Yelta Köm is an artist who integrates architectural, artistic, and spatial practices to explore social and political issues. Collaboration is essential to his work, which employs diverse methodologies and materials. His projects focus on spatial interventions, resistance movements, technology, and critical perspectives on architectural technologies and representation techniques.

His recent work includes "Nightlife as a Resistance" at Tarabya Kultur Akademie with Ulya Soley, participation in the "Timeless Curiosities" exhibition at Istanbul Modern Museum, and the ongoing "Lines of Displacement" project with Arazi Collective, comissioned by Against Catastrophe.

Köm received his undergraduate degree from the Department of Architecture at Yıldız Technical University and completed his master's degree at the Städelschule Academy of Fine Arts. He participated in Micro Residency (Athens) in 2018 and in SAHA Studio (as part of the Silent University Orientation Program) in 2022. Köm's personal and collective works have been exhibited in several biennials, museums, galleries and art institutions such as Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Design Biennial, Venice Architecture Biennale, Maxxi Museum (Rome), Goethe-Institut (Athens, Ankara), SALT (Istanbul), V&A Museum (London), nGbK (Berlin), The Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery UM (Prague), transmediale vorspiel Silent Green (Berlin), Chicago Architecture Biennial, TOP e.V (Berlin), and Versus Art Project (Istanbul).

Yelta Köm is currently working as a researcher on the Topological Atlas project hosted by TU Delft and is teaching at Practices and Politics of Representation at the department of Bauhaus Universität Weimar Faculty of Architecture. Co-founder Architecture for All and the artists lives and work in Berlin. He is represented by Versus Art Project; Istanbul.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023 forget it all

Versus Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey

2022 Urban Surveillance Bureau A Sequence of work in process

transmediale / Vorspiel 2022

TOP e.V, Berlin, Germany

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 

2023 vorspiel transmediale

Silent Green, Berlin, Germany

2022 17. Istanbul Biennial
Collective Participation, Arazi Assembly & Topological Atlas, Silent University Orientation Program

2022 Grounds of Coexistence

Gallery UM, Prague, Czech Republic


2022 Undertow

Online Video Exhibition

Versus Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey


2021 Fluid Dynamics

Versus Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey


2021 Listening to Listening
TOP e.V, Berlin, Germany


2020 Scale

Versus Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey


2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial

Participant with Architecture For All

Washington St. Chicago, USA 


2019 I-DEA, Archive of Archives: A voyage through the collections of Basilicata

Matera, Italy


2018 16th International Architecture Exhibition

La Biennale Di Venezia Pavilion Of Turkey

Venice, Italy


2017 ACTOPOLIS: The Art of Action

Goethe-Institut Athens, Greece


2016 We Won’t Leave

Goethe-Institut Ankara, Turkey


2015 Istanbul. Passion, Joy, Fury

Participant with Architecture For All

MAXXI Museum Rome, Italy


2015 77-13 Political Art and Resistance in Turkey

Participant with Architecture For All

nGbK, Berlin, Germany

2015 Adhocracy [Athens]

Participant with Architecture For All

Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece


2015 Hidden Playgrounds, Neola Art Projects

Participant with Architecture For All

City Leaks Urban Art Festival, Cologne, Germany 


2015 Disobedient Object

Participant with #occupygezi architecture and Architecture For All

Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK


2014 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, The Future Is Now What Is Used To Be

KONTRAAKT, #occupygezi architecture, TwtRate

Istanbul, Turkey


2012 1st Istanbul Design Biennial (Adhocracy)

Ad-Hoc Library with Pelin Tan, and Ethel Baraona Pohl

Galata Greek Primary School, Istanbul, Turkey



CURATORIAL PROJECTS

2018 16th International Architecture Exhibition

Associate Curator // La Biennale Di Venezia Pavilion Of Turkey

2015 VitrA Contemporary Architecture Series “Caution! Slippery Ground”

Curator // Istanbul Modern Museum


SELECTED TALKS & SEMINARS


2023 An Afternoon on the Internet

Piksel Art Talks // Ulya Soley, Yelta Köm


2022 Discrepancies from Conflicting Pasts and Anti-Colonial Futures

Conversation // Ezgi Kılınçaslan, Yelta Köm (Moderator: Öndercan Muti)

AKEBİ, Berlin, Germany


2022 Architecture as a Field of Research 

Online Talk // Dilşad Aladağ, Eda Aslan, Bihter Almaç, Yelta Köm (Moderator: Pelin Derviş)

