Genco Gulan Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Genco Gülan
Self-portrait of Gülan
Born	(1969-01-13) 13 January 1969 (age 56) Istanbul, Turkey
Alma mater	The New School
Known for	Contemporary art, painting, sculpture
Movement	Idea art, Post-Dada

Genco Gülan (born January 13, 1969) is a Turkish artist and thinker. He creates art using many different forms. These include new media art, performance art, sculpture, painting, and photography.

His art often looks at how technology, who we are, and how we talk to each other all connect. Gülan studied media and communication in New York City. His artwork has been shown all over the world. He uses digital ideas, artificial intelligence, and different fields of study in his art. His work has been displayed in famous places like the Pera Museum in Istanbul and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Besides making art, Gülan also teaches about modern art. He even started the Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum as his own art project.

What is Genco Gülan Known For?
- Early Career and Art Projects
- Where His Art Has Been Shown
How Genco Gülan Makes Art
- Using Technology in Art
- Famous Artworks
Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum
Images for kids
See also

What is Genco Gülan Known For?

Early Career and Art Projects

Genco Gülan started his art journey in the early 1990s. He made art that explored ideas like artificial intelligence, gender, politics, and digital culture. In 1997, he created the Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum. This was an independent and experimental art project.

This museum project mixed ideas about how museums work with ways for people to join in. It also helped to collect and store art information.

Where His Art Has Been Shown

Gülan's art has been shown in many museums and art events around the world. Important places that have shown his work include the Pera Museum in Istanbul. His art has also been seen at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro. Other places include ZKM Karlsruhe and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

He has had solo exhibitions in Berlin and Istanbul. His art has also been shown at the State Art and Sculpture Museum in Ankara. Other solo shows were in İzmir, Zagreb, and Seoul. His art includes moving sculptures, art setups, digital characters, and experimental performances. Gülan also writes a lot about modern art ideas. He has given talks at universities in Europe and Turkey. He continues to organize art shows, teach, and display his art both online and in real places.

How Genco Gülan Makes Art

Using Technology in Art

Gülan is a new media artist. This means he uses things like text, computer codes, and even DNA in his art. For example, in a video called Tele-rugby, he filmed a women's swim team. They were playing rugby underwater with a TV screen.

His works include art made for the internet, images created by AI, and online videos. Gülan also uses a material called boron in his sculptures.

Famous Artworks

The Android Statue and drawings of Gülan's moving marble statues were shown in 2014. These were part of his Robotic Statues series. Gülan has worked with robots in university labs since the mid-1990s. His artwork Robots, Football and War (RFW) was part of a computer game. This game, Balkan Wars, won an award in 1995. An AI-created play by Gülan was used in a project called YEN! (New). This project was shown at the Pera Museum for the 16th Istanbul Theatre Festival.

Swimming Rocks, Çeşme, Alaçatı

The Great Conjugation was shown at Boğaziçi University in 2014. This art setup used about 1,000 ties. They created a path that went up five floors of the building.

This art setup was also shown in Thessaloniki and Ankara in 2013. In 2011, Gülan was a finalist for a European art prize. He also had his first exhibition in the building where he studied political science.

An exhibition called Swimming Rocks took place in 2014. It was held at Gallery Metazori in Çeşme, Alaçatı. This artwork was inspired by pumice rocks found in the Aegean Sea. Artworks by his mother and grandmother were also part of this exhibition. Gülan showed his New Landscape series and Digital Ghost series there.

Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum

Gülan started the Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum as an art project in 1997.

"At first the Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum developed as an art series in the manner of Duchamp and Broodthaers until the end of the 1990s. Later it evolved when it was transferred to the Internet. It turned into a new age institution that organized exhibitions, workshops and provided logistic support on cyber space."

The museum had a program called "I live in a Museum." Artists from the U.S., the Netherlands, Spain, and China stayed at its location in Galata.

A book about Gülan's art, Conceptual Colors of Genco Gülan, was published. His writings can be found in important libraries. These include the German National Library and the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Gülan founded the Web Biennial, an online art event. He has also been on the board of other art events. He was a guest editor for an art journal. He has been a judge for art prizes and teaches at universities.