Lives and works in London and Izmir
My practice examines how language, systems, and contemporary social structures shape everyday experiences of movement, identity, and belonging. Working across performance, installation, text, video, and archival research, I focus on how political frameworks enter daily life through administrative processes such as forms, permits, classifications, and inherited rules that govern who can move, speak, or appear.
I approach borders as lived conditions that organise bodies, temporalities, and relations, extending beyond their function as geopolitical lines. A recurring concern in my work is how systems of governance produce presence and absence, shaping visibility, access, and participation in uneven ways. I engage with official language and bureaucratic documents as material, reading, interrupting, and reworking them to reveal their underlying logic. Through this, I understand freedom as something continuously negotiated, deferred, or withheld rather than a fixed state.
This inquiry is grounded in personal and regional histories of displacement. My ongoing project, Vranofça Archive, is a community archive tracing intergenerational migration from Gorno Vranovci (present-day North Macedonia) to Turkey in the 1950s. Bringing together oral histories, family photographs, and everyday materials, the archive remains open, fragmented, and shaped through collective contributions. It considers how memory persists outside official records and how everyday practices carry political weight.
Performance has become central to my recent work, particularly in Global Talent Immigration Performance, an ongoing project that stages my own immigration status as a durational and administrative condition. In this work, legal frameworks function as scripts, timelines operate as constraints, and waiting becomes a form of labour. It attends to how borders operate through time as much as through space, producing uncertainty, repetition, and delay.
Across my practice, I am interested in language as both a mechanism of control and a potential site of resistance. I look for ways to inhabit, stretch, and unsettle institutional forms, creating space for ambiguity, opacity, and alternative modes of relation.
Bio
Betül Aksu (b. 1990, Izmir) is an artist based in London and Izmir. Her practice spans installation, performance, text, video, and printmaking, and explores how language, systems, and contemporary social structures shape everyday experiences of movement, identity, and belonging.
She is the founder of sezon, an artist-run space in Izmir, and co-initiator of the Vranofça Archive, a community archive tracing migration from Gorno Vranovci (present-day North Macedonia) to Turkey in the 1950s through family histories, photographs, and everyday materials.
She holds a BA in Linguistics from Hacettepe University, an MSc in Cognitive Science from the University of Trento, and an MSc in Language Science and Technology from Saarland University. She also undertook doctoral research in Media and Arts Technology at Queen Mary University of London. Her interdisciplinary background informs her work, combining critical theory with artistic inquiry to examine contemporary social and institutional structures.
Her work has been presented internationally, including at Sharjah Biennial 16; the Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje; Auto Italia, London; AVTO, Istanbul; and Material, Zurich. She has undertaken residencies at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and SAHA Studio, and participated in the BAK Fellowship for Situated Practice and the Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme.
instagram.com/betulaksu
2024 Permessus, AVTO, Istanbul, Türkiye
hold, place, transfer ↵ repeat, Material, Zurich, Switzerland
2025 15th BYA, Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje, curated by Sebastian Cichocki and Nada Prlja, Skopje, North Macedonia
to carry, Sharjah Biennial 16, Sharjah, UAE
v,o,w,e,l,h,a,r,m,o,n,y with Memed Erdener, Hayy Open Space, Izmir, Türkiye
2024 New Lands, Arkas Sanat Alaçatı, curated by Necmi Sönmez, Izmir, Türkiye
2023 Sidestep/reproduced//insolently, 5533, curated by Fırat Yusuf Yılmaz, Istanbul, Türkiye
before, sezon, Izmir, Türkiye
2022 If It Is A Garden That Has Become A Wilderness, School of Commons, Zurich, Switzerland
Stories walk, Kasa Gallery, curated by Emre Akaltın, Istanbul, Türkiye
This is not a chance encounter, Journeys Festival International, Leicester, UK
Young Fresh Different 11, Zilberman Gallery, Istanbul, Türkiye
Kronos Orada Değildi, altatölye, curated by İrem Hasçiftçi Kurt, Ankara, Türkiye
Coulisse, Mixer, curated by Eda Öztürk, Istanbul, Türkiye
2021 Libertikons, STAMP Altonale, Hamburg, Germany
Nothing’s gonna change my world?, gr-und, Berlin, Germany
In Your Hands, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall, UK
Kula, Ecumene Project, online
2020 Freedom of Movement?, Journeys Festival International, online
The Garden of Forking Paths, Ars Electronica, online
Take Dada Seriously? (it’s worth it?), Decorating Dissidence & Guest Projects London, online
Easy speaking & effortless listening, The Royal Institution of Great Britain, London, UK
2019 Weave It!, Stour Space, London, UK
Peripheries, The Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland
Plugin, Contemporary Istanbul, Istanbul, Türkiye
bang.Prix, Studio-X Istanbul, Istanbul , Türkiye
M.I.I Manifold, TTC Architecture & Design, London, UK
2018 Error: The Art of Imperfection, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria
2017 Across the Line, digilogue Zorlu Performing Arts Center, Istanbul
2016 Intersections, Mile End Art Pavilion, London, UK
2015 Dorkbot London #90, Limehouse Town Hall, London, UK
2025-2028 Global Talent Immigration Performance, online
2024 Global Talent, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands
Still in my quotidian, de Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2022 Bureau of Commons: London entry, Victoria Park, London, UK
