BIO_
_
MATHILDE
MELEK
AN
Mathilde Melek AN (b. 1989, Vincennes) is a Franco-Turkish artist based between Normandy, France, and Istanbul, Turkey. She holds a DNSEP from the École Supérieure d'Arts et Médias de Caen/Cherbourg (2012) and furthered her studies at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. Her multidisciplinary practice unfolds across photography, video, sculpture, performance, textiles, and archival research.
Drawing upon the interstices of personal memory and collective history, AN's work inhabits the liminal ground of identity, migration, and belonging. Textiles serve as tactile archives in her practice—embroidered quilts and layered fabrics preserving photographic traces, reactivated through gesture and performance. Her installations and collaborative gestures emerge as thresholds—spaces of passage where displacement becomes both experience and inquiry.
Through these liminal environments and site-specific interventions like GEÇMİŞ GELİŞİM (SAHA Studio, Istanbul, 2025), she unearths familial textile archives against urban memory, reflecting on how intimacy and geography blend to reshape one's sense of self amid movement across borders, languages, and histories.
Recent exhibitions include Çekim Yasası / Law of Attraction (Erimtan Museum, Ankara, 2026), Biennale Objet Textile #5 (La Manufacture, Roubaix, 2026), Là où la lumière pleut / Where the Light Rains (Paris Art Week Off, Espace Césure, Paris, 2025), and Mahalla Festival editions (Midas Touch, Memento, Istanbul, 2025/2024). Performances encompass Giswil International Performance Art Festival (Switzerland, 2022) and Openart Biennale (Sweden, 2019), with residencies at SAHA Studio (Istanbul, 2025) and grants from DRAC Normandie (2020) and SAHA (2018).
Through archival excavation and material alchemy, AN weaves a poetics of transformation—crafting layered installations that map displacement's textures, inviting tactile encounters with the fragile threads binding personal flux to collective histories across an ever-mutating topography of socio-cultural emergence.
CURRENTLY_
Biennale Objet Textile #5 _ La Manufacture _ February 14th - 31 April 26th 2026 _ Roubaix _ France [group]
Çekim yasasi _ Erimtan museum _ curator Eda Berkmen _ Ankara _ Turkey _ 2026 [group]
Ballet mécanique _ Faar gallery _ curator Fahrettin Aykut _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2026 [group]
C_V_
EDUCATION_
EXHIBITIONS_
PERFORMANCES_
RESIDENCY_
WORKSHOPS_
GRANTS_
OCCUPATION_
2012 _ DNSEP _ ESAM _ École Supérieure des Arts et Médias de Caen/Cherbourg _ Caen _ France
2011 _ Erasmus program _ University of Mimar Sinan _ Fine Arts Faculty _ Istanbul _ Turkey
2010 _ DNAP _ ESAM _ Caen _ France
Biennale Objet Textile #5 _ La Manufacture_ Roubaix _ France _ 2026 [group]
Çekim yasasi _ Erimtan museum _ curator Eda Berkmen _ Ankara _ Turkey _ 2026 [group]
Ballet mécanique _ Faar gallery _ curator Fahrettin Aykut _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2026 [group]
"Ben"ler _ Balat Surp Hiresdagabet Ermeni church _ curator Mina Pembe Malaz _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2025 [group]
Là où la lumière pleut _ Espace Césure _ Paris Art week Off _ curator Farrah Bencheikh _ Paris _ France _ 2025 [group]
Midas Touch _ Mahalla Festival _ curator Sabine Küper-Büsch _ Büyük Valide Han_ Istanbul_ Turkey _ 2025 [group]
Cross - Cuts _ SAHA Studio _ video screening _ curator Erica Burini _ May 24th _ 2025 _ Istanbul _ Turkey [group]
NEW : NOW _ CerModern _ curator Atila Güllü _ Ankara _ Turkey _ 2025 [group]
Abstract Deities _ Gallery Büyükdere35 _ curator Suay Aytaman _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2025 [group]
Au Pays des Merveilles _ Galerie du Beffroi _ curator Lieux communs _ Namur _ Belgium _ 2024 [group]
Memento _ Mahalla Festival _ curator Sabine Küper-Büsch _ Ioakimion school_ Istanbul_ Turkey _ 2024 [group]
Made Anywhere _ Fondation Fiminco _ curator Nicholas Vargelis _ Romainville _ France _ 2024 [group]
