practice in the interstitial zones of intensities and connections, in the gaps of discourse and ecological leakages. By navigating spaces excluded by fixed categories, bureaucratic structures, and hierarchical systems, he problematizes human belonging and the entangled ties between humans and ecosystems.

He focuses on intuitively tracing transformation processes occurring within the internal dynamics of objects, ideas, and systems. His works offer fictional, strange, and subtle passages that intervene in the apparent coherence of life. Having spent part of his education in Belgium, the artist is currently pursuing graduate studies in the Painting Program at Düzce University. Alongside his artistic practice, he continues to reflect on digital networks and systems through his parallel work as a software developer.

* This workshop is intended for participants working in contemporary art or aiming to engage in a process of artistic production and research focused on ecological processes, connectivity, network structures, and interdisciplinary thinking. Regular attendance throughout the program is expected. Participation is free of charge and capacity is limited to 15 participants.

* To participate in the program, you can submit your application by filling out the pre-registration form via the “Register” button on the page. Registration will open one week before the first event (23.02.2026 at 19:00), and the “Register” button will become accessible from this date. During the pre-registration stage, you are expected to include a minimum 40-word text describing your artistic practice and motivation for participating in the workshop. Applications will be reviewed, and selected participants will receive invitations via email.

Workshop Program

- 02.03.2026 Monday / 19:00 - 21:00 / (Online)

In this session, the artist will share his own production practices and idea development processes, presenting examples of the artists, concepts, and theoretical texts he focuses on.

- 03.03.2026 Tuesday / 19:00 - 21:00 / (Online)

Following short presentations by participants on their own productions, a collective dialogue will be conducted on how alternative conceptual perspectives can be developed in artistic practices and how “connections” can be established.

- 04.03.2026 Wednesday / 19:00 - 21:00 / (Online)

At the end of the process, participants will share the experiences that emerged and exchange ideas on new thoughts and transformations that may develop over time.