Didem Pekün (1978, Istanbul) is an artist-filmmaker and academic based in Istanbul and Berlin. Both in her education and her approach as an artist and educator, Didem’s work is marked by a combination of theory and practice. She made several films that tackle questions of political violence, displacement and their myriad intersections. A recent turn in her practice is from ‘history’ to ‘future’; while her previous films focused on historical events, her current works explore how we can live together from here onwards. Her films have been shown at Berlinale, Venice, BFI London Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festivals amongst others and won awards.

 

Both practices, that of filmmaking and pedagogy, to her, has always been about becoming albeit ephemeral communities that are working together towards a goal. Whether in set filming, in a classroom, or in a garden, she is driven by work that liberates, work that thinks of liberation and the combination of the two is and has been her core motivation.

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Didem received her BA (Hons) Music from SOAS and holds an MA & a PhD from Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths.

 

She has taught in several universities, including Bilgi, Sabancı, Koç and Kadir Has Universities in Istanbul, Central European University in Budapest and guesting internationally from Oslo Art Academy to DAI Arnheim and the *foundationClass at Weissensee Kunsthoschule.

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She has held a postdoc fellowship at Institute of Advanced Studies - CEU (2017-8), then a fellowship at Visual Cultures - Goldsmiths (2018), then at Graduertenschule - UdK Berlin (2019-21), followed by a stipend at Berlin Artistic Research Program funded by the Berlin Senate (2022-24), and a residency at Between Bridges, Berlin. 

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Her works are featured in collections such as Van Abbemuseum, Kadist, MAXXI Museum, and in private collections.