Fatoş İrwen Diyarbakır, Turkey

Throughout her years-long production process, Fatoş Irwen examines issues related to justice, power dynamics, belief systems, geography, and body politics. She creates works that focus on the effects of these matters on the individual and society in various fields such as video, photography, painting, textile, installation and performance.

Irwen’s works on paper, objects, performances, and films operate at the intersection of self and world, subject and society. Employing modest, everyday materials such as paper, tea, and hair, she constructs subtle yet powerful poetic metaphors and narratives. These mundane objects, drawn from childhood trauma and personal life experiences, become vessels of memory and meaning, transforming her practice into an intimate form of autobiography and self-portraiture.

İrwen, an artist and activist, was imprisoned in Diyarbakır Prison from 2017 to 2020 as a result of political injustice. Despite severe restrictions and harsh conditions, she continued to produce art during her incarceration, working with materials such as the hair of fellow inmates, collected feathers, and smuggled letters. A persistent striving for freedom defines Fatoş İrwen’s practice, foregrounding her lifelong resistance to oppression and systemic constraint.

Fatoş İrwen was born and raised in the historical Sûr neighbourhood in Diyarbakır, Turkey. After having received her bachelor's degree in visual art department in Dicle University, Diyarbakır, she taught art in secondary schools in Batman, Diyarbakır and then Istanbul for approximately ten years. 

Her solo shows include Improper (Galerie Stadtpark, Krems, 2024), Sûr (Zilberman Berlin, 2023), and Exceptional Times (curated by Ezgi Bakçay and Wenda Koyuncu, held simultaneously in Karşı Sanat and DEPO Istanbul in 2021). Her selected group shows include: Us.19 Fundemental Rights. 19 Artistic Positions. (curated by Kristina Volke, Art Council of the German Bundestag, 2025), Böse Blumen (Evil Flowers) (curated by Kyllikki Zacharias, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany, 2024), Unfair Game (curated by Pınar Öğrenci, EXILE, Vienna, 2023), I Am Nobody. Are You Nobody Too? (curated by Selen Ansen, Meşher, Istanbul, 2022), All Water Falls into Language (curated by Naz Kocadere, İstanbul Edebiyat Evi, 2022), Look Up, Starry Horizons of the Limited Geography (curated by Yekhan Pınarlıgil, Gölyazı Kültürevi and Balat Kültürevi, Bursa, 2022), 5th International Mardin Biennial (curated by Adwait Singh, 2022), Of Paper (curated by Selin Akın, Ferda Art Platform, Istanbul, 2021), Art in Dark Times (organized by bi’bak, Haus der Statistik, Berlin, 2020), Heritage / Matrimonio (curated by Gudrun Wallenböck, Gallery Enrique Guerrero, Mexico City, 2019), Not What You Think! (Hinterland Galerie, Vienna, 2018), Post-Peace (curated by Katia Krupennikova, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, 2017). Fatoş İrwen lives and works in Istanbul and Diyarbakır.