Ayse Erkmen will represent Turkey at the Venice Biennale 2011, 54th International Art Exhibition. Erkmen was selected for the Pavilion of Turkey by the international curator Fulya Erdemci. The pair will be working with London-based curator Danae Mossman, as curatorial collaborator, and leading industrial designer Konstantin Grcic, as tote bag designer for the Pavilion. Coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, the Pavilion of Turkey will be located in the Arsenale Artiglere, the main venue of the Venice Biennale.

Erkmen's sculptural practice spans mediums such as installation, photography, animation and intervention, where she often manipulates the surface of a space to reveal what is already present, but may be obscured. Although her practice can be considered sculptural, Erkmen does not invent forms. Instead she finds and reinterprets, always drawing on the specifics of that locale. Often space or objects are borrowed in order to have them perform temporarily as sculptures. Her work sensitizes us to our surroundings and the structures and situations that shape them, leaving only a trace behind.

Erkmen is developing a context-responsive and situation-specific performative installation for the pavilion. Details of Ayse Erkmen's project for the 54th Venice Biennale will be announced at a press conference in April 2011.

Ayse Erkmen
Erkmen graduated from Mimar Sinan University Department of Sculpture in 1977. She participated in the DAAD International Artist Residency Programme (Berliner Künstlerprogramm) in Berlin in 1993. From 1998–99 Erkmen worked as the Arnold Bode Professor at Kassel Art Academy, and as lecturer at Frankfurt Staedelschule 2000-2007. In 2002, she was awarded the Maria Sibylla Merian prize at Hessen Province Germany. Among numerous international exhibitions Erkmen has participated in are the 2nd and 4th Istanbul Biennials; Münster Sculpture Project; the Shanghai, Berlin, Gwangju, Sharjah, and SCAPE biennials, as well as the Folkestone and Echigo Tsumari Triennials. Ayse Erkmen lives in Istanbul and Berlin, and has been teaching at Münster Kunstakademie since 2010.

Fulya Erdemci
Erdemci, who has curated numerous international exhibitions and biennials, was the Director of the Istanbul Biennial 1994–2000; the Director of Elgiz Contemporary Art Museum, Project 4L 2003–2004; and Temporary Exhibitions Curator at Istanbul Modern 2004–2005. Erdemci was the co-curator of the 25th São Paulo Biennial "Citades/Cities" in 2002 and a curator of the 2nd Moscow Contemporary Art Biennial in 2007. Erdemci has been working as the Director of SKOR (Stichting Kunst en Openbare Ruimte) Foundation For Art and Public Domain in Amsterdam since July 2008.

Danae Mossman
In 2010 Mossman was Associate Producer at Situations, a public art research and commissioning agency at the University of the West of England. From 2004-2007 she worked as Director/Curator of The Physics Room in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she developed exhibitions and publications with many emerging and established artists, and initiated an artist residency programme. With Fulya Erdemci she curated 'Wandering Lines: Towards a New Culture of Space' for the 2008 SCAPE Christchurch Biennial of Art in Public Space, New Zealand. She is currently Artist Liaison at White Cube, London.

Konstantin Grcic
Since setting up his own practice Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design (KGID) in Munich in 1991 Grcic has developed furniture, products and lighting for leading design companies. Many of his products have received international design awards and form part of the permanent collections of the major museums (a.o. MoMA/New York, Centre Georges Pompidou/Paris). Recently Konstantin Grcic has curated a number of significant design exhibitions such as "Design Real" for The Serpentine Gallery, London (2009), and "Comfort" for the St.Etienne Design Biennale (2010). In 2010, Design Miami awarded him "Designer of the Year".

The Venice Biennale Pavilion of Turkey is realized with the support of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Promotion Fund, and is sponsored by the Italian automotive company Fiat. Fiat will also be sponsoring the Pavilion of Turkey for the 2013 Venice Biennale.