Genco Gulan Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Genco Gulan
Self-portrait with 4 eyes. Oil on Canvas. Pekin Collection.
Born	(1969-01-13) 13 January 1969 (age 56) Istanbul
Nationality	Turkish
Education	The New School,
Known for	Contemporary Art, Painting, Sculpture,
Movement	Idea art, Post Dada

Genco Gülan (born on January 13, 1969) is a modern artist and thinker from Istanbul, Turkey. He creates many different kinds of art. This includes painting, sculpture, photography, video, and performance. He also uses everyday objects and new technology in his work.

Gülan studied Media at The New School in New York City. His art has been shown in many famous places. These include the Pera Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, and the Pompidou Center in Paris. He has also had his own art shows in Berlin, Istanbul, Zagreb, and Seoul.

Art and Technology
Creative Artworks
Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum
Selected images
See also

Art and Technology

Twin Project, 2011. Performance by twin sisters; Yeliz and Deniz Çelebi.

Genco Gülan is known for using unusual things in his art. He uses text, computer codes, and even his own DNA! He is a new media artist. This means he uses computers, the internet, and other digital tools to create his art.

In one of his video art pieces called Tele-rugby, he filmed a women's swim team playing rugby underwater with a TV screen. He also makes experimental art using internet art, images made by artificial intelligence (AI), and robot games. Genco even uses a special material called boron in some of his sculptures.

Creative Artworks

The Android Statue

The Android Statue is one of Genco Gülan's interesting works. It was shown at the Antalya Archeology Museum in 2014. He also showed drawings of his "Robotic Statues." These are marble statues that can move. Genco has been working with robots in university labs since the 1990s. He uses their parts and computer programs in his art.

One of his artworks, "Robots, Football and War (RFW)," was part of a computer game called "Balkan Wars." This game won an award in 1995. He even used a play written by artificial intelligence (AI) in a project shown at the Pera Museum.

The Great Conjugation

Swimming Rocks, Çeşme, Alaçatı

In 2014, Gülan created an art piece called "The Great Conjugation." It was shown at Boğaziçi University, where he used to study. For this artwork, he used about 1,000 neckties. He arranged them to create a path that went up five floors of the building! People were invited to bring their own ties to add to the artwork. This art piece was also shown in Greece and Ankara.

Swimming Rocks

In 2014, Genco Gülan had an exhibition called "Swimming Rocks" in Çeşme, Alaçatı. This is a place where he spent a lot of his childhood. "Swimming rocks" are actually pumice rocks. These are light rocks that can float on water. You can find them in the Aegean Sea around Çeşme. Gülan used these and other stones to create his "Swimming Rocks" artworks.

His mother, Tezer Gülan, and his grandmother, Saime İzmiroğlu, also had their art shown at this exhibition. Genco also presented his "New Landscape" series, which showed landscapes as barcodes. He also had his "Digital Ghost" series, where he painted images from his laptop onto large canvases.

Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum

In 1997, Genco Gülan started the Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum as an art project. At first, it was a series of art pieces. Later, it moved online and became a new kind of museum. It organized online exhibitions, workshops, and helped artists in the digital world.

For almost ten years, the museum had a special program called "I live in a Museum." Artists from different countries stayed and worked at its location in Galata.

Genco Gülan has also written books about art. His books can be found in famous libraries like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University. He also started the Web Biennial, an online art show. He has been a judge for art prizes and teaches at universities like Mimar Sinan Academy and Boğaziçi University.