Originally from İskenderun, Turkey, Bilge Emine Arslan is a visual artist, researcher, and art mediator whose artistic journey is shaped by themes of migration, identity, ecology, justice production, and landscapes. Holding an MA in Spatial Strategies from Weißensee Kunsthochschule, she creates her projects with a variety of media, including video installations, photography, ceramics, and drawing. Her projects have been displayed in various exhibition spaces like Spore Initiative—in the scope of Berlin Art Week—(2024) and Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien(2023). She has received support through grants such as DAAD Promos for her field research and explored the intersections of narratives and socio-political landscapes as an artist-in-residence at ZK/U in Berlin in between 2024-2025.
Research Focus
Water ecologies, agricultural colonialism, archival imagination, preservation practices, land-based resistance and collective memory.
Awards and Residencies
2026 Max-Artist in Residence, through Stiftung Brandenburger Tor, Berlin
2024-2025 ZK/U Artist Residency Programm
2022 DAAD Promos, Field Research Scholarship
2019 Inside/Outside, Weißensee Kunsthochschule, Bangladesch
Research and Fieldwork
Grapes, Land and Resistance (2024–ongoing)
Long-term artistic research on colonial agricultural policies, land dispossession and local resistance practices in South EasternTurkey. Developed within the framework of PLANT STORIES and supported through project-based funding at ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik. Combines archival research, field inter- views and visual documentation, approaching preservation as a method of cultural and ecological resistance.
Asi River and New Alphabet (2022–ongoing)
Research-based video installation exploring cross-border water politics, ecological memory and hydropolitical infrastructures. Supported by DAAD.
Field Research – Bangladesh (2019)
Research project “Inside/Outside”, Weißensee Kunsthochschule. Investigation of spatial boundaries, labor conditions and environmental structures around a self organised settlement called Karail in Bangladesh.
Research on Extractivism and Gold Mining (2022–2023)
Published essay in Arts of the Working Class magazine examining ecological destruction and grassroots resistance movements in Turkey.
Academic Presentations and Puplications
2025 Cashmere Specials : Plant Stories Radio https://cashmereradio.com/episode/cashmere-specials-plant-stories-radio/
2025 PLANT STORIES #3: Feminist Perspectives on Plants & Resistance Struggles in Conversation with Anguezomo Nzé Mba Bikoro and Bilge Emine Arslan, moderated by Sara Morais dos Santos Bruss
2024 Spore Initiative
https://spore-initiative.org/en/programming/participate/wasserspiegel-water-bodies
2023 Participation at Istanbul Bilgi University, “On Land and Sea: Conference on Topographical Imagination and the Moving Image” with my video installation work “ASI RIVER”.
https://ftvconference.bilgi.edu.tr/en/at-land-and-sea/
2023 Group Exhibition, The Other Side of Water 2.0
2023 HER YER KAZDAĞLARI (EVERYWHERE KAZDAĞLARI)
On gold extractivism in Turkey and resistance, Internationalist 360°
2023 HER YER KAZDAĞLARI (EVERYWHERE KAZDAĞLARI)
On gold extractivism in Turkey and resistance, Arts of Working Class Magazine
https://artsoftheworkingclass.org/text/her-yer-kazdalari-everywhere-kazdalari
2021 Artifact Illustration of the Book: “The World of Figurines in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Aegean -The case of Uğurlu Höyük on Gökçeada (Imbros)” written by Hasan Gemici and Cigdem Atakuman published in 2021 by BAR Publishing, Oxford
Teaching and Pedagogical Practice
Art Mediator, Jugend im Museum e.V.
Workshops at Ephraim-Palais
Workshop Facilitator, Spore Initiative
Workshop programs through Young Arts Diversity Neukölln
Develops workshop formats as collective ecological imagination practices.
Selected Exhibitions
2025 PLANT STORIES #3, Grapes, Land, and Resistance: Letter-Based Dialogue, Solo exhibition, ZK/U- Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistic, Berlin, Germany
2025 PLANT STORIES #1, Transformation Dinner, ZK/U-Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistic, Berlin, Germany
2024 Dive Deeper, Berlin Art Week, Asi River and New Alphabet, SPORE Initiative, Berlin, Germany
2023 The Other Side of Water 2.0, Group Show, “ASI RIVER AND THE NEW ALPHABET”,
Projektraum Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
2023 Solo Graduation Exhibition, “ASI RIVER AND THE NEW ALPHABET”, SCOTTY-Artist Run Project Space, Berlin, Germany
2020 Collecting Momentum #2, Group Show,“Everything is Over or Just Starting?” Acrylic Painting over Canvas, Officina Neukölln, Berlin, Germany
2020 Politic Poetic des Raumes, Group Show, “Ost-West Späti” Video Installation,
N.B.K., Berlin, Germany
2019 Rundgang, RECONSTRUCTION OF THE EXPERIENCE IN KARAIL, Wood installation with Ready-Made Textile Collage, Kunsthochschule Weißensee, Berlin, Germany
2015 Internationales Terrakotta-Symposium, Group Show, “CIVI” 3 Nail Installation On Conctere, Üretim/Bandı, Former ETI Factory, Eskisehir, Turkey
2014 Rundgang, “SELF PORTRAIT” Acrylic Painting 120*100, Anadolu University,
Eskisehir, Turkey
2013 Solo Graduation Exhibition, “VULNERABILITY” Collection of Multidisciplinary Works, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey
2011 Sculpture Group Exhibition, “CERAMIC HEAD”, University of Ljubljana,
Ljubljana, Slovenia