Folkestone Triennial

Ayse Erkmen

Title: Entangled
Location: Martello Tower 3, East Cliff

Folkestone is home to seven Martello Towers dating back to the Napoleonic Wars. Martello 3, in the East of town, is a fairly well kept tower, painted white, and up to 2001, was used as a visitor centre by the council. In contrast, Martello 4 in the West of Folkestone is more of a ruin and completely taken over by a massive layer of ivy that has embedded itself into the 13 ft deep walls. Erkmen emulates the ivy cover of Martello 4 at Martello 3 (in what the artist calls ‘a jealousy project’), with a malleable, plastic floral form created by designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. 15,000 of these plastic ‘ivy’ units joined together similar to Lego, now shroud the exterior of Martello 3 like a giant curtain or blanket. The camouflage colours refer to the tower’s wartime history.

Translated text about each of the artworks into French, Turkish and Slovak can be found on the events page or from the visitor centre

Ayse's Biography

Born Istanbul. Lives and works in Berlin and Istanbul.

Ayse Erkmen's spectacular public projects and subtle architectural interventions engage with the architectural, historical, and cultural context of the site she is working with

Recent solo exhibitions include

Habenichts, Galerie Barbara Weiss – Berlin 2007
Scenic Overlooks, Galerist – Istanbul 2005
Under the Roof, IKON – Birmingham 2005
Busy Colors, Sculpture Centre – New York 2005

Recent group exhibitions include

Beyond the Wall, Berlin Freeport of the Arts – Germany 2007
Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial – Japan 2006
Eindhoven Istanbul, Van Abbemuseum – Eindhoven 2005
Who is singing over there?, National Gallery – Sarajevo 2004

Ayse will be having a solo exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin in 2008

See Ayse Erkmen's work
www.galeriebarbaraweiss.de