As a visual artist, Didem Erk uses performance, video, installation and text as tools in her works and explores the relationship of space with concepts such as language, memory and border/frontiers. Examining the possible flaws and fictional elements of personal and social memory, the artist
focuses on the performative aspects of the act of remembering.
Didem Erk (b. 1986, Istanbul) lives and works in Istanbul. She completed her graduate and postgraduate studies in the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design department at Sabancı University.

RESIDENCY
Terra Foundation For American Art, Giverny, France, June-August 2018
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
2027 - When All The Books Burn, Istanbul, Turkey
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
-
The Blue Ballad, Zilberman Gallery, İstanbul, Turkey
2021
-
As Both Remedy and Poison | Hem Zehir Hem Pan-Zehir, BilsART, Istanbul
2017
-
Home is a Place Called Never | Ev İmkansız Denen Yerdir, x-ist, Istanbul, Turkey
2012
-
I Feel I am Eating Memories | Sanki Anıları Yiyorum, Fassart Gallery, Sabancı University, İstanbul, Turkey
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
-
II. Four-Legged Exhibition, Berze Gallery, Istanbul
2025
-
From Artemis To Dara: Remember The Utopia, Pakistan Pavilion, Izmir
-
For The Record, BarınHan, İstanbul
2024
-
Sense of Earth, Barbare Vineyards, Tekirdağ/Turkey
2023
-
Freedom, Journalist Association Press Museum, Istanbul
2022
-
IVY, curator: Başak Şenova, Zilberman Selected, Istanbul, Türkiye
2021
-
Vekâleten, Zilberman Selected, İstanbul, Türkiye
2020
-
Balconnection, A.R.T & M.S., İzmir, Türkiye
-
Words Are Very Unnecessary/ Kelimeler Pek Yetersiz, Arter, (curated by SELEN ANSEN) İstanbul, Türkiye
2019
-
A Room of One’s Own, Megaron Annex M, Athens
-
The Unwritten Library: An Exhibition Trilogy, "After Babel", Megaron Annex M, Athens
2018
-
House of Wisdom, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham
-
5x5x5, Manifesta 12, Palermo
-
Video Echoes: Waves From The Eastern Mediterranean, Counihan Gallery, Australia
-
The Unwritten Library: An Exhibition Trilogy “The Last Reader”, Megaron Annex M, Athens
-
Root | Kök , Santral İstanbul Enerji Müzesi, Istanbul
-
Night | Gece, Collaborative Performance Proposal, Réalisateur / Gerçekleştiren: Didem ERK, Datça
-
Nonlinear Histories: Transgenerational Memory of Trauma, ReflectSpace Gallery, Los Angeles
2017
-
House of Wisdom, Framer Framed, Amsterdam
-
Black Noise, Aksanat, Istanbul
-
TarraWarra International 2017: All that is solid, TarraWarra Museum, Melbourne, Australia
-
House of Wisdom | Bilgelik Evi, IKSV Building, Istanbul
-
Survival Kit, Space Debris Art, Istanbul
-
Survival Kit, 4th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Ekaterinburg, Russia
-
Kuşla Göz Arasında | In a Blink of a Bird, DEPO, Istanbul
-
House of Wisdom, Dzialdov, Berlin
-
Are You Still Alive? – Voices of Conscience at a Time of Silencing, Steirische Kulturinitiative, Graz, Austria
-
Imago Mundi – Mediterranean Routes, Zona Arti Contemporanee, Palermo, Italy
-
Blow Up: Kavunu Gördüm, SALT Galata, Istanbul
2016
-
Stay with Me, Belvedere Museum, Vienna
-
Bir Zar atımı Asla Ortadan Kaldırmayacak Rastlantıyı | Un Coup de DéS Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard, Pilot, Istanbul
-
On Paper | Kağıt Üzerine, Mixer, İstanbul
-
Three Legged Table: An Organism | Üç Ayaklı Masa: Bir Organizma, REM Art Space, İstanbul
-
Stay with Me, De Kijkdoos Project space, Amsterdam
2015
-
30 Years of Biennale “ Through the Barricades”, Fabbrica Del Vapore, Milan
-
Stay With Me, Museum Weserburg, Bremen
-
Every inclusion is an exclusion of other possibilities | Her tercih diğer ihtimaller için bir dışlamadır, SALT Beyoğlu, Istanbul
-
Performans Belleği | Performing Memory, Plato Sanat, Istanbul
-
Stay with me! | Uyuma Dayan!, DEPO, Istanbul
-
Pop-up Exhibition | Pop-up Sergi, KARGART, Istanbul
2014
-
La Sovversione Del Sensibile | Subversion of the Sensible, Fabbrica Del Vapore, Milan
-
Stay with me, Apartment Project, Berlin
-
Carte Blanche To Nil Yalter, Galerist, Istanbul
2013
-
13th Istanbul Biennial, “Mom, Am I a Barbarian? | Anne, Ben Barbar mıyım?”, Arter, Istanbul (curated by Fulya Erdenci)
-
Bufferzone: Checkpoint | Bufferzone: Kontrol Noktası, Depo, Istanbul
-
Sketching the Bufferzone, Polistar, Istanbul
-
Taking Site, 5533, Istanbul
2012
-
Offisde Effect 1st Tbilisi Triennial, Center of Contemporary Art, Tbilisi, Georgia
2011
-
Symbiosis, XV Biennale de la Méditerranée | XV. Avrupalı ve Akdenizli Genç Sanatçılar Bienali, Port of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
COLLECTIONS
Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, MOCAK
Arter Museum of Contemporary Art Vehbi Koç Foundation
Agah Uğur
Saruhan Doğan
Leyla Pekin
Ayşe Umur
Pulver Kimya / Metin Mizraklı
Hatice Marx
Ekin Kohen
PUBLICATION / BOOK
Erk, Didem. I Feel I Am Eating Memories: The Boundary Between. Germany: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2013.
ISBN:978-3-659-34001-7
