Invited Conferences and Talks
“Dealing with decay: natural processes as a ground for re-examining human ecologies”, presented at Learning with mountains; recalibrating how we understand art and planet International conference, organised by Celadon Center for Arts & Ecologies, 6-7 February 2025 Artos Cultural and Research House, Nicosia. (Together with Sümer Erek).
“Eylem/Arşiv Olarak Sanatçı Röportaji: Kıbrıs Türk Toplumunda Çağdaş Görsel Sanatta Televizyon Raporculuğu“, presented at Cumhuriyet’in 100. Yılında Türkiye’de Sanat Tarihi Yazımı ve Eleştirisi [Art History Writing and Criticism in Turkey on the 100th Anniversary of the Republic], organized by AICA Turkey and Istanbul Bilgi University Cultural Management Master’s Program (CAMMA), Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, December 22, 2023.
“Monument-building and the construction of national identity in a bicommunal state”, presented at KEIS Conference – International Conference on the Period of Co-Existence of Greeks and Turks in Cyprus (1960-1963), University of Cyprus and University of Nicosia, Nicosia, December, 1 – 2, 2023. (Together with Antigone Heraclidou and Iliana Koulafeti).
“The Art of Melancholy: Theory and Clinical Practice”, Multidisciplinary roundtable discussion on the occasion of the exhibition Seeing Through Melancholia: Transcultural Melancholias / Hüzün in the Eastern Mediterranean, November 11 2023. (Together with Dr. Gregory Gregoriou, Evren İnancoğlu MA., Dr. Despo Pasia, Dr. Thekla Petridis, Dr. Esra Plümer Bardak and Dr. Salamis Aysegul Sentug and the curators Dr. Gabriel Koureas and Dr. Alev Adil).
“Nothing is going to hurt you”, Roundtable Discussion with Hüseyin Özinal, Anber Onar, Evren İnançoğlu, Oya Silbery, Art Rooms Gallery, Kyrenia, 22 September 2023.
“Negotiating Nicosia’s Public Squares: auto-ethnographic narratives and place formation across the divide”, presented at Amps Prague – Heritages, Past and Present – Built and Social: A Conference on Culture, History, Art and Design, Prague, June 28-30, 2023. (Together with Antigone Heraclidou). Available in Amps Proceeding Series 35.1.2024: https://amps-research.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amps-Proceedings-Series-35.1_2024.pdf
“My Journey”, EU Scholarship programme for Turkish Cypriots Launch Event organised by the Goethe-Institut Cyprus, Merkez Lefkoşa, Nicosia, January 24, 2023.
“Beyond History: Applied History Education Laboratory”, organised by the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research at the Cyprus Turkish Secondary School Teachers Union and the Home for Cooperation, Nicosia, November 25-26, 2022.
“‘Cadeaux Surrealiste?’: Unica Zürn’s use of automatism in her graphic notebooks” presented at the panel Automatic Drawing in Theory and Practice, Then and Now, International Society for the Study of Surrealism (ISSS), Online, 17 November 2022.
“Representation of Conflict” presented at Nico Carpentier’s Mirror of Conflict 2 exhibition event. Roundtable discussion with Özge Özoğul, Aysu Arsoy, Takis Hadjidimitriou, Esra Plumer Bardak and Sami Özuslu. Home for Cooperation, Nicosia, 15 April, 2022. Photos from the exhibition opening and seminar here: http://nicocarpentier.net/icontroversies2/opening.html
“Art Writing in Kültür-Sanat: considering the periodical archive and the state of print media” presented at Public Online Discussion “Local art, architecture and design history: Decolonising writing and research practices” organised by the Art and Design Research Lab of the University of Nicosia, Online, 26 November, 2021. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1U8Nrt6uS0&ab_channel=ArtandDesignResearchLabUniversityofNicosia
“Approaches to narratives and histories in conflict zones through art” part of the Visual Voices “Approaches to narratives and histories in conflict zones through art” presented at Visual Voices Online Discussion “Contemporary interpretations of European identity and the local social and cultural memory of Cyprus”, Online, June 3, 2021.
“Belt of Venus: Looking for emerging approaches beyond generations and across periodization” presented at Questions of Periodisation in Art Historiographies, New Europe College– Institute for Advanced Study, Bucharest, December 1, 2019.
“Art Historical writing and documentation since 1974, some observations on the possible consequences of a “canon of reportage” presented at New Approaches towards Recording, Preserving and Studying Cultural Heritage in Divided Cyprus: Problems and Opportunities, Arkin University of creative arts and Design, Kyrenia, 23 September 2019.
“Remembering Ayhan Menteş” presented at Ayhan Mentes Commemoration Event, EMAA Capital Art Centre, Nicosia, August 11, 2017.