Mamut Art Project _ 10th edition _ YapiKredi Bomontiada _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2022 [group]
Murmuration _ Mahalla Festival _ curator Sabine Küper-Büsch _ Kadiköy Sanat Merkezi _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2021 [group]
Splash _ Comédie de Caen _ CDN de Normandie _ curator Romuald Jandolo _ Hérouville St-Clair _ France _ 2021 [group]
Contemporary Istanbul _ Mahalla Festival _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2019 [group]
Generating New narratives _ Mahalla Festival _ curator Sabine Küper-Büsch _ Palazzo Zabbar _ Zabbar _ Malta _ 2018 [group]
Mahalla Festival Share House _ Fortress Builders _ Valletta _ Malta _ 2018 [group]
MArchives Forms _ with Amnon Friedman _ Salón Silicón gallery _ curator Olga Rodriguez _ Mexico City _ Mexico _ 2018 [duo]
TIRAJE, Art Book Fair _ Salón Silicón gallery _ Queretaro _ Mexico _ 2018 [group]
Open Performance Space _ Istanbul Performance Art _ curator Derin Pinar Gençer _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2017 [group]
Tomtom Tasarim sokakta _ Tomtom Kirmizi _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2017 [group]
Artissima _ VillaDellaFucina _Turino _ Italy _ 2017 [group]
Under the thunder _ with Romuald Jandolo _ MAstudio _ Istanbul, Turkey _ 2017 [duo]
Background _ Duchamp gallery _ curator Séverine Duhamel _ Yvetot _ France _ 2017 [group]
Mavi Melek _ Event as part of the Month of Photography OFF Berlin _ Erratum gallery _ Berlin _ Germany _ 2016 [solo]
curators Delphine Marinier & Lan Hungh
Manhattan...I could only dream it ! _ The secret Studio _ Wasteband collective _ New York City _ USA _ 2016 [group]
LA Artshow _ Gama gallery _ Los Angeles _ USA _ 2016 [group]
A Drop in A Pool _ Parallel event for the 14th Istanbul Biennial _ Gama gallery _ curator Orane Robiolle _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2015 [solo]
Slideluck _ Soho House _ curator Casey Kelbaugh _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2015 [group]
Gelincik _ Gama gallery _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2014 [solo]
Contemporary Istanbul _ Gama gallery _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2014 [group]
The Cosmopolitan Cultures & Fine Art Fair _ Gama gallery _ Macao _ China _ 2014 [group]
Cutlog _ Gama gallery _ New York City _ USA _ 2013 [group]
Contemporary Istanbul _ Gama gallery _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2012 [group]
À suivre 2012 _ ESAM _ curator Audrey Illouz _ Caen _ France _ 2012 [group]
Court Circuit _ Oh gallery _ Caen _ France _ 2012 [group]
16ème Biennale de céramique contemporaine _ Châteauroux _ France _ 2011 [group]
Ceram XXL _ Le Petit Lieu Poileboine gallery _ Caen _ France _ 2011 [group]
Layers of home _ Giswil Art International Festival 21st edition _ Giswil _ Switzerland _ 2022
curators Benjamin Sunarjo & Andrea Saeman
Performance - Appearance _ Golddess
Openart Biennale _ Online streaming from Istanbul _ Örebro _ Sweden _ 2019
curator Fikret Atay
Mahalla Festival _ Palazzo Zabbar _ Zabbar _ Malta _ 2018
curator Sabine Küper-Büsch
Tomtom Tasarim sokakta _ Istanbul Performance Art _ Tomtom Kirmizi _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2017
curator Derin Pinar Gençer
Visions-V_Ideas, Performance _ Beton7 _ Athens _ Greece _ 2017
curator Demosthenes Agrafiotis
SAHA Studio 9th period _ IMÇ _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ January - June 2025
Portrait Authentique _ Domaine de Chamarande _ Essonne _ France _ 2019
EU funding _ Memento _ Mahalla Festival _ Istanbul _ Turkey _ 2024
Aide Individuelle à la Création _ DRAC Normandie _ France _ 2020
SAHA Derneği Funding _ Generating New narratives _ Mahalla Festival_ Malta _ 2018
Diyalog Association _ chairwoman _ project assistant _ based in Istanbul _ Turkey
Magic Carpets _ Creative Europe platform _ emerging curator with Diyalog Association _ Kaunas Biennial _ Lithuania
Media support _ translator & fixer