Ayse Erkmen's Hat Installation and Rampa Gallery Show in Istanbul

Ayse Erkmen, born in Istanbul and a graduate of Mimar Sinan University (1977), has two concurrent exhibitions in Istanbul. At Arter's space on Istiklal Street, she installed hundreds of colorful hats in a vitrine, referencing a former hat shop where her mother shopped. The installation critiques the institution, located among Art Nouveau buildings. At the new Rampa gallery in the Akaretler district, once home to palace servants, she stretched orange seat belts between columns, displayed copies of Google search results for her name, and showed a video of melting hearts with Beethoven's lied. Erkmen has lived outside Istanbul since the 1990s, was a resident at Berliner Künstlerprogramm, and created a permanent installation in Kreuzberg with Turkish words about past times. She taught at the Arnold Bode chair at Kassel Art Academy and at Frankfurt Städelschule (2002–2007). In 2002, she received the Maria Sibylla Merian Prize from Hessen. In 2008, she exhibited 'Weggefährten' at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, and sued Peter Friedl over the idea for his Documenta 12 work featuring the stuffed giraffe Brownie, which she had first proposed in 2005 for a museum in Birmingham. Her practice prioritizes site-specific contexts. She will represent Turkey at the 2011 Venice Biennale, though details of her pavilion remain undisclosed.