PUBLIC TALK BY CURATOR ALPER TURAN ORGANIZED BY ARTWORKS AT ISET

ARTWORKS invites you on Monday, June 2, 2025 at the Institute of Contemporary Greek Art (ISET) for Alper Turan’s curatorial talk titled Curating Undetectable.

Alper Turan is currently in Athens for a six-week curatorial exchange program, organized by ARTWORKS and implemented in collaboration with the Istanbul based organization, SAHA Association. During his residency, Alper has been immersed in the local art scene through an intensive program of creative encounters and studio visits with artists and peers in order to meaningfully engage with the local art scene. His residency will culminate with this public talk during which he will reflect on his experience in the city and in relation to his curatorial practice which unfolds across diverse social and cultural contexts in the US, Canada, Germany, Turkey, and now Greece.

During his presentation, Curating Undetectable, Alper will discuss his curatorial trajectory, focusing on projects that have emerged as responses to censorship, institutional violence, and restrictions on freedom of expression, primarily in Turkey and internationally. Drawing on specific examples of exhibitions in Istanbul, New York, Rotterdam, and elsewhere, he will explore how curatorial practice can open space for alternative public discourses and collective forms of knowledge production. In his words:

“In contexts where (queer) lives are regulated into hypervisibility or coerced into disappearance—where visibility is weaponized, the public is unsafe or complicit, and art fails to communicate—undetectability, whether viral, aesthetic, or strategic, becomes both a constraint and a form. I treat curating as a practice of undoing—not only of curatorial authority, care, and control, but also of the expectations placed on curating to produce straight narratives, educate publics, protect institutions, or safeguard objects”.

Alper Turan’s talk is part of the ARTWORKS Connects program, which aims to strengthen the international presence of the Greek art scene through curatorial and artist residency exchanges. This residency program is co-funded by SAHA and ARTWORKS. ARTWORKS’s participation is made possible through the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

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Curator in Residence Talk
“Curating Undetectable” – Alper Turan
Public Talk | Free Admission
Institute of Contemporary Greek Art (ISET)

Valaoritou 9A, Athens