ÖZLEM SARIYILDIZ uses audio-visual materials as her main tools of research and praxis. Having engaged with subjects as diverse as gender, memory, music, migration, and commons, the main body of her work emerges at the collisions of the interest in the human condition and the curious excitement about the image. She searches for modes of practicing the possibilities hidden in micropolitics and strives to communicate with her audience through the direct beauty of the ruins of life as it is.
She holds a BA in Industrial Design and an MS in Media and Cultural Studies, METU. She was a research assistant at University McGill and a fellow of la Fondation Jeanne Sauvé between 2004-2005, then started her Ph.D. research at Graphic Design, Bilkent University. She has been making films and videos since 2001, and her work has been presented in international festivals and exhibitions. In 2020 she started her collaboration as artistic director of HIER&JETZT: Connections.
She lives and works in Berlin.
Image: NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO OBEY – Video Installation 2019 – Foto: Uli Westphal