Aslı Özçelik

Aslı Özçelik is a Cologne-based artist who uses photography, video, sound, textiles and installation to capture intimate moments and empower marginalized voices. Her work is autobiographical and reflects her experiences and socialization as a woman. She has published two photo books with Eigensinn Verlag and exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Ahlen, the Kunstmuseum Celle and the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, among others. In 2024, she completed her bachelor's degree in photography at the Folkwang University of the Arts and began her master's degree there. Aslı is currently supported in her artistic career by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.

"My name is Aslı Özçelik, I am 29 years old, and in my artistic practice I often explore autobiographical themes. Photography is very often the starting point for this. We are currently in my living room, which is basically where I always work.

The project “Sıhhatler Olsun” is about my mother and her story of emigration. It was also exhibited last year at “Feelings & Photography” during the Photoszene Festival. The work focuses a lot on her feelings regarding emigration and on coming to join my father’s family while leaving her own family behind in Turkey. The entire process of working on the project was simply wonderful. I think it’s because I got to know my mother in a completely different way, and we were very caring toward each other during that time.

Then, just as every project eventually comes to an end, this one ended too, and that was really hard for me. I think that sometimes it can be almost harder to finish a project like this than to start a new one, because you grow to love it so much and, well, you grow through it too.

I do think that during their studies, often even subconsciously—simply because it’s a grading system—students somehow realize: “Okay, what works well, and in what direction do others want me to develop?”—and then they often end up following that path.

That’s definitely something that happens to me, too, and I think that’s why I’m so aware of it or why I think about it so much. Because I try very hard to make sure that my love for this medium isn’t taken away from me.

In my latest project, I’m currently knitting closeups from my family photo albums.

For me, this manual process—this very slow manual process—was very important. I intuitively just realized that I needed it, and only in retrospect did I understand that it also somehow closes a circle, because mentally it essentially begins with my father’s hands, and I then continue this work with my own hands—in a very slow, and also very physical, process.

I’ve taken a little break from knitting since January, but I think I’ll start again next month. And I’m curious to see which motifs will come next.

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