AHMET ÖGÜT
ARTIST
ISTANBUL, TURKEY
• Ögüt’s platform, The Silent University, provides a place for asylum seeks, refugees, and migrants to exchange knowledge and ideas accrued within these respective communities. He also recently won the internationally recognized Visible Award.
• Ögüt’s Fahrenheit 451 was an homage to the novel of the same name where he collaborated with local firemen to print 1,500 banned books in Helsinki.
Ahmet Ögüt consistently seeks collaborators foreign to the art world, finding unique ways to grapple with weighty social issues, like religion and civil unrest, with a sense of humor. During a recent residency in Helsinki, he collaborated with local firemen to create a temporary book-printing workshop inside a fire truck, culminating in the collaborative printing of 1,500 banned books during a weeklong performance. His 2013 Visible Award–winning project, The Silent University (2012–present), is a knowledge-exchange program for asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants that probes the idea of silence as a passive state. Originally staged in the UK, the project has since extended to Stockholm and France. Ögüt has participated in a multitude of international exhibitions including the Sydney, Istanbul, Berlin, and Venice Biennales. He currently resides in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Istanbul.
