
Nejbir Erkol (b. 1995, Nusaybin/Mardin) completed her undergraduate degree at Mardin Artuklu University and obtained her master’s from the Hacettepe University Fine Arts Institute’s Painting Department. Erkol participated in numerous international group exhibitions and research programmes. As an artist working on the notion of the precariat, her practice spans painting, installation, performance and video. It is possible to observe concepts of fragility, vulnerability, pain and trauma in her works due to the proximity of her hometown to border regions. Erkol, who participated in Flux I bell sRTUcTURs (Germany 2024), Spaces of Culture (Paris, 2023), Festival SACRe – Gaîte-Lyrique (Paris, 2023) and the 5th Mardin Biennial (Mardin, 2022), was also one of the winners of the 2023 Prince Claus Seed Award. Erkol recently opened a solo exhibition titled Making A Land at the Goethe Institute Galeri Vitrin in Ankara.
EDUCATION
2019-2021 Master of Fine Arts, Painting, Hacettepe University, Ankara, TR
Thesis title: “Art Practices On The Concept Of Precarity”
2014-2018 Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting, Mardin Artuklu University, Mardin, TR
2009-2013 Nusaybin Süleyman Bölünmez Anadolu High School, Mardin, TR
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AWARDS
2024 Akbank 42nd Contemporary Artists Award, Istanbul, TR
2023 Prince Claus Fund Seed Awards, Amsterdam, NL
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Making a Land, Galeri Vitrin, Goethe-Institut Ankara, TR
PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
2024 Being upside down, Performance, Flux I bell sTRUcTURs, Berlin, Germany
2024 Imagining an Eternity, Performance Ecologies, British Council, TR
2024 YaÅŸanabilir dünya için açık uçlu toplaÅŸmalar, Neither Here Nor There, Culture Civic, Mardin, TR
2023 Enterrer la robe, with Nilufer Gros, Chambre Sonore, Festival SACRe,
Gaîte-Lyrique, Paris, FR
2023 Enterrer la robe, Co-writer with Nilufer Gros, CNSAD, Paris, FR
2022 Ne orada ne burada (Neither there nor here), Performance, Stage at the Museum
“The World is a 419 PPM Stage”, Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul, TR
2022 Walking on the Water, with Alper Aydın, Ordu, TR
2022 Ne orada ne burada 1 (Neither there nor here 1), 5th Mardin Biennial,
(The Promise of Grass), Performance, German Headquarters, Mardin, TR
2020 GeçmiÅŸten önceki zamanlar (Times before the past),
Performance, Joint Works Project, A4 Atölye, Diyarbakır, TR
2019 Art, Body, Space, Performance Workshop, Nesin Art Village, Izmir, TR 2018 Performative Bodies, Merkezkaç Art Collective, Diyarbakır, TR
PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH CREATION PROGRAMS
2025 SAHA Studio, Residency Program, Istanbul, TR
2023 International Mobility Program (Spaces of Culture), Paris, FR
2020-2021 Arter Research Program (Arter Araştırma Programı, AAP), Istanbul, TR
2019-2020 The Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme (ÇAP), Istanbul, TR
2014-2017 Crossing Theatre Company, Research and devising in Contemplating Her theatre
project funded by US Embassy in Ankara, Mardin, TR
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROGRAMS
2024 Sabiha Artist Residency, Alanya, TR
2022 SÄ°S Art Residency, Ordu, TR
2020 Daire Açık Atölye Sanatçı Programı, Istanbul, TR
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Narrative Power Alliance: Exhibition, Barın Han, Istanbul, TR
2024 Yıkıntılar Arasında, Culture CIVIC Culture and Arts Support Program, Barın Han,
Istanbul, TR
2024 Akbank 42nd Contemporary Artists Exhibition, Istanbul, TR
2022 The Promise of Grass, 5th Mardin Biennial, Mardin, TR
2022 Forgetting the Past is a Gilded Lie,nKarşı Sanat Çalışmaları, Istanbul, TR
2022 Sound installation, Spam Collective “On afternoons, Babybelle and look, what a
nice view!,” Ä°stanbul, TR
2022 Dalga, Zülfü Livaneli Cultural Center, Ankara, TR
2021 Performance, “Temporary Dialects; Bridges Through My Window,” Germany
2018 Performance, “Sit, Stand, Walk,” Artnivo Gallery, Istanbul, TR
2019 Oradaydı, Daire Sanat, Istanbul, TR
2019 Base Art Project II, Istanbul, TR
2019 Base, Istanbul, TR
2018 Performance, “Artist Experience,” TÜYAP, Istanbul, TR
2018 Mixer Sessions III, Mixer Gallery, Istanbul, TR
2017 Photobook Exhibition: Again, Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul, TR
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PUBLICATIONS
2022 Hevesle Beraberlik Arasında Bir Şey , Mitos Boyut
2021 ARTER, Re: [aap_2020]
2019 Women Mobilizing Memory
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SPEECHES AND PANELS
2024 Creating Space with Contemporary Art:
New Dynamics of Art Environments in and around Armenia, Tütün Deposu/Istanbul
Speakers: Nairi Khatchadourian, Banu Karaca, Nejbir Erkol
2024 Dreaming of an Infinite:
Participants: Eylem Ejder and Nejbir Erkol, Online
2021 Temporary Dialects; Bridges from my Window, Online/Germany
Speakers: Ece Gurleyik, Nejbir Erkol
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INTERVIEWS
https://www.apollo-magazine.com/kurdish-artists-in-turkey-repression/
https://tiyatroylailgilihersey.com/iki-otobiyografik-performans/
https://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/29092/toprakla-bulusan-hayalet-bedenler
https://hidireliguzel.wordpress.com/2019/06/02/ozne-arayisi-odaginda-oradaydi-sergisi/
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