Ergin Çavuşoğlu studied at The National School of Fine Arts 'Iliya Petrov', Sofia in the early 1980s. He consequently received a BA from the University of Marmara, Istanbul, MA from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a PhD from University of Portsmouth.
Fluent in Bulgarian, Russian and Turkish. Basic German.
Programme Leader for MA Fine Art at the School of Art and Design. Director of Studies and Second Supervisor to five PhD students and Adviser to two more students.
Central to Ergin Çavuşoğlu's conceptual art practice are themes that examine different registers of mobility, place – non-place, borders, liminality and the conditions of cultural production, which he has been exploring in a diversity of media, including narrative film, video and sound installations, sculpture and drawing. The pattern of literary references in his large-scale narrative installation works unfold a series of moral parables that have a hypothetical relevance to contemporary art and furthermore comment on the creative processes at large. His recent large-scale anamorphic floor and wall drawings reiterate further his interest in the Duchampian by probing the concept of post-object and thus presenting a critical discourse around representability.
Cavusoglu, Ergin (2019) Speaking power to (post) truth. [Artefact]
Cavusoglu, Ergin (2018) Alterity (2011) video installation. [Artefact]
Cavusoglu, Ergin (2018) Places: one after another. [Artefact]
Cavusoglu, Ergin (2018) Dust Breeding (2018), Installation view, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Milano (GAM). [Artefact]
Cavusoglu, Ergin (2018) Downward Straits (2004) [installation in The First Round, Banu - Hakan Çarmıklı Collection exhibition Galata Greek Primary School, Istanbul]. [Artefact]
He is currently developing a large-scale film project under the broader concept of Cinefication that was commissioned in a partnership between Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerp, with 0090 Festival, Belgium, FLACC, Genk, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, and Witte de With, Rotterdam. The collaboration will result in a series of solo exhibitions and site-specific projects in the 2014 – 2015 period.
He represented Turkey at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. He was shortlisted for the Beck's Futures Prize in 2004, and in 2010 for Artes Mundi 4 – the UK's biggest international contemporary art prize. Solo exhibitions include, Adaptation – Cinefication, Rampa Gallery, Istanbul (2014); Dust Breeding, The Pavilion, Downtown Dubai (2011); Alterity, Rampa Gallery, Istanbul (2011); Crystal & Flame, PEER, London (2010); Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (2009-10); Place after Place, Kunstverein Freiburg (2008); Quintet Without Borders, ShContemporary, Shanghai and Haunch of Venison, Zurich (2008); Point of Departure, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (2006); and Entanglement, DCA, Dundee (2004). Group exhibitions include 4th International Canakkale Biennial (2014); Plurivocality, Istanbul Modern Art Museum(2014); Kino der Kunst, Munich (2013); First Kiev International Biennale of Contemporary Art (2012); Seven New Works, Borusan Contemporary Museum, Istanbul (2011); Paradise Lost, Istanbul Modern Art Museum (2011); Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain (2010); fast forward 2 The Power of Motion, Media Art Sammlung Goetz, ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany (2010); The First Mediterranean Biennial of Contemporary Art, Haifa, Israel (2010); All Inclusive – A Tourist World, Schirn Kunsthalle (2008), Frankfurt; Between Borders, MARCO Vigo (2006); the British Art Show 6 (2005); the 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003);and the 3rd Berlin Biennial (2003).
