Alper Turan’s curatorial practice and research explore the intersections of state violence, censorship, and transnational queer resistance. Engaging critically with global cultural productions of HIV/AIDS, undetectable aesthetics, and the politics of visibility, his work investigates how art navigates the areas between text, body, and image within contested public spheres. Turan conceives the exhibition as an experimental laboratory, a space for collective knowledge-making and political action.
He was the 2023–24 Curatorial Fellow at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York and the 2023–24 General Idea Fellow at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Currently an adjunct curator at Protocinema, Turan is also a founding member of STRÜKTÜR, a Berlin-based organization dedicated to transnational artistic exchange and support. Turan is pursuing a PhD in Art History at the University of Toronto.
His curatorial projects have been featured at institutions including Whitney ISP (NY), ArteEast & Wallach Gallery (NY), Slavs & Tatars’ Pickle Bar (Berlin) & Wiener Festwochen (Vienna), A Tale of a Tub (Rotterdam), Queer Museum & Volkskundemuseum (Vienna), Protocinema (İstanbul) and the 13th Sharjah Biennial. His writings have appeared in Texte Zur Kunst, November Magazine, Metropolis M, C Magazine, Artnet, and OnCurating.
During his residency in Athens, Alper Turan will examine how far-right violence and repression resonate across Turkey, Greece, Germany, and the U.S., focusing on their impact on queer and dissident communities. Through collaborations with Athens-based artists and institutions, he will explore collective strategies of survival and resistance, centering queer methodologies and transnational solidarity. His research aims to build curatorial frameworks that challenge dominant narratives and imagine shared, liberatory futures.
Alper Turan is in residence at ARTWORKS (Athens) from May 2 until June 13 2025