The Opening in Mayfair(2026) Performance- Installation Ink-jet print on A2 size papers
The Opening in Mayfair (2026), a performance that takes as its starting point the London Underground announcement ‘See it. Say it. Sorted.’, the artists highlight the open-ended nature of surveillance and espionage in the public realm. The work incorporates reports written during the exhibition opening by a detective – whose identity remains unknown, even to the artists. In doing so, Günyol and Kunt foreground the public nature of the gallery space and the increasing authoritarian pressures shaping this publicness within the global political climate.
From the press release of the exhibition If you wanna go outside, get, 5 MARCH–11 APRIL 2026 at DİRİMART LONDON
Drawing with tank tracks on matt-white painted steel
650 × 650 × 0.4 cm
Paranoid Circle was initially thought for the exhibition Ratatataa at the Kunstmuseum Karlsruhe, though it was never realized.
The Kunstmuseum Karlsruhe’s building, formerly a weapons and ammunition factory, is now a museum and exhibition space with an extensive collection. Considering its previous use, the space has undergone a significant transformation—shifting from weaponry to art, from the rapid shipping of items to the storage of a collection, and from the mass production of single items to the diversity of artworks.
This transformation prompted us to ask the following questions: What if this museum went back to the late 1930s and experienced its own space as a weapons and ammunition factory? Or, if this space—once a weapons and ammunition factory—came to the present day and saw itself as an art museum, how would these two states conceptually merge? What kind of art project might emerge from this?
Paranoid Circle consists of a circular pattern created by a tank rotating repeatedly around its own axis on 4 mm thick painted steel plate. Rather than engaging with the tank’s destructive power—or the aesthetics of violence—the project explores how a 60-ton heavy weapon can be transformed into a material for art. In this sense, the work resists weaponization; instead, it reverses it.
The circle, as a form, has been reinterpreted by many artists within various conceptual frameworks over time. It is often associated with ideas such as symmetry, infinity, timelessness, emptiness and so on. However, this circle does not represent any of these concepts; instead, it produces a sense of deadlock.
Here, the tank becomes an “art machine” capable of drawing. It leaks into the artistic expression; much like a brush leaves marks on a canvas, the tank’s tracks inscribes marks onto the steel surface. Through this process, it is instrumentalized and incorporated into an aesthetic mode of production. Considering the material thickness and the dimensions of the work (650 × 650 cm), the piece is conceived to resemble an enlarged drawing on 160 gsm paper.
As the tank moves, it scratches the surface beneath it, gradually forming a circular pattern that simultaneously creates the drawing and conceptually confines the machine within it.
A tank’s ability to rotate 360° relates to its dominance over its surroundings—it can face and move in any direction at will. Yet during the process, its continuous spinning produces another effect: as if it is trying to look in every direction at once. This repetitive motion gives the tank a distinctly paranoid presence.
Free Solo (2019–25) Performance, installation 154 pieces, acrylic paint on polyurethane, magnesium powder, plywood, 500 × 900 cm (installation dimensions variable)
For Free Solo, Günyol & Kunt created molds from details of numerous statues and memorials in Frankfurt, Istanbul, Çanakkale, and Karlsruhe using silicon. Replicas, which are reminiscent of climbing grips, were cast from these molds. The resultant installation is like a climbing wall—but its origin is not in sport, it is from a collective impulse. Memorials are not only viewed or revered, but are also climbed during protests and celebrations.
This physical act—the aspiration to transcend your own existence, to move up and get closer to the symbolic power of these places—forms the center of the work. The work invites us to question the relationship between body, space, and power—and shows how history can be literally scaled.
Higher than the Ground, Lower than the Sky (2022-2025) Electrostatics paint on iron Each; 420 x 45 x 20 cm
Higher than the Ground, Lower than the Sky consists of fixed ascending stairs indicating the pedestal heights of public space sculptures in Ankara, Izmir, Istanbul, Frankfurt and Karlsruhe. Pedestals serve the function of lifting things placed on them, yet in the installation, their heights converge with the bodies of the stairs, the tools of the up-and-down movement. Therefore, the installation both diverts an object with daily use from its function and gives it a new function. The irregularly arranged steps of the stairs draw a portrait of the hierarchal order in the public space, while the possibility of moving the steps when necessary shows that this hierarchy can be reconstructed at any moment. Higher than the Ground, Lower than the Sky also allows it to be read as a measuring object indicating the invisible layers rising from the ground.
