:mentalKLINIK: Hacking Technology and Bodily Experience

Istanbul-born, Brussels-based artist duo :mentalKLINIK (Yasemin Baydar and Birol Demir) have spent over two decades exploring the intersection of analogue and digital realms. Their multidisciplinary practice includes works like FRENEMY (2022), a nihilist AI with magnetic eyes, and the BITTER MEDICINE series (2020), featuring iRobots attempting to clean glitter-covered floors. In 2020, a vacuum cleaner's 24-hour journey over confetti was live-streamed for four months at Borusan Contemporary in Istanbul. The duo's PROFILE series (2014) uses tempered glass and polyester films to create textual portraits of fictional individuals, critiquing social media identity performance. Their recent solo show, PARADISE ON SALE, at Istanbul's Dirimart included works like Double Deal (2023) in titanium and anodized aluminum. They are currently developing Lunatic Poets (2022–ongoing), digital characters created with Unreal Engine that inhabit cyberspace. The duo, who joined forces in Istanbul in 1998, maintain studios in Brussels' Zaventem area and Istanbul, often hosting gatherings and performances. Their work questions reality in an age of AI, ChatGPT, and the metaverse, as seen in their 2017 exhibition Truish at Dubai's Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, which featured Time magazine covers altered with emoji stickers.