Deniz Aygün

She has been active as a visual artist and an organizer of art events through the years. She took art classes in studios of several artists in Istanbul, but she is mainly self-tought artist who works in various media, as painting, objects, installations and performances. Her first major solo exhibition was in 2000, in Taksim Art Gallery and the second one in Karsi Art Gallery in 2002 in Istanbul. This year she organized an exhibition in a hotel gallery in an island where island inhabitants from different ages and backgrounds came together. She has continued creating art work and exhibiting them in her country and abroad focusing on performance art in the last three years: Serbia-Montenegro Federation, Romania, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Israel, Spain, Poland, United States of America. In 2004, she received a grant by Moon And Stars Project, to attend the School of Visual Arts Summer Studio Program in New York. She has done collaboration with the composer Tolga Tuzun in her performance “1000 Marbles”. She did other collaborations with artists, such as Tamar Raban and Nina Barrett. In 2002, became a member of the administrative board of AIAP (Association Internationale des Arts Plastiques) and in 2004 a member of the Association of Island Friends, which works for the environmental and urban protection of the Princes Islands near Istanbul. She attended as an observer the Balkan Express Dance Platform in Skopje, 2006, and Cultural Operators Training Workshop in Krakow, 2007, organized by the Institut Adama Mickiewicza. Aygun has been working as the program manager in an alternative space for performing arts, GalataPeform since 2005 and has been working with the team on creating programs of performance art (Performance Days 06, Performance Time 07-08), contemporary music (YENO CENO 07-08), interdisciplinary projects (Visibility Project 1-2-3), artists exchanges (PAP (Isreal), Nuova Icona (Italy), Red House (Bulgaria), e-bent Performance Art Festival (Spain)).
Married to jazz pianist and economist Selim Benba with whom have a son, Nesim Nazım.

Contact:

Deniz Aygun Benba
Telephone: gsm:+90 536 276 77 21, home: +90-212 296 94 23
Mail Address: Siracevizler cad.126-11 Sisli 80260 Istanbul, Turkey
Internet:
e-mail: denizayg@yahoo.com
Personal web-site: www.lebriz.com/denizaygun
Institutional e-mail: galataperform@gmail.com
Institutional web-site:www.galataperform.com