As part of the Making Art for Whom? lecture series organised by the Fine Arts Department, we are pleased to invite you to Vasif Kortun ‘s lecture on Monday 26 October 2026 at 6:30 pm on the HEAD Campus.

Vasıf Kortun is a curator, writer, and teacher in contemporary art, its institutions, and spatial practices. He founded and directed Research & Programs at SALT in Istanbul. Kortun currently serves as a Research and Curatorial Advisor at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha, Qatar), where he edits and manages the Mathaf Encyclopedia, a bilingual, peer-reviewed platform on modern and contemporary art in the Middle East. A recipient of the CCS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence, Kortun has worked on many international exhibitions, including the Taipei Biennale (2008) with ManRay Hsu and the 9th Istanbul Biennial (2005) with Charles Esche. Recent publications include: Sentez ve Montaj: Özer Kabaş Yazıları (Montage & Synthesis: Texts of Özer Kabaş, Salt, Istanbul, 2023), İpek Duben: The Skin, Body, and I, (Salt & Mousse Publications, 2024), and his biography: How did we get here: reading Vasıf Kortun, Archive Books, 2026). In 2025, he co-curated we Refuse_d with Nadia Radwan for Mathaf, and traveled to M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp. In 2026, he co-curated Across the Seas, Özer Kabaş and His Times for SALT with Tuğçe Kaplan.