Installation view; Ratatataa exhibition at Kunstmuseum Karlsruhe Photo: Stephan Baumann
İzmir Karşıyaka Vapur İskelesi için ‘Kendine Ait Bir Oda’ Frankfurt’ta yaşayan sanatçılar Özlem Günyol ve Mustafa Kunt ile İzmir Karşıyaka Vapur İskelesi için ‘Kendine Ait Bir Oda’ davetiyle kamusal alanda sanat projelerini konuşuyoruz.
Unutulmuş Gün, Karşıyaka Vapur İskelesi’nin bekleme alanlarından birini kamusal sergi alanına dönüştüren KABO’nun daveti üzerine planlanan günlük bir yayın projesidir.
Proje, basılı gazeteleri malzeme olarak kullanır. Günümüzde tirajları büyük oranda düşmüş olan gazeteler ve onların bağlı olduğu medya kuruluşlarına ait televizyon kanalları ortak hareket ederek gündemi etkilemeye devam eder. Bu nedenle kitle iletişim araçları olup biteni takip ettiğimiz başlıca mecralar olarak yeniden odağımıza yerleşir.
Unutulmuş Gün, Nisan ayı boyuncatirajı 30.000’in üzerinde olan yaklaşık on dört gazetenin manşet ve öne çıkan birinci sayfa haberlerini günbegün tarar. Bu haberlerden kişi, ülke ve kurum isimlerini çıkarır, gündemi belirleyen ve en çok tekrar eden kelimeleri kopya kâğıdı ve mürekkepli kalemler ile her gün büyük bir tuvale aktararak sabitler.
Basılı gazeteler dünü bugüne bağlarken, Unutulmuş Gün ise dün ile bugünü bir sonraki güne taşır. Farklı yönelimlere sahip gazetelerin manşetlerini bir tür sindirim sürecinden geçirerek geriye kalanları kalıcı olarak işaretler. Matbaadan çıkan gazete baskısının elle kopyalanarak tuvale aktarımı zamansal olarak süreci yavaşlatırken, bulundukları yerlerden koparılıp alınan yüzlerce kelime boşlukta asılı kalarak yalnızlaşır. Serbest kalan bu kelimeler farklı çağrışımlara, yeni kurgulara ve yeni bağlamlara açık hale gelerek iskelede bekleyen yolcular için zihinsel bir oyun alanı yaratır, insanların günlük yaşamlarıyla kesişerek yeni anlatılar ve yorumlar üretir.
Sergi mekânının kamusal alanda bir toplu taşıma durağı olması onu günlük akış ve ritmin doğal bir parçası yapar. Aynı şekilde, gazeteler de güncel olayları, toplumsal dinamikleri ve kamusal söylemi şekillendirerek günlük döngüye eklemlenir.
Unutulmuş Gün, gazete manşet ve birinci sayfa haberlerini bağlamlarından kopararak yeniden dolaşıma sokarken güncel siyasi meseleler ve bunların davranışları üzerine istatistiksel bir kelime havuzu oluşturur. Bu yönüyle proje, günden güne kendini inşa eden panoramik bir manzara resmi olarak da okunabilir—ancak bu, doğaya değil, toplumsal hafızaya ait bir “kelimeler manzarasıdır.”
ÖZLEM GÜNYOL & MUSTAFA KUNT
The Forgotten Day, 2025 Ink on canvas 250 × 800 cm
The Forgotten Day is a daily publication project planned upon the invitation of KABO, which has transformed one of the waiting areas of the Karşıyaka Ferry Terminal into a public exhibition space.
The project uses printed newspapers as its material. Although newspaper circulation has significantly declined in recent years, these publications and the TV channels affiliated with their parent media groups continue to operate in concert to influence the public agenda. As a result, mass media reclaims its position as a central medium through which we follow and interpret current events.
Throughout April, The Forgotten Day scans the front-page headlines and prominent lead stories of approximately fourteen newspapers, each with a daily circulation of over 30,000. From these stories, it removes the names of individuals, countries, and institutions, and transfers the most frequently repeated and agenda-setting words onto a large canvas using carbon paper and ink pens—day by day—fixing them in place.
While printed newspapers connect the past to the present, The Forgotten Day carries both the past and the present into the future. By digesting the headlines of newspapers with differing political leanings, the project distills and permanently marks what remains. The manual transfer of printed news content onto canvas slows down the temporal process, while the hundreds of words extracted from their original contexts remain suspended—isolated—in space. Freed from their sources, these words become open to new associations, narratives, and interpretations, creating a mental playground for passengers waiting at the terminal. The work intersects with people’s daily lives, generating new stories and meanings.
The public nature of the ferry terminal as a transportation hub renders the exhibition space a natural part of the city’s daily rhythm and flow. In a similar way, newspapers embed themselves in the daily cycle by shaping current events, social dynamics, and public discourse.
