About
Berk Kır
Born in Istanbul, Turkey
Lives & works in Istanbul, Turkey
Berk Kır (b.1997) is a multifaceted professional, blending roles as an art historian, researcher, and artist. His work delves into image theory, conceptual thought, object-oriented ontology, and the complex dynamics of body, gender, and urban spaces. Berk, who served as Samsung Turkey's brand ambassador from 2019 to 2024, contributed to the company's digital content development with his expertise. In recognition of his talents, he was named among the 150 emerging talents in European Photography by GUP Magazine in 2021. Additionally, in 2022, he received the esteemed "Young Talent of the Year" award from the Association of Photography Organizations. Currently, Berk holds the position of photography editor at Unlimited Publications.
As a visible seeing subject, Berk Kır positions photography as an extension of his experiences in the city through his own body. For him, photography exists with its own corporeality, not to record a specific moment, but to keep a printout of his observations over a long period of time. The objects he collected on his walking routes in various parts of the world and the variability of the meanings of the objects depending on geographies are important to him, and the discovery of these potentials is the matter of photography. He deals with photograph with the possibility of turning into its own object. He is in pursuit of his feelings, in the form of himself, in the flow. It is intimately involved with queer theory, which refuses to be stuck in a certain form and maintains a relationship of resistance with whatever constitutes the normal. Resistance to the regimes of the normal is always visible, perceived or palpable in his photographs. Photography, which stands in a biographical place for the artist, is a tool to explore the surroundings in his life. He sees both his surroundings and himself through photography. In general, he looks outside to see himself. Events come, develop, maybe pass. Beyond a temporal proposition regarding all of these, it underlines a general scope of the process.
CV
Education
Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, History of Art
Kadir Has University, MSc Preserving of Cultural Heritage
Grants & Awards
2022 Association of Photography Organizations, Youth Talent of The Year
2022 Republic of Albania International FOKUS Awards, Candidate
2021 GUP Magazine, Fresh Eyes European Talent, Selected
2020 Pino Pascali Foundation Center of Contemporary Artists, Finalist
2017 Winner of the Fourth International Beşiktaş Photography Festival
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 Münchner Kammerspiele, "Off to Elsewhere"
2024 Arkas Sanat Izmir, "New Lands"
2023 Martch Art Project Istanbul, “It Doesn’t Matter Until It Does”
2022 Macedonia, Punctum Photography Festival
2022 artSümer Gallery Istanbul, “Brain Fog”
2022 Republic of Albania, International FOKUS Awards
2022 Nilüfer Municipality Bursa, “Look Up: Starry Horizons of a Limited Geography”
2022 Mixer Art Gallery Istanbul, “Things Change”
2021 Kasa Gallery Istanbul, “Weight of the World”
2021 Kahmann Gallery Rotterdam, Europe’s Fresh Eyes Talent Exhibition
2017 Ortaköy, Fourth International Beşiktaş Photography Festival
Solo Show
2024 Merdiven Art Space Istanbul, "Extimacy"
Current Show
2024 September, Münchner Kammerspiele, Germany
Upcoming Exhibitions
2024 October, Kulturbunker Köln-Mülheim, Germany
Publications
2024 Magazine / Art Unlimited 83rd Edition Cover Photo
2024 Magazine / Art Unlimited 82nd Edition Cover Photo
2024 Magazine / Art Unlimited 81st Edition Cover Photo
2024 Magazine / Art Unlimited 80th Edition Cover Photo
2024 Magazine / Art Unlimited 79th Edition Cover Photo
2023 Magazine / Art Unlimited 78th Edition Cover Photo
2023 Magazine / Art Unlimited 77th Edition Cover Photo
2023 Magazine / Art Unlimited 76th Edition Cover Photo
2023 Magazine / Art Unlimited 75th Edition Cover Photo
2023 Magazine / Art Unlimited 73rd Edition Cover Photo
2022 Catalogue/ Republic of Albania International FOKUS Awards
2022 Magazine/ Art Unlimited 72nd Edition Cover Photo
2022 Magazine / Art Unlimited 71st Edition Cover Photo
2022 Magazine / Art Unlimited 70th Edition Cover Photo
2022 Magazine / Art Unlimited 69th Edition Cover Photo
2021 Magazine / Art Unlimited 66th Edition Cover Photo
2021 Magazine / Kaos Q + , 10th Edition Cover Photo
2021 Photograph Book / GUP Magazine, New Generation European Photography
Residency
2022 Ankara Queer Art Program
Alumni
2021 Swedish Research Institute
2019 Zero1: The Art and Technology Network