Moni’25

Since 2005, Moni Salim Özgilik has been living and working between Los Angeles and Kaş. In the summer of 2025, he extended his path to include İstanbul Manifaturacılar Çarşısı (İMÇ). Building on his long-standing practice in Kabapıynar Village in Kaş, he developed a series of new works in his İMÇ studio. Flowing between these two locations, the exhibition spans 5533, İMALAT-HANE Project Space, and yüzonbir, taking its title from his first artist book, Moni’89.

The seven-house village of Kabapıynar appears “timeless” to Moni. Although the villagers gradually moved to Kaş center in pursuit of tourism opportunities, Kabapıynar feels like a place abruptly abandoned, as if waiting for life to return. Meanwhile, İMÇ’s 5th Block, which endured a period of serious stagnation following some upheavals in the 2010s, has in recent years been revitalized with artist studios, exhibition and project spaces, its once-silent corridors now echoing with the rhythm of lively days.

Used fabrics collected from Kabapıynar, along with trim offcuts sourced from İMÇ and other producers, form the core materials of the exhibition. Many of those who crossed paths with Moni in the bazaar lent their hands to these materials. The works, woven together through collective effort, establish a visual thread across the people, times, and spaces involved, tracing the production and circulation path of the exhibition Moni’25.

About the artist:

Born in 1966 in Beyşehir, Salim Özgilik left his geology engineering studies at Hacettepe University to enroll in the Painting Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts. Known by the nickname “Moni,” inherited from his paternal family name, the artist gained recognition from the late 1980s onward for his provocative performances and happenings in public spaces and various galleries in Ankara and Istanbul, notable for their insistence on participation.

In 1992, Moni moved to New York, where he pursued a graduate program in Art History and Museum Studies at the City College of New York. He produced installations and oil paintings, often employing found materials, participated in performance events, collaborated with East Village artists, and engaged in joint projects. He also wrote critical essays on art history and exhibitions for several periodicals in Türkiye.

Moni’s works—whose archive was made accessible at Salt Research in 2019—were featured in The 90s Onstage (Salt Beyoğlu, 2022–2023; Kunstverein Hamburg, 2024), an exhibition examining the history of performance art in Türkiye. The most comprehensive resource on the artist to date, the Moni book, was published by Salt and Mousse Publishing in October 2025.

About the curators:

Mine Söyler completed her undergraduate degree in geological engineering and her master’s degree in art history. Alongside her academic education, she received training focused on performing arts and worked with various groups and choreographers. In her thesis titled “Performance in Turkey’s Multi-Art Environment”, completed in 2019, she focused on the position of the concept of performance within contemporary art practices in Turkey, the connections it has established. She developed suggestions for the historiography of the field.

She collaborated with Japanese artist Tetsuro Fukuhara as a dancer and curator on the “Butoh Uzam Dance” project, which focuses on dance and design, body and space (2015-2020). She studied in Japan for two periods and participated in artist-in-residence programs. She has worked as an instructor, curator, and project manager on various projects focused on art, culture, sports, and communication. She worked in the method section of the “Flow” exhibition organised jointly with the Marina Abramovic Institute at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum (2020). She designed the curatorial project “Tafon: A Pattern of Emptiness” at the AURA Istanbul Architecture and Urbanism Research Academy, focusing on the history of performance-oriented studio spaces in Turkey (2020). She participated as a scholarship researcher in the second term of the “Contemporary Art and Curatorship” program organised by Open Dialogue Istanbul and Akbank Art. She developed the exhibition project titled “Body, Ghost Dialogues.” Using this concept, she continues to create encounter spaces in art galleries and urban fabrics. In 2024, she participated in the exhibition “Intentions 2” (Akbank Art) and conducted various programs.

She is working as a researcher on Salt’s ongoing project “Performance Archive in Turkey” (2021-present). She worked at the exhibitions “The 90s Onstage” (Salt Beyoğlu and Salt Galata, 2022-2023, Kunstverein Hamburg, 2024), prepared in connection with the relevant archive. She was a publishing assistant for the book “Moni.” She is participating in a documentary project led by Kadir Has University. As a co-founder of the Aksak Ritim Platformu (ARP), she continues to lead the ARP-LAB project, which focuses on body and movement ecologies. Together with Deniz Özgültekin, she co-curated the exhibition “Moni’25” (5533, İMALAT-HANE Project Space, yüzonbir, 2025).

Deniz Özgültekin was born in 2001 in Warsaw. He graduated from Yeditepe University with degrees in Art and Cultural Management and Political Science and International Relations. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations at Istanbul University. He curated the exhibitions “Forgetting the Past is a Glamorous Lie” (Karşı Sanat, 2022) and “Beam” (5533, 2025), and co-curated the exhibition “Moni’25” (5533, İMALAT-HANE Project Space, yüzonbir, 2025). He works as co-editor at Kineo Magazine, which publishes on dance and body-oriented arts. Since 2023, he has been producing written work across various platforms in the arts and culture field.