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. As such, parallel to her research she has 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’. Currently she is working on a feature film as well as a pedagogical platform titled ElementalLab - both aiming to repair the future.

 

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.

 

Didem received her BA (Hons) Music from SOAS and holds an MA & an artistic research 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.

 

She has held a postdoc fellowship at Institute of Advanced Studies - CEU, a fellowship at Visual Cultures - Goldsmiths, at Graduertenschule - UdK Berlin, and currently is the recipient of Berlin Artistic Research Program funded by the Berlin Senate.