“Art History in Dialogue: Reading “Sanat Güncesi” as meta-discourse and contemporary responses”, “Art History in Dialogue: Reading “Sanat Güncesi” as meta-discourse and contemporary responses” presented at Troubled Contemporary Art Practices in the Middle East: Colonial Conflicts, Pedagogies of Art History and Precarious Artistic Mobilization, the Birkbeck University of London and University of Nicosia, Nicosia, June 3, 2016. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnw17NhXoaE&feature=youtu.be
“The Living Doll: A look at Hans Bellmer’s later work from the ‘puppet’s standpoint”, presented at the 7th “The Living Doll: A look at Hans Bellmer’s later work from the ‘puppet’s standpoint” presented at the 7th International Festival of Puppetry Schools; Dolls and Puppets as Artistic and Cultural Phenomenon Symposium, Bialystok, June 24, 2014. Link: https://www.uni-muenster.de/imperia/md/content/germanistik/lehrende/seidel_a/dolls_and_puppets_-_program-1.pdf
“Crossovers” presented at Art in the Asylum exhibition preview, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham, September 6, 2013. Link: https://vimeo.com/89503917
“Anagrams and Automatism: Exploring Unica Zürn’s Monsters in Graphic Notebooks”, presented at Contemporary Art’s Confrontation with the Monstrous, Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam, December 4, 2012.
“The Luminary Forest: Robert Desnos and Unica Zürn’s tales of (dis)enchantment and transformation” presented at Anti-Tales: The Uses of Disenchantment, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, August 12-13, 2010.
“The Enchanted Tales of Unica Zürn: From Myth to Madness” presented at FremdeWelten – Wege und Räume der Fantastikim 21. Jahrhundert, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, September 30- October 3, 2010. Link: https://lecture2go.uni-hamburg.de/veranstaltungen/-/v/11326;jsessionid=E62EF21A6F77A6154FC06E31D7B25FA3
“Unica Litogée” presented at Surrealism and its Legacies Seventh Annual PhD Symposium, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, December 4, 2009.
“Mastery over Madness: Reading Zürn’s performance through Bellmer’s photography” presented at the AAH New Voices: Art and Desire, University of York, York, November 7, 2009. Review: http://dandelionjournal.org/index.php/dandelion/article/viewFile/19/37
“The Comfort of Standing Next to Walls: Ill-Literacy in Unica Zürn’s visuality” presented at the Third Global Conference: Visual Literacies, Exploring Critical Issues, Oxford University, Oxford, July 14-16, 2009.
“The Spectacle of the ‘Other’: the Psychopathic Ward and Performance” presented at New Perspectives in Research: American Scene exhibition, University of Nottingham, March 5, 2009.
English Translation and Voice-over, Tarihin Hızlandırıldığı Ada / Island Where the History is Accelerated, 2008. (Writer and Director: Can Sarvan) Link: http://www.korotonomedya.net/UlusBaker2008/speakers.html
Sarvan, Can, Çakmak, Hakan, Plümer, Esra. “Island where the History is accelerated” (Documentary Film) screened at ULUS BAKER conference, Ankara, July 11, 2008. Link: http://www.korotonomedya.net/UlusBaker2008/speakers.html
Interviews
Serkan Soyalan ile Harmoni, Kanal Sim. 5 May, 2023. Nicosia, Cyprus.
Dilek Oncul ile Sivil Alan, Bayrak Radyosu, 27 March, 2023. Nicosia, Cyprus.
Mazi-Birlikte CBYC, “Till We Meet Again, CVAR”, 27 January 2021, CVAR, Nicosia, Cyprus. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4773131056057569
Hüseyin Ağlamaz İle Farkındamıyız, 4 January 2021, Rüstem Kitabevi, Nicosia-Lefkoşa, Cyprus-Kıbrıs <https://fb.watch/35KkCy_mFN/>
Güzel Sanatlarda Hazırlık ve Portfolyonun önemi, 19-20-21 July 2019, İstanbul Üniversite Tercih Fuarı, İstanbul Kongre Merkezi, İstanbul, Turkiye <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oGBk9PY0kc>
Şiir Atölyesi, 20 August, 2018, The House, Girne, Kıbrıs <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUhHNbQlRQ0&fbclid=IwAR3FE8_Ce26XV_VmDdAHPgIoXAS_pRfacCFstH3iAwutDyXrGkDMW98SbfM>
Heidi Trautmann, Art and Creativity in North Cyprus, Vol. 2., 2015 <http://www.heiditrautmann.com/books_artandcreativityinnorthcyprusVolII.aspx>
“Art in the Asylum: an introduction”, 6th September 2013, Djanogly Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom. at Djanogly gallery, Nottingham. Featuring curators Victoria Tischler and Esra Plumer. <https://vimeo.com/80921476>