By detaching front-page headlines and stories from their original contexts and placing them back into circulation, The Forgotten Day forms a statistical word pool around current political issues and behavioral patterns. In this sense, the project can also be read as a panoramic landscape painting constructed day by day—a “landscape of words” belonging not to nature, but to collective memory.
The Forgotten Day (2025) Ink on canvas 250 × 800 cm
The Forgotten Day is a daily publication project planned upon the invitation of KABO, which has transformed one of the waiting areas of the Karşıyaka Ferry Terminal into a public exhibition space.
The project uses printed newspapers as its material. Although newspaper circulation has significantly declined in recent years, these publications and the TV channels affiliated with their parent media groups continue to operate in concert to influence the public agenda. As a result, mass media reclaims its position as a central medium through which we follow and interpret current events.
Throughout April, The Forgotten Day scans the front-page headlines and prominent lead stories of approximately fourteen newspapers, each with a daily circulation of over 30,000. From these stories, it removes the names of individuals, countries, and institutions, and transfers the most frequently repeated and agenda-setting words onto a large canvas using carbon paper and ink pens—day by day—fixing them in place.
While printed newspapers connect the past to the present, The Forgotten Day carries both the past and the present into the future. By digesting the headlines of newspapers with differing political leanings, the project distills and permanently marks what remains. The manual transfer of printed news content onto canvas slows down the temporal process, while the hundreds of words extracted from their original contexts remain suspended—isolated—in space. Freed from their sources, these words become open to new associations, narratives, and interpretations, creating a mental playground for passengers waiting at the terminal. The work intersects with people’s daily lives, generating new stories and meanings.
The public nature of the ferry terminal as a transportation hub renders the exhibition space a natural part of the city’s daily rhythm and flow. In a similar way, newspapers embed themselves in the daily cycle by shaping current events, social dynamics, and public discourse.
By detaching front-page headlines and stories from their original contexts and placing them back into circulation, The Forgotten Day forms a statistical word pool around current political issues and behavioral patterns. In this sense, the project can also be read as a panoramic landscape painting constructed day by day—a “landscape of words” belonging not to nature, but to collective memory.
Newspapers:Türkiye, Sabah, Hürriyet, Sözcü, Akşam, Yeni Akit, Milliyet, Korkusuz, Takvim, Yeni Şafak, Posta, Yeni Asır, Nefes, Türkgün
Call (2024) sound installation on the exhibition promenade (Uçhisar, Cappadocia)
List of Birds (not in order in the video): White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala) Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) European Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur) Greater Spotted Eagle (Clanga clanga) Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) Basra Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus griseldis) Sociable Lapwing (Vanellus gregarius) Steppe Eagle (Aquila nipalensis) Mountain chiffchaff (Phylloscopus sindianus) Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris Lesser white-fronted goose (Anser erythropus) Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita) Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis)
It is October in Frankfurt. Afternoon in the city. A loud noise, as if screaming, is coming from the distance. We look up in amazement every time. Thousands of African geese are in a rush to return at the end of summer…
Every year, millions of birds carry out their seasonal migration through Anatolia in the Africa-Europe or Africa- Asia direction. Nevşehir Gülşehir and Avanos Kızılırmak basin, located on the international bird migration route, are also among the important stopover sites for migratory birds.
When thinking about the theme of Changing Skies, migratory birds that physically experience the changing skies come to our minds. What a vital importance to migrate -to be able to migrate- has on all living beings. Migration means physical displacement, but also includes the journey between life and death. Sometimes relocation could be made following the climate in order to survive, sometimes trying to cross borders for other vital reasons, and sometimes to proliferate transfering your life energy to other living beings. In any case, the concept of migration emerges as an area of great struggle between life and death. For example, migratory birds; to survive first of all, they should be able to continue their way without being targeted by hunters. Then, if they are lucky enough, the wetlands where they stay should not have been dried due to agricultural irrigation or drainage, the pastures should not have been turned into agricultural areas, or the feeding areas invaded by concrete.
Call (2024) will distribute the sounds of migratory birds, which are in danger of extinction on a global scale and pass through Anatolia, along the walking route of the festival area at irregular intervals. The sounds of these birds, each of which will be presented by a single speaker, will be played at irregular and sparse intervals in line with their rarity. While the project leaves the hearing of bird sounds to chance, it underlines “disappearance” by allowing a rumour to arise whether they are heard or not.
Cappadox 2024 Değişen Gökler / Changing Skies in memory of Fulya Erdemci 23.05 – 13.06.2024 Uçhisar / Cappadocia curated by Kevser Güler
Video documentation: Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt, Mete Kaan Özdilek
