Burcu Yağcıoğlu

Burcu Yağcıoğlu (b. Istanbul) studied Painting (BA) at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and completed an MA in Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design at Sabancı University. In 2008, she moved to London to pursue an MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, graduating in 2010. She currently lives and works in Istanbul.

Yağcıoğlu’s practice encompasses site-specific installations, drawing, video, collage, painting, and writing. Collage—as both a visual technique and a method of contemplation—plays a critical role in her work, interweaving found images, drawings, scientific knowledge, speculative thought, and materials.

Positioned at the intersection of historical discourse and natural science, Yağcıoğlu approaches biology and physics as tools to decipher and challenge anthropocentric hierarchies. Her practice extends into fields such as biotechnology, botany, zoology, and culinary arts, situating non-human actors within human cultural frameworks through a science-fictional and inquisitive lens.

Ecological sensibility forms a central pillar of her work. In her current research, Yağcıoğlu explores stillness, lethargy, and inertia as radical modes of existence in a world propelled by an unrelenting drive for progress—a force that is pushing the planet towards collapse. Informed by the second law of thermodynamics, and drawing on psychoanalysis, physics, biology, science fiction, and mythology, she reimagines thought systems centred on production and growth. Within this cognitive framework, Yağcıoğlu envisions inertia not merely as a pause but as an intentional, conscious mode of being.

Her solo exhibitions include 'Small Dark Light' (2024, Galerist); 'Inside' (2018, Galerist); 'Born of the Interface' (2015, Galerist); 'Burcu Was There' (Ever Spring Museum, Taichung, Taiwan, 2011); and 'Image/Trace' (Elgiz Contemporary Art Museum, Istanbul, 2007). Her work is held in the collections of institutions such as Istanbul Modern, Odunpazarı Modern Museum, and Elgiz Museum.

Yağcıoğlu’s work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions and biennials, including 'Between Two Suns' (Odunpazarı Modern Museum, Eskişehir, 2023); 'The Promise of Grass', 5th Mardin Biennial (Mardin,2022); 17th Istanbul Biennial (SAHA Studio participant, 2022); 'Always Here' and 'Artists in Their Time' (Istanbul ModernMuseum, 2023 & 2015); 'Six Artists in Search of a Precedent' (Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, 2021); 'Crystal Chateau' (Museum Evliyagil, Ankara, 2020); 'She Lacked Only One Defect to Be Perfect' (Museu do Trabalho, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2019); 'Paper' (Pilevneli Gallery, Istanbul, 2019); Bahar, 13th Sharjah Biennial (Istanbul, 2017); 'Jikji, Golden Seed' (Cheongju, Korea, 2016); 'Ohne' (Vienna, Austria, 2016); 'In Fog: Icebergs and Wild Boars' (Operation Room, Istanbul, 2015); '22Reunion' (Sabancı Museum, Istanbul, 2015); Tate Britain (London, 2014); Nesrin Esirtgen Collection (Istanbul, 2013); Kunsthaus Essen (Essen, 2012); The Woodmill (London, 2011); CCA Glasgow (Glasgow, 2010); 1st Sinopale (Sinop, 2006); and the 12th European Young Artists Biennale (Naples, 2005).

She has published two artist books in collaboration with Ülgen Semerci: 'Fire Walk' (2022), published by Aşina Project and funded by the European Union, distributed to institutions including the British Library, Tate Archive & Library, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Stedelijk Museum, Kunsthaus Zürich, and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Belgium; and 'In Fog', funded by the Vehbi Koç Foundation as part of the exhibition of the same name.

Yağcıoğlu has participated in residencies including Dou Collaborative Lithography Studio (2023); SAHA Studio (2022); Jan Van Eyck Academie (2019); Akbank Print Studio (2017); Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior, Artists on Board (2016); and SVA Summer Residency, where she was awarded the Moon and Stars Project Scholarship.