Nil Yalter. Exile is a Hard Job

Feminist issues and the subject of migration play a dominant role in the works of the now 80-year-old artist Nil Yalter. Her works have attracted international attention as these topics have gained renewed relevance and topicality. The Turkish artist herself comes from a migrant background as well. Born in Cairo in 1938, she grew up in Istanbul and now lives in Paris. She is widely regarded as a pioneer of socially-minded and technically advanced art. Yalter’s work often examines political issues with a critical eye, such as life in women’s prisons, the living situation of illiterate women and female migrant workers.
For the first time, the Museum Ludwig has dedicated a solo exhibition to Nil Yalter featuring a comprehensive overview of her entire oeuvre. In close cooperation with the artist, the works have been arranged and presented in over one thousand square metres of exhibition space. The project has made the pieces available to both international and regional audiences, and especially to the large Turkish communities in Rhineland and the Ruhr region. The pieces, selected by the artist together with curator Rita Kersting, provided an overview of her entire oeuvre and offered insights into the diverse facets of her work. Nil Yalter’s piece “Exile Is a Hard Job” has been installed outside the museum in various city quarters of Cologne. The panels had been translated into languages commonly spoken in the respective city quarter and installed together with residents in a participative process. The project has also produced an extensive exhibition catalogue, documenting the relatively unknown works of this extraordinary artist.

Curator: Rita Kersting
Artist: Nil Yalter (TR)
Authors for the catalogue: Övül Ö. Durmuşoğlu (TR), Fabienne Dumont (FR), Rita Kersting