At the horizon of the evening of no return 
2020-2021

room installation with processed textile (clay, soil, charcoal), oil paintings on paper, earthenware frames, wooden reading tables, 
riso printed booklets, earthenware objects, 
pillows


“When two forces come together, something is created that is as human as it is mystical. These tensions cannot be measured. Words are insufficient. Nevertheless, Günbike Erdemir succeeds in capturing these tensions in her work.

Her drawings, paintings, and installations create surreal worlds inhabited by figures that suggest a narrative and interact with one another. However, the nature of these relationships remains diffuse, as Erdemir is interested in the power structures and hierarchies that lie beneath the surface and eventually erupt. Intimacy creates vulnerability, trust involves surrender, just as pleasure can verge on pain, and safety can become suffocating. By revealing both beauty and its darker side, her work gathers its tension. Erdemir’s art revolves around the dynamics of attraction and repulsion.

Beyond physicality and intimacy, her work also connects to themes of religion and mysticism, where social gatherings, surrender to forces, and power play a central role. While avoiding explicit references, she bases her work on Gothic or Islamic forms, which she has become familiar with during her time in Turkey and Flanders.

Drawing and painting often form the foundation of her process, allowing her to let the work take shape spontaneously. She developed this affinity for drawing during her studies in Graphic Design at an academy in Istanbul.

During her master’s in Autonomous Design at KASK, her works gained a strong tactility through the use of natural materials such as clay, wood, and dough. The three-dimensional quality of her work led, this summer, to an installation in which gathering and ritual performance were key elements. For her graduation show, she is again creating an installation, which will provide the ideal setting to activate her text, drawings, and paintings. Viewers are invited to enter an intimate and comfortable space, where the themes depicted in her work will unfold as they experience the presence of one another.”

Interview with Floor van Luijk for Metropolis M Eindexamens 2020



exhibited at:
‘Generation Brussels’ by Brussels Gallery Weekend at Hageltoren, 2021
‘Currents #8: And Me, Streams of You’ at Marres, Maastricht, 2020
‘Graduation Show’ at KASK, Ghent, 2020