Interview: Bülent Yildirim
Luca Curci talks with Bülent Yildirim during BARCELONA CONTEMPORARY 2021, 3rd edition, at Valid World Hall Gallery.

Bülent Yildirim was born in 1980 in Kırşehir. He graduated from Niğde University, Faculty of Education, Department of Painting Teaching (2000-2005). In 2006, he worked as a painting teacher at Kırşehir Child Protection Agency and founded Doku Art and Culture Association. In 2007, he established Doku Culture and Art Design Workshop and became Kırşehir Municipality Culture and Art Event Coordinator. In 2008, he worked as an artist at Kıraçtı Art Gallery and worked as an Art Consultant. While continuing his studies by establishing the Private Bülent Yıldırım Doku Art Workshop Fine Arts Course, he started his master’s degree at Işık University Painting Department in 2020. Among the personal exhibitions of the artist are ART’A KALAN, AHILER and TIME. RED, WAREHOUSE, EASTERN WIND, TRANSFORMATION, DESERT TALE are among the exhibitions organized by the artist, and YEAR-END STUDENT PATTERN EXHIBITIONS are regularly organized every year from 2012 to 2018. Bülent Yıldırım participated in Kocaeli International Art Fair together with Quark Art Gallery in 2009 and 2011. In 2010, the 20th International Istanbul Art Fair – Unseen Istanbul hosted the artist. The artist also participated in the 23rd International Istanbul Art Fair – Caution Kamusal in 2013 with Arthane. Again with Arthane, Bülent Yıldırım participated in the 25th International Istanbul Art Fair, Witnessing the Past, with his works.

LUCA CURCI – What are you currently working on?
BÜLENT YILDIRIM – Currently I own, run and teach at Doku Art Studio, an art school specialized in painting, sculpture, art history and art philosophy in Istanbul, Turkey. In the studio, talented students are selected and educated, nurtured, for entrance to Fine Arts Accademia.

LC – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
BY – I am a painter and a sculptor and graduated from Fine Arts School. My paintings and sculptures were demonstrated at many exhibitions in Turkey and abroad. Also, I have contributed to lots of social responsibility projects.

LC – Which is the role the artist plays in society? And contemporary art?
BY – I think society does not lead art, the art itself guides the society. The artist contributes to the evolution of society. At this point, contemporary art based on traditional art will be influential.

LC – Where do you find your inspiration?
BY – People are born free of color, religion, language, culture, nationality, etc. but they gain these properties and are labeled in time, which results in “othering”. This process has always intrigued me and I tried to express its socially constructed nature in my artworks.

LC – Do you use art to express something in particular? Is it your medium of expression?
BY – Art is not a medium for me it is rather an ultimate goal of expressing my understanding of the World and nature as an alternative to reality.

LC – What do you think about the concept of this festival? How did it inspire you?
BY – Discovering the perspectives of different artists has been an inspiring and improving journey at this festival. I have three artworks about the place of women in society.

LC – Can you explain something about the artworks you have in our exhibition?
BY – “Honor” is about women’s living areas that have also drawn the limits of women’s liberation. Modernization is not a story of “breaking from tradition and establishing a new world”, but rather a process of establishing and functioning new power relations while redefining the tradition and the “new”. “Trinket” is about advertisements where women are presented to the public, women turn into both objects to be seen and images that are bought and sold with the product. “The woman has no name” is about the communitarian vein of thoughts and ideologies, which thinks as the continuation of the family and kinship relations of the society, also symbolizes the position and function of women in society as “mother”, “sister” and “wife”.

LC – What do you think about ITSLIQUID Platform?
BY – ITSLIQUID platform succeeds in covering diversified artworks which in return nurtures its contributors.

LC – Did you enjoy cooperating with us?
BY – I really enjoyed being a part of the platform and will definitely suggest it to my colleagues.