About
Nejbir Erkol (b. 1995, Nusaybin, Mardin) works across painting, installation, performance and video. Her practice is concerned with precarity, and with fragility, vulnerability, pain and trauma.
Erkol studied at Mardin Artuklu University and completed her MFA in Painting at the Hacettepe University Fine Arts Institute. Her work has been shown in international group exhibitions and research programmes, including Flux I bell sTRUcTURs (Berlin, 2024), Spaces of Culture (Paris, 2023), Festival SACRe at Gaîté Lyrique (Paris, 2023) and the 5th Mardin Biennial (2022). In 2023 she was among the winners of the Prince Claus Seed Award.
Her solo exhibition Making a Land was shown at Galeri Vitrin, Goethe-Institut Ankara, in 2024.
Solo exhibitions
2024Making a Land, Galeri Vitrin, Goethe-Institut Ankara
Selected group exhibitions
2025Narrative Power Alliance: Exhibition, Barın Han, Istanbul
2024Yıkıntılar Arasında, Culture CIVIC Culture and Arts Support Program, Barın Han, Istanbul
Akbank 42nd Contemporary Artists Exhibition, Istanbul
2022The Promise of Grass, 5th Mardin Biennial, Mardin
Forgetting the Past is a Gilded Lie, Karşı Sanat Çalışmaları, Istanbul
Sound installation, Spam Collective, On afternoons, Babybelle and look, what a nice view!, Istanbul
Dalga, Zülfü Livaneli Cultural Center, Ankara
2021Performance, Temporary Dialects; Bridges Through My Window, Germany
2019Oradaydı, Daire Sanat, Istanbul
Base Art Project II, Istanbul
Base, Istanbul
2018Performance, Sit, Stand, Walk, Artnivo Gallery, Istanbul
Performance, Artist Experience, TÜYAP, Istanbul
Mixer Sessions III, Mixer Gallery, Istanbul
2017Photobook Exhibition: Again, Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul
Performances
2025Radio of the Burning House, with Nilüfer Gros, CNSAD, Paris
2024Being upside down, Flux I bell sTRUcTURs, Berlin
Imagining an Eternity, Performance Ecologies, British Council, Türkiye
Yaşanabilir dünya için açık uçlu toplaşmalar, Neither Here Nor There, Culture Civic, Mardin
2023Enterrer la robe, with Nilufer Gros, Chambre Sonore, Festival SACRe, Gaîté Lyrique, Paris
Enterrer la robe, co-writer with Nilufer Gros, CNSAD, Paris
2022Ne orada ne burada (Neither there nor here), The World is a 419 PPM Stage, Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul
Walking on the Water, with Alper Aydın, Ordu
Ne orada ne burada 1 (Neither there nor here 1), The Promise of Grass, 5th Mardin Biennial, German Headquarters, Mardin
2020Geçmişten önceki zamanlar (Times before the past), Joint Works Project, A4 Atölye, Diyarbakır
2019Art, Body, Space, performance workshop, Nesin Art Village, İzmir
2018Performative Bodies, Merkezkaç Art Collective, Diyarbakır
Awards
2024Akbank 42nd Contemporary Artists Award, Istanbul
2023Prince Claus Fund Seed Award, Amsterdam
Residencies and research programs
2025SAHA Studio Residency Program, Istanbul
Istanbul–Berlin Residency Program (linked to NGBK, Berlin)
2024Sabiha Artist Residency, Alanya
2023International Mobility Program (Spaces of Culture), Paris
2022SİS Art Residency, Ordu
2021Arter Research Program (AAP), Istanbul
2020Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme (ÇAP), Istanbul
Daire Açık Atölye Sanatçı Programı, Istanbul
2017Crossing Theatre Company, research and devising for Contemplating Her, funded by the US Embassy in Ankara, Mardin
Education
2021MFA in Painting, Hacettepe University, Ankara. Thesis: Art Practices On The Concept Of Precarity
2018BFA in Painting, Mardin Artuklu University, Mardin
Publications
2022Hevesle Beraberlik Arasında Bir Şey, Mitos Boyut
2021ARTER, Re: [aap_2020]
2019Women Mobilizing Memory
Talks and panels
2024Creating Space with Contemporary Art: New Dynamics of Art Environments in and around Armenia, with Nairi Khatchadourian and Banu Karaca, Tütün Deposu, Istanbul
Dreaming of an Infinite, with Eylem Ejder, online
2021Temporary Dialects; Bridges from my Window, with Ece Gurleyik, online / Germany