Bureau of Commons: Venice entry, Venice, Arsenale & Giardini, Italy
officialese: from Taksim Gezi Park to Tünel and back, Istanbul, Türkiye
2021 Bureau of Commons: Zürich entry, Zurich, Switzerland
2017 Here Eyes Under The Bridge, group performance with Tara Fatehi Irani, LADA, London
2026 Vila 31 x Art Explora, Tirana, Albania
2025 Dwell Here Residency, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, Ireland
2024 SAHA Studio, Istanbul, Türkiye
2023-2024 BAK Fellowship for Situated Practice, BAK basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands & Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), Istanbul, Türkiye
2022 The Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), Istanbul, Türkiye
2021-2022 School of Commons, Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich, Switzerland & online
2017 AltCity Istanbul Digital Arts Residency, British Council & Zorlu PSM, Istanbul, Türkiye
2024-2025 Vranofça Archive, sezon, Izmir, Türkiye
2023 before, sezon, Izmir, Türkiye
2022 This is not a chance encounter, Journeys Festival International, Leicester, UK
2015-2020 PhD (not completed), Media and Arts Technology, Queen Mary University of London, UK
2014-2015 MSc, Language Science and Technology, Saarland University, Germany
2013-2014 MSc, Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Italy
2009-2013 BA (Hons), English Linguistics, Hacettepe University, Türkiye
2026 Guest Tutor Açık Okullar, Açık Sorular, Hayy Open Space, Izmir, Türkiye
2023 Guest Lecturer Film Interiors, Department of Interior Design, Bilgi University, Istanbul, Türkiye
2020 Guest Lecturer Research Methods and Responsible Innovation, EECS, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
2016-2021 TA Professional & Research Practice, EECS, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
2017-2018 TA Graphical User Interfaces, EECS, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
2016-2018 TA Interaction Design, EECS, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
2025 book Day to Day, YAZ Publication Series
2024 essay Emir kipinden süzülerek, katlar arası, Unlimited Publications
2022 book This is not a chance encounter, lemma_space
essay Adım Adım Büyücü ve Bahçe, manifold
essay We scan your documents on your behalf, School of Commons Issues
2021 essay Merits of Eligibility: rethinking criteria in art open calls, School of Commons Issues
book Researching the Researcher, School of Commons
review Betül Aksu dhe linja ballkanase e gjakut, Albanian Post
review Artistët që ndërthurin rrëfimet në Vila 31, Albanian Post
review New Rules: The Artists to Watch for 2026, OCULA Magazine
2025 review An Expanding Web: Artist Residencies Across Turkey, Deniz Kirkali, Reset!
review Still in My Quotidian: Yani, how to break a broken language, Esra Oskay, m-est.org
review Dünyalı Olmak ya da Olmamak, Ozan Özkan, Sanat Dünyamız, 204, sf. 142-147
review “Ses Uyumu”na deri-ben üzerinden bir yaklaşım, Ezgi Ceren Kayırıcı, Argonotlar
interview s,e,s,u,y,u,m,u, Merve Akar Akgün, ArtUnlimited
video Betül Aksu ve Memed Erdener - s,e,s,u,y,u,m,u - Hayy Open Space, İzmirArt
2024 video Betül Aksu | SAHA Studio 8. Dönem | SAHA Studio 8th Term, SAHA Studio
interview Yaratıcı Sürecin Değişkenleri: SAHA Studio’da Sanatçılarla Ara Dönem Buluşması, Serra Oruç, Artful Living
review The Imagined Reality of Betül Aksu’s “Permessus”, Alfonse Chiu, ArtAsiaPacific
review Free Verse // Closed Circuit: The Words and Works of Betül Aksu, Amy Gowen, The Contrapuntal
interview Sınır müzakereleri: Betül Aksu ile Permessus’un tahayyülü üzerine, Fırat Yusuf Yılmaz, Argonotlar
review Dilin yol boyu sezgiyle ifadesi, Burçak Fakıoğlu Yakıcı, Unlimited Publications
podcast Ve Diğer İşler podcast
2023 podcast Yaratıcı Eylem ve Sanatsal Üretim - Ezgi Bakçay & Betül Aksu, Part 1, Part 2, yermekân
2026 Remembering otherwise: Practices of counter-archiving and remembrance through the Vranofça Archive, Lumbardhi, Prizren
Vila 31 x Art Explora artist talk, Vila 31, Tirana
2024 Betül Aksu & Christian Oxenius on Permessus, SAHA Studio, Istanbul
2023 Learning Commons: Betül Aksu in conversation with Zeyno Pekünlü, online
2022 Coulisse exhibition panel talk, Mixer, Istanbul
2021 Am I eligible to apply? SoC Kitchen Session talk, Zurich University of the Arts
2020 Freedom of Movement? panel talk, Journeys Festival International, online
Salon: Digital Dada panel as part of Take Dada Seriously? exhibition, online
2019 The Role of the Audience in Interactive Art seminar talk, Studio-X Istanbul
2019 Art, Automation and Intersectionality panel talk, Leeds International Festival, Leeds
2018 Audience Engagement with Text-based Interactive Art, MAT Open talk, QMUL, London
2026 Production Grant, Vila 31 x Art Explora
2025 Dwell Here Residency Research Grant, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)
2024 turn the page, my hand, SAHA Production fund, Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation
SAHA Studio Grant, SAHA
Vranofça Archive, CultureCIVIC Art Production Grant
2023-2024 Fellowship for Situated Practice, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht
2022 This is not a chance encounter Production Grant, Journeys Festival International
2021-2022 School of Commons Research Grant, Zurich University of the Arts
2020 Creative Europe Liberty Art Commission, ArtReach UK
2015-2019 Queen Mary University of London PGR Students Sponsorship
2013-2015 Erasmus Mundus Language and Communication Technologies Scholarship
2013 Honour Student in English Linguistics, Bachelor of Arts, Hacettepe University
Private collections in Austria, Germany, Italy, North Macedonia, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, UAE, and the UK.
Please contact the artist for a list of available works at betulaksustudio[at]gmail.com
Kindred Studios
The Gramophone Works
326 Kensal Road
London W10 5BZ
Izmir
sezon
Address on request.
Studio visits by appointment.