Studio grant holder in Stockholm August 3 – October 26 2020

Born 1976, Batman, Turkey. Lives and works in Örebro, Sweden.

Of Kurdish descent, Fikret Atay highlights the tensions that rise from permanent opposition between the West and the East, civilians and military, tradition and experimentation: a situation he lived in his hometown, Batman, located in Turkey on the Iraqi border. His simple, unaffected style lends an apparently straightforward authenticity to the images, yet the meanings of the performers’ actions remain mysterious to viewers unfamiliar with the local culture.

His work has been shown in international museums and art centers including Örebro Konsthallen, Örebro, Sweden (2019); Gislaveds Konstahll, Sweden (2018); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy; MAXXI, Rome, Italy; Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev, Ukraine; Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, U.S.A.; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, U.S.A.; New Museum, New York, U.S.A.; MoMA PS1, New York, U.S.A.. He has been invited to participate in important biennals such as Biennale of Sydney, Australia; Lyon Biennal, France; Istanbul Biennal, Turkey.

His video work is part of important museum collections: Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; Kadist Foundation, Paris, France; FRAC Île-de-France, Paris, France; MACBA, Barcelona, Spain; Tate Modern, London, UK; MUDAM, Luxemburg; Istanbul Modern Museum, Turkey; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; MUSAC, Leon, Spain; MACM, Montreal, Canada.