GEMSS'21, Istanbul, Turkey


2021 Experiences, challenges, hopes

Panel Discussion // Asli Duru, Banu Çiçek Tülü, Yaşar Adnan Adanalı 

(Moderator: Yelta Köm) The Path, Oyoun Berlin, Germany


2021 Architecture for All: A Decentralised Methodology

Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey


2021 Spatial Queries on Fuzzy Lines

Guest Lecturer // Online Seminar, Yaşar University, Istanbul, Turkey


2021 Witnessing Ways of Living in Urban Space

Discussion // Seçil Yersel, Yelta Köm

Chromatic Wednesdays, Apartment Project, Berlin  


2021 Omuz Speaks: Solidarity and Uncertainty

Panel Discussion // Cavidan Soykan, Tuba İnal Çekiç, Malaz Usta, 

(Moderator: Yelta Köm), Online


2020 Open Architecture: In Conversation with Hasan Cenk Dereli and Yelta Köm

Conversation // Açık Radyo, Istanbul, Turkey


2020 Hide & Seek | Urban Surveillance Bureau

Project Presentation and Q&A // Forecast Forum 


2019 Architecture for All: A Decentralised Methodology

NLB Talks - Natural Building Lab, TU Berlin


2019 Occu-Pie - Aufstand der Utopien Festival

Interview // Chemnitz, Germany 


2018 Urban Struggles & Emergent Commoning Practices

CommonsLab: Nachbarschaftslabor Berlin


2018 Open Architecture: On Human Representations in Architectural Projects

Conversation // Yağmur Yıldırım, Yelta Köm

Açık Radyo, Istanbul, Turkey


2017 Workshop of Cornell University's "Migration and Discrimination"

"The road to home : The current status of spatial practices in Turkey


2016 5th DFG International Graduate Research Programme Conference 

IGK Berlin, Germany


2016 Urbantopias: Discussing the Challenges of Changing Cities

Film Screening, Q&A // Video Activism in Turkey


2015 Architecture for All

Ted Talk // TedxResetSalon, Istanbul, Turkey


2015 Autonomous Archiving: bak.ma meets pad.ma

The Surplus of Political Action in Urban Space, Art Practices

14th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey


2014 Designers in Dialogue: The Future...?

Conversation // 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey


2014 Gezi Movement and Resistance Architecture, Architecture for Everyone and #occupygezi 

Presentation and Conversation // Bi'bak Exchange, Berlin, Germany


2014 Architecture for All and Current Conversations in Turkey

Mundus Urbano, TU Darmstadt, Germany


2013 Istanbul And Beirut 

Portfolio and Workshop Presentation // AA Mittelmeerland Alexandria Symposium, Egypt



AWARDS, HONOURS, AND NOMINATIONS


2021 GEMSS'21: Emerging Architects Selection and Exhibition 

The Circle, Istanbul, Turkey


2020 Forecast Platform Berlin: Hide & Seek

Selected Nominee, Dissecting Technocapitalism moderated Evgeny Morozov


2017 Design Trust Hong Kong - Design Trust Seed Grant 

Commoning Practices Research Grant, Hong Kong 


2015 Young Architect Encouragement Award

Arkitera Architecture Centre


2014 Scholarship for Artists and Architects

DAAD - German Academic Exchange Service


2012 Travel Grant

Open Society Foundation


2012 AA Mittermeerland Beirut

Zeit Foundation, Germany


2011 Arkitera Travel Grant

Arkitera Architecture Centre



PUBLICATIONS


2016 - Current Berlin Notes

Article Series on Berlin, migration, daily life, on witnessing the city,

manifold.press


2022 Our route is Hong Kong, our guide is Yelta Köm

Article, BantMag


2021 Transformation of Architectural Practice and the Pandemic

Article, TMMOB Chamber of Architects Ankara Branch


2018 Seed Of Awareness

Interview with Michael Leung, XXI Architecture and Design Magazine 


2016 There is an architecture without trade but with an economy

Article, Chamber of Architects Magazine


2014 A Spatial Narrative Of The Perpetual Reconquista (What's Happening In Taksim)

Book Chapter, Urbane Interventionen Istanbul: Learning from Gezi?, 

Merve Verlag Berlin


2014 Growing Architectures in Glass Boxes

Article, Arredamento Architecture


ARTIST RESIDENCIES


2022 Micro Residency

Athens, Greece


2018 SAHA Studio - Silent University

Istanbul, Turkey