Neslihan Uçar Kartoğlu
I was born in 1983 in Üsküdar, Istanbul. I completed the first step of my university education at Yıldız Technical University, Faculty of Art and Design, Art Management Program (2006). During my undergraduate studies, I interned at distinguished institutions such as Istanbul Modern Art Museum, İKSV and Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts Center. Then, I completed the Cultural Studies Master's Program at Bilgi University (2008) with a thesis I wrote on the development of private museums in Istanbul.
In 2016, I completed my PhD at Marmara University, Department of Business Administration-Management and Organization Program. I published my PhD thesis, which was shaped on the nature of institutional logics in the field of museums in Turkey, as an article in the Journal of Management and Organization Research in 2018. In 2023, I successfully completed the "Contemporary Art and Curatorship Program" jointly conducted by Akbank Art and Open Dialogue Istanbul.
In 2009, I worked as a Research Assistant at Doğuş University, Department of Painting for a short time. I started teaching in the 2013-2014 academic year; I served part-time as a Lecturer at Okan University, Department of Art and Culture Management between 2014-2019. In the 2015-2016 academic year, I taught a course on the cultural and artistic life of Istanbul at Bahçeşehir University, Department of Health Management.
Between 2017 and 2023, I taught courses as a part-time Assistant Professor at Istanbul Kültür University, Arts and Culture Management Program at various intervals. Between October 2019 and August 2022, I held academic and administrative positions as both an Assistant Professor and Department Head at Nişantaşı University, Stage and Performing Arts Management Program. Since 2023, I have been teaching courses and meeting with my students as a part-time Assistant Professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, Arts and Culture Management Program.
In addition to my academic duties, I have been involved in various activities as a writer in the field of culture and arts. Since 2005, my exhibition reviews and interviews have been published in various periodicals such as Plato Güncel Sanat, Artist Actual and Artist Modern, Milliyet Sanat. In 2011, I worked as the assistant editor of Artist Actual and Artist Modern magazines. Since 2013, I have continued to write in a similar way in the online art publication artfulliving.com and since 2022 in İthaf Sanat magazine.
Between 2008 and 2015, I took part in the catalogue projects of the retrospective exhibitions held at Türkiye İş Bankası Kibele Art Gallery as an artist assistant and editor. During this process, I had the chance to work with many artists. In 2024, I managed the "Intercultural Dialogues with Philippe Van Eetvelt" project with Sinem Pehlivan for the Francophonie Week with the support of the Canadian Embassy in Ankara.
I continue to conduct research and academic studies in the fields of culture industry, creative industry, creative economy, art management, cultural entrepreneurship, organizational theories, strategic management. I am married and a mother of one girl.
Neslihan Uçar Kartoğlu (PhD)
Within the Circle
This exhibition invites the individual to be part of a circle, or even to stand in the middle, nourished by “ecopoiesis” desribed as a creative human function.
“Within the Circle” suggests a re-evaluation of the concepts of “self” and “life awareness” within the boundaries of an exhibition space, and aims to redefine and improve these concepts, which have lost their truth in urban life, by establishing a field of dialogue between the individual and the artist.
The core issue of this exhibition is the problem of not being able to "wake up" to oneself with the empty "self" and "life consciousness" of the individual who is stuck in the chaotic and ever-changing agenda of city life, who has become alienated from himself, who has forgotten his abilities or is unable to become aware of them, and who has evolved and changed within the mass culture.
At the heart of the individual’s loss within the boundlessness of crowded cities and their entrapment in a universe overflowing with various stimuli lies the story of their separation from 'nature,' where they could experience their existence in all its layers and listen to themselves.
The concept of “ecopoiesis,” known as one of the concepts underlying nature-based expressive art therapy, offers the individual a creative space where he/she can find and discover himself/herself and heal by existing together with nature.
Atkins & Synder (2018) state that the root of this concept, “poiesis”, corresponds to knowing and learning by creating, and with this feature, it is a source action in the field of expressive arts. This idea accepts “art production” as both a creative process and a new learning area. The nature-based approach to expressive arts expands the concept of “poiesis” to the concept of “ecopoiesis”, which sees the human creative process as an extension of the ongoing creative process of the world and the universe. While the individual engages in various actions in daily life, the nature of which he/she is a part continues to create and multiply.
Kopytin (2022) also sheds light on a deep connection between humans and nature by pointing to the idea of “unity” in the context of the concept of “ecopoiesis”. He presents this concept as an important part of the eco-human approach that supports the idea of individuals as “environmental subjects”. “Ecopoiesis” is based on our physical, emotional and spiritual relationships with nature and expresses the co-evolutionary feature of humans and nature, and the consciousness and responsibility of human beings to create together with nature. He emphasizes that this concept is not possible without loving the world, all beings that inhabit it, and ourselves. He states that “ecopoiesis” shifts the individual’s focus from the “ego” to how the world expresses itself poetically, that the concept is an expression of the ecosphere, and that each individual already exists as a part and extension of this ecosphere. With this approach, the concept, in a sense, transforms the planet we live on into a real home. In this context, “ecopoiesis” offers the individual a perspective to discover themselves, their belonging, and their place.
“Ecopoiesis” is defined as a creative human function; it is described as people respecting and loving nature and seeing the ecosystem as a source of well-being for themselves and all other living things. So much so that “connecting with the web of life by making the ecosphere meaningful, beautiful and healing” is a basic human need and skill for the individual. It is underlined that the individual who has an idea about the truth of this concept will not only become a healing actor for himself/herself and nature but also can be a creative change actor in the social, political and cultural fields for the good of the planet and all living things (Levine & Kopytin, 2022).
The exhibition uses the suggestion of “ecopoiesis” to discover the truths of the concepts of “self” and “life awareness” and to heal the urban individual’s ties with these concepts by reminding him/her of his/her creative abilities that are one with nature. This exhibition creates a space of reminder, discovery and healing. This specific area that is created, in a way, reveals the story of human beings' alienation from themselves, and aims to be a tool for the individual to rethink their reason for "existence" and to reach the "reality" from which they are alienated.
In the exhibition layout, the idea of “circle” and “circling” comes to the fore. This idea is inspired by both Stoknes’ (Atkins & Snyder, 2018) idea that “the self is a network of interrelations” and the act of “circling” used in expressive art therapy methods, and a related poem by Atkins & Snyder (2018).
This exhibition invites the individual to be part of a circle, or even to stand in the middle, nourished by “ecopoiesis” desribed as a creative human function. The individual who realizes her/him creative nature as an extension of the planet's ever-creating existence is a creative healer not only for herself/himself and nature, but also for the well-being of the planet and all living things.
The artist's state of self-healing through creation, the artist's act of healing directed toward the individual through creation, and the individual's state of healing by observing both actions form the connecting points of the circle. The individual is both inside and outside this circle, in a sense. However, the structure of the exhibition, shaped around the concept of “ecopoiesis”, expects the individual to be at the center of the circle by integrating with the ecosystem, to be aware of their active creativity together with the planet, to align with the universe, to repair and heal themselves. In this context, the works of Ahmed Umar, Ali İbrahim Öcal, Aslınur Sarıca Ünal, Elina Brotherus, Elmas Deniz, Robel Temesgen, Ulrike Mohr, Maria Ikonomopoulou, Nilhan Sesalan, and Metin Çelik come together in “Within the Circle”; these works express the strong relationship between the creativity of nature and the individual, convey the genuine connection between the planet and humanity through different approaches, and enable the individual to remember by questioning themselves.