Dilşad Aladağ
Artist in residence, Stockholm, 3 March–25 May 2025
Dilşad Aladağ is an architect and urbanist whose practice is grounded in art, research, heritage and ecology. Her focus lies in examining the historiography of transformations, with a particular emphasis on spatial and ecological subjects and the performances of power and resilience. Her creative process is shaped by delving into multi-species processes and stories, through archival and field research. She reveals different constellations, and shapes artistic narratives through them, as invitations for poetic and political dialogues. Recently she has been focusing on the traces of nomadic pastoralism and water bodies in the Anatolian context.
Dilşad Aladağ
During her IASPIS residency, she will continue working and expanding on the project “Weaving Reeds Between Two Rivers”, which creates a new layer in her ongoing research and curatorial work “Mahsul [Yield] Project”. “Mahsul” explores the yield landscapes, and taming processes of the Çukurova region, as the microcosmos of Late Ottoman and Turkish modernisation. “Weaving Reeds Between Two Rivers” brings together stories of inhabitance within the basin formed between two rivers. Growing from a fictional correspondence between the rivers, reeds and Eucalyptus, and borrowing weaving and entanglement knowledge of the communities in the region, the work assembles an invitation to think about the various forms of symbiosis the basin has hosted.
Dilşad Aladağ studied architecture and urban studies at the Technical University of İstanbul and Bauhaus University of Weimar. She is pursuing a PhD in the Arts and Design program at the Bauhaus University of Weimar as Heinrich Böll Foundation Doctoral Scholarship holder. She is also a founding member of ANATOPIA. Her ongoing artistic research practices “TAKLAK” and “Mahsul”, and past collaborations, “Plankton Project” and “The Garden of (not) Forgetting”, have received support from various grants, including the SALT Research Funds, the Prince Claus Seeds Award, and EU-funded Culture CIVIC Grassroots Program. Her curatorial and artistic work have been presented in platforms such as Kunsthaus Hamburg, DEPO Istanbul, Franconia Jewish Museum, daadgalerie, HAYY Open Space, SALT Research and Programs, and Bayetav Art. She is the author of “Mahsul” (BAYETAV, 2024), and co-author of “Bir Yerin İzinde Pek Çok Yer” (Manifold, 2021).
@dilsadaladag