b.1986, Istanbul
Yelta Köm (b.1986, Istanbul) is an artist who brings together architectural, artistic, and spatial practices to discuss social and political issues. Environmental perception, urban imagery, neoliberal transformations, tensions between nature and technology, and collective movements often inspire his work. Collaboration is an important part of Köm's practice, which involves various methodologies and materials. His focus includes critical practices related to landforms, technology, space and communities, surveillance methodologies related to urban and data mapping systems, architectural technologies, and representation techniques through oral and cinematographic storytelling.
Köm received his undergraduate degree from the Department of Architecture at Yıldız Technical University and completed his master's degree at the Städelschule Academy of Fine Arts. He participated in Micro Residency (Athens) in 2018 and in SAHA Studio (as part of the Silent University Orientation Program) in 2022. Köm's personal and collective works have been exhibited in several biennials, museums, galleries and art institutions such as Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Design Biennial, Venice Architecture Biennale, Maxxi Museum (Rome), Goethe-Institut (Athens, Ankara), SALT (Istanbul), V&A Museum (London), nGbK (Berlin), The Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery UM (Prague), transmediale vorspiel Silent Green (Berlin), Chicago Architecture Biennial, TOP e.V (Berlin), and Versus Art Project (Istanbul).
Yelta Köm is currently working as a researcher on the Topological Atlas project hosted by TU Delft and is teaching at Practices and Politics of Representation at the department of Bauhaus Universität Weimar Faculty of Architecture. Co-founder Architecture for All and the artists lives and work in Berlin. He is represented by Versus Art Project; Istanbul.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 forget it all
Versus Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey
2022 Urban Surveillance Bureau A Sequence of work in process
transmediale / Vorspiel 2022
TOP e.V, Berlin, Germany
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 vorspiel transmediale
Silent Green, Berlin, Germany
2022 17. Istanbul Biennial
Collective Participation, Arazi Assembly & Topological Atlas, Silent University Orientation Program
2022 Grounds of Coexistence
Gallery UM, Prague, Czech Republic
2022 Undertow
Online Video Exhibition
Versus Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey
2021 Fluid Dynamics
Versus Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey
2021 Listening to Listening
TOP e.V, Berlin, Germany
2020 Scale
Versus Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey
2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial
Participant with Architecture For All
Washington St. Chicago, USA
2019 I-DEA, Archive of Archives: A voyage through the collections of Basilicata
Matera, Italy
2018 16th International Architecture Exhibition
La Biennale Di Venezia Pavilion Of Turkey
Venice, Italy
2017 ACTOPOLIS: The Art of Action
Goethe-Institut Athens, Greece
2016 We Won’t Leave
Goethe-Institut Ankara, Turkey
2015 Istanbul. Passion, Joy, Fury
Participant with Architecture For All
MAXXI Museum Rome, Italy
2015 77-13 Political Art and Resistance in Turkey
Participant with Architecture For All
nGbK, Berlin, Germany
2015 Adhocracy [Athens]
Participant with Architecture For All
Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece
2015 Hidden Playgrounds, Neola Art Projects
Participant with Architecture For All
City Leaks Urban Art Festival, Cologne, Germany
2015 Disobedient Object
Participant with #occupygezi architecture and Architecture For All
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
2014 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, The Future Is Now What Is Used To Be
KONTRAAKT, #occupygezi architecture, TwtRate
Istanbul, Turkey
2012 1st Istanbul Design Biennial (Adhocracy)
Ad-Hoc Library with Pelin Tan, and Ethel Baraona Pohl
Galata Greek Primary School, Istanbul, Turkey
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2018 16th International Architecture Exhibition
Associate Curator // La Biennale Di Venezia Pavilion Of Turkey
2015 VitrA Contemporary Architecture Series “Caution! Slippery Ground”
