Biography

Working mainly with photography and video, Halil Altindere explores political, social and cultural codes and constraints often by manipulating or reconstructing the means and materials of official representation.

For the 9th Sharjah Biennial, Altindere employed the traditional format of a ruler's portrait for Portrait of the Sheikh (2009), a work that combined a classical portrait of the current Sharjah ruler hinged to reveal a safe hidden in the wall behind.

Altindere has been a central figure in the Turkish contemporary art world for many years.  His work has been included in exhibitions at the Tanas, Berlin (2010), the Center Georges Pompidou, Paris (2008), the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, USA (2008), the Petach-Tikva Museum, Israel (2008), Documenta, Kassel, Germany (2007), October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia (2006), the Istanbul Biennial, Turkey (2005, 1997), Manifesta, Frankfurt (2002) and the Kwangju Biennial, Korea (2002).

He is also well-known as a curator most recently bringing forty-eight Turkish artists together for When Ideas Become Crime, at the Tütün Deposu Art Space, Istanbul. Other curatorial projects include work with the Karsi Sanat Art Space, Istanbul, the Istanbul Biennial (2005) and the Tirana Biennale, Albania (2005). Altındere is also publisher and editorial team member of art-ist Contemporary Art Magazine in Istanbul.

Halil Altındere was born in 1971 in Mardin, Turkey and lives and works in Istanbul.

October 2010