Material: Relationships

Contemporary Art and Ecological Experiments (Production Workshop for Artists)

“Material: Relationships”

Workshop Facilitator: Hamide Çelik

Dates: 15-16-17 December 2026

Time: 19:00-21:00

How does a material’s identity, meaning and our relationship with it change when it undergoes a physical transformation? What does a material become when it is removed from its original context and placed in another? How do human interventions, which continually transform the world and nature, shape our relationships with materials and the environment? Can transforming a material, giving it another form or allowing space for its own behaviour enable it to become a field of inquiry that guides the creative process, rather than merely a passive medium to be shaped?

Guided by these questions, the workshop explores natural materials, plant-based resources and biomaterials through their potential for transformation and their capacity to establish different relationships. The physical, chemical and structural properties of materials are considered through their encounters with other materials and the changes they undergo through human intervention. This opens up reflection on how a material can acquire new expressive possibilities through its relationships with other materials, objects and its surroundings, as well as through its own properties.

Drawing on the processes of transformation that continually take place in nature, making is approached as a cyclical inquiry unfolding through successive questions and possibilities, rather than as a linear process leading to a finished object. Each transformation creates a new form while also giving rise to a new relationship and a new question.

The “Material: Relationships” workshop aims to rethink the relationships between material, humans, nature and context, and to explore together not only what a material is, but also what it might become and what new relationships this transformation might make possible.

Hamide Çelik (b. 1997, Azerbaijan) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Istanbul. She completed her undergraduate studies in the Department of Textile at Marmara University’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 2021. She received her master’s degree in Textile from the Institute of Fine Arts at the same university in 2024 and graduated from her double major programme in Sculpture in 2025. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Textile at Marmara University’s Institute of Fine Arts.

Her artistic practice explores relationships between humans, nature and objects through different materials and methods of making. Drawing on textile and sculpture, she investigates new expressive possibilities through the physical and structural properties of materials. Through the potential of materials, she examines the relationships between human intervention and environmental processes. In her nature-inspired work, she questions the ways humans transform nature and the relationships these interventions establish.

Çelik exhibited her work in Belgium in 2023 as part of the Recycling Project, a collaboration between Marmara University’s Faculty of Fine Arts and TEMSA. In 2024, she participated in the 42nd Akbank Contemporary Artists Exhibition and the Bazaart Project. In 2026, she took part in the 44th Akbank Contemporary Artists Exhibition, the Bazaart Project and “Shared Memory”, an exhibition organised by the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism as part of the Türkiye Culture Route Festival. Alongside her artistic practice, she facilitates workshops and teaches art and design at various institutions.

* During pre-registration, please enter a text of at least 40 words describing your artistic practice and motivation for joining the workshop in the message field. Applications will be reviewed, and selected participants will receive event invitations by email.

* This workshop is intended for participants working in contemporary art or seeking to explore material transformation and the relationships between people, nature and context in their artistic research and practice. Regular attendance is expected throughout the programme. Participation is free of charge and limited to 15 people.

* To apply for the programme, complete the pre-registration form via the “Register” button on this page. Registration opens one week before the first session (08.12.2026 at 19:00), and the “Register” button will become accessible from that date.

Workshop Program

- 15.12.2026 Tuesday / 19:00–21:00 / On Production and Materials (Online)

In the first session, Hamide Çelik will share the relationships between materials, time and transformation through examples from her practice. The group will discuss how a material’s physical properties and context guide artistic production. For the next session, participants will be asked to choose a material they wish to investigate and prepare observations, images or brief notes on its source, use and transformations.

- 16.12.2026 Wednesday / 19:00–21:00 / Possibilities of Materials (Online)

In the second session, participants will share their chosen materials and observations. Possible experiments will be discussed by considering how a material changes when moved into another form or context, combined with other materials, or allowed to influence production through its own behaviour. Participants will be invited to develop a material experiment or an idea for a work based on these discussions.

- 17.12.2026 Thursday / 19:00–21:00 / Sharing and Thinking Together (Online)

In the final session, participants will share their material experiments, research or ideas for works. The group will consider the new relationships, questions and possibilities arising from transformation, with feedback on processes, material choices and presentation. The workshop will conclude with a shared discussion of how participants might continue their research.