A modern art exhibition features angled wooden tables with objects: a framed photograph of tall trees, a small model staircase, and music stands. In the background are more tables with books and a circular yellow carpet on the floor. The space is minimal and well-lit.

Erdem Taşdelen Residency

Tkaronto/Toronto-based artist Erdem Taşdelen will be in residence at Studio Voltaire from September to October 2025.

Erdem Taşdelen (b. 1985, Ankara) is a Turkish-Canadian artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. His work involves a range of media, including installation, video, sound and artist books.

The artist seeks to question power structures within the context of culturally learned behaviours. He constructs semi-fictional narratives that incorporate historical figures, events and texts to implicate contemporary social and political realities.

Since 2010, the artist has engaged with themes that include life under authoritarian regimes and the performative nature and public staging of political discourse. These themes have been unpacked by looking at live social and political discussions including experiences of migration, the haunting presence of the past and the limits of self-expression.

At Studio Voltaire, Taşdelen will develop a new live collaborative performance. Drawing on his ongoing research into language, gesture and political imagination, the performance will weave together elements of theatre, photography and collective movement. This new phase of work will focus on shaping a choreographed script and refining its performative language through rehearsal and collaborative exchange.

Supported by Canada Council for the Arts

Erdem Taşdelen (b. 1985, Ankara) is a Turkish-Canadian artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. He has exhibited at venues including The Power Plant, Aga Khan Museum and Mercer Union in Toronto; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; VOX Centre de l’image contemporaine, Montréal; Framer Framed, Amsterdam; Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg; and Pera Museum, Istanbul. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Delfina Foundation, London; Rupert, Vilnius; Hangar, Lisbon; and KulturKontakt, Vienna. He was awarded the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Visual Arts by the Canada Council for the Arts in 2016, the Charles Pachter Prize for Emerging Artists by the Hnatyshyn Foundation in 2014 and long-listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2019. He currently teaches at University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.
1. Erdem Taşdelen, A Minaret For The Generals Wife, 2021. Installation view at Mercer Union. Courtesy of the artist. Credit Toni Hafkenscheid
2. Erdem Taşdelen. