Ayşe Erkmen: Undone

Undone explores 52 unrealised projects by Ayşe Erkmen, offering a rare glimpse into the conceptual force of works that remained unbuilt. Often conceived for competitions or public contexts, these projects—halted by spatial, political, or logistical constraints—reveal Erkmen’s artistic depth through sketches, renderings, and notes. Rather than viewing these ideas as failures, the book highlights their significance as powerful, stand-alone conceptual works. With texts by Friedrich Meschede and Cem İleri, Undone reflects on the meaning of realisation in contemporary art, challenging the notion that only completed works define an artist’s legacy. Erkmen emerges not only as an installation artist but as a thinker who engages deeply with space, form, and society. Celebrating intention and imagination, Undone presents unrealised art as fertile ground for rethinking public space and possibility.

Ayşe Erkmen (b.1949, Istanbul) graduated from the Department of Sculpture, Mimar Sinan University in 1977. In 1993, she participated in the DAAD International Artist Residency Programme in Berlin. Erkmen worked as the Arnold Bode Professor at Kassel Art Academy in 1998–1999, as lecturer at Frankfurt Städelschule in 2000–2007 and at Münster Kunstakademie in 2008–2016. Among the international exhibitions Erkmen has participated in are the 2nd, 3rd and 13th Istanbul Biennial; the Turkish Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale; Manifesta 1, Shanghai, Berlin, Gwangju, Sharjah, Limerick, Scape, Ichihara, Aicihi biennials; and the Folkestone and Echigo-Tsumari triennials. Her recent shows include Beethoven Bewegt, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (2020); Whitish, Arter, Istanbul (2019); Kıpraşım Ripple, Dirimart, Istanbul (2017); A, SMAK, Ghent (2016); Une histoire, art, architecture et design, des années 80 à aujourd’hui, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014); Ayşe Erkmen: Intervals, Barbican Center, London (2013). Erkmen participated in the Skulptur Projekte Münster 2017 with a project titled On Water and in the first edition of the Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019 with her project three of four. In 2020, she is granted the prestigious triennial Ernst Franz Vogelmann Sculpture Award, the first woman artist receiving it. She lives and works in Berlin and Istanbul.