Curator // Istanbul Modern Museum
SELECTED TALKS & SEMINARS
2023 An Afternoon on the Internet
Piksel Art Talks // Ulya Soley, Yelta Köm
2022 Discrepancies from Conflicting Pasts and Anti-Colonial Futures
Conversation // Ezgi Kılınçaslan, Yelta Köm (Moderator: Öndercan Muti)
AKEBİ, Berlin, Germany
2022 Architecture as a Field of Research
Online Talk // Dilşad Aladağ, Eda Aslan, Bihter Almaç, Yelta Köm (Moderator: Pelin Derviş)
GEMSS'21, Istanbul, Turkey
2021 Experiences, challenges, hopes
Panel Discussion // Asli Duru, Banu Çiçek Tülü, Yaşar Adnan Adanalı
(Moderator: Yelta Köm) The Path, Oyoun Berlin, Germany
2021 Architecture for All: A Decentralised Methodology
Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey
2021 Spatial Queries on Fuzzy Lines
Guest Lecturer // Online Seminar, Yaşar University, Istanbul, Turkey
2021 Witnessing Ways of Living in Urban Space
Discussion // Seçil Yersel, Yelta Köm
Chromatic Wednesdays, Apartment Project, Berlin
2021 Omuz Speaks: Solidarity and Uncertainty
Panel Discussion // Cavidan Soykan, Tuba İnal Çekiç, Malaz Usta,
(Moderator: Yelta Köm), Online
2020 Open Architecture: In Conversation with Hasan Cenk Dereli and Yelta Köm
Conversation // Açık Radyo, Istanbul, Turkey
2020 Hide & Seek | Urban Surveillance Bureau
Project Presentation and Q&A // Forecast Forum
2019 Architecture for All: A Decentralised Methodology
NLB Talks - Natural Building Lab, TU Berlin
2019 Occu-Pie - Aufstand der Utopien Festival
Interview // Chemnitz, Germany
2018 Urban Struggles & Emergent Commoning Practices
CommonsLab: Nachbarschaftslabor Berlin
2018 Open Architecture: On Human Representations in Architectural Projects
Conversation // Yağmur Yıldırım, Yelta Köm
Açık Radyo, Istanbul, Turkey
2017 Workshop of Cornell University's "Migration and Discrimination"
"The road to home : The current status of spatial practices in Turkey
2016 5th DFG International Graduate Research Programme Conference
IGK Berlin, Germany
2016 Urbantopias: Discussing the Challenges of Changing Cities
Film Screening, Q&A // Video Activism in Turkey
2015 Architecture for All
Ted Talk // TedxResetSalon, Istanbul, Turkey
2015 Autonomous Archiving: bak.ma meets pad.ma
The Surplus of Political Action in Urban Space, Art Practices
14th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
2014 Designers in Dialogue: The Future...?
Conversation // 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
2014 Gezi Movement and Resistance Architecture, Architecture for Everyone and #occupygezi
Presentation and Conversation // Bi'bak Exchange, Berlin, Germany
2014 Architecture for All and Current Conversations in Turkey
Mundus Urbano, TU Darmstadt, Germany
2013 Istanbul And Beirut
Portfolio and Workshop Presentation // AA Mittelmeerland Alexandria Symposium, Egypt
AWARDS, HONOURS, AND NOMINATIONS
2021 GEMSS'21: Emerging Architects Selection and Exhibition
The Circle, Istanbul, Turkey
2020 Forecast Platform Berlin: Hide & Seek
Selected Nominee, Dissecting Technocapitalism moderated Evgeny Morozov
2017 Design Trust Hong Kong - Design Trust Seed Grant
Commoning Practices Research Grant, Hong Kong
2015 Young Architect Encouragement Award
Arkitera Architecture Centre
2014 Scholarship for Artists and Architects
DAAD - German Academic Exchange Service
2012 Travel Grant
Open Society Foundation
2012 AA Mittermeerland Beirut
Zeit Foundation, Germany
2011 Arkitera Travel Grant
Arkitera Architecture Centre
PUBLICATIONS
2016 - Current Berlin Notes
Article Series on Berlin, migration, daily life, on witnessing the city,
manifold.press
2022 Our route is Hong Kong, our guide is Yelta Köm
Article, BantMag
2021 Transformation of Architectural Practice and the Pandemic
Article, TMMOB Chamber of Architects Ankara Branch
2018 Seed Of Awareness
Interview with Michael Leung, XXI Architecture and Design Magazine
2016 There is an architecture without trade but with an economy
Article, Chamber of Architects Magazine
2014 A Spatial Narrative Of The Perpetual Reconquista (What's Happening In Taksim)
Book Chapter, Urbane Interventionen Istanbul: Learning from Gezi?,
Merve Verlag Berlin
2014 Growing Architectures in Glass Boxes
Article, Arredamento Architecture
ARTIST RESIDENCIES
2022 Micro Residency
Athens, Greece
2018 SAHA Studio - Silent University
Istanbul, Turkey