Egemen Demirci: TEXT MATERIAL

For his first institutional solo exhibition in Germany, TEXT MATERIAL, PhD candidate Egemen Demirci from the University of the Arts Bremen presents a spatial investigation into language as artistic material and exhibition as action. At the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Demirci brings together older and more recent works for the first time. The exhibition explores how meaning is created, when it becomes visible, and the role that medium, format and spatial configuration play in this process.

All exhibited works share a common strategy of reconfiguration: existing pieces are transformed through abstraction, the addition of new elements, or a shift in medium. This alters the performative quality of text as artwork. The exhibition space itself is not treated merely as a backdrop, but as a structuring element – defining access, guiding perspectives and framing meaning.

Demirci’s artistic practice engages with the interplay of language, space and perception. Through the modification of existing works and the fragmentation of legibility, established certainties are destabilised. Rather than presenting a closed narrative, the exhibition invites critical engagement – situating viewers between assertion and doubt, between legibility and obscurity.

Egemen Demirci (b. 1983, Izmir) has focused his artistic work on text-based approaches for over a decade. His practice questions concepts of authorship, identity and access. In numerous site-specific works, he explores the transformative potential of language in public space, as well as the ambiguities and contradictions that emerge through its spatial staging.

The exhibition will be on view at Kunsthalle Baden-Baden until 14.9.2025.

The Hochschule für Künste Bremen (University of the Arts Bremen, or HfK) offers a post-graduate program of study, an art- and science-based PhD program, organized in cooperation with the University of Leiden (with The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) in The Hague), the University of Groningen (with the Minerva Art Academy Groningen), the University of Gothenburg (with HDK-Valand - Academy of Art and Design) and others.

The foundation for the PhD program is the artistic or artistic-creative practice and the resulting research and production of, or gain in, knowledge. The artistic PhD program enables PhD candidates to carry out their own artistic, scientific research, to critically reflect upon methods and discursive or theoretical approaches, to establish their work in international contexts, and to expand their own qualifications through teaching experience, as well. The program is explicitly directed toward students who have a master’s degree or other advanced degree in art or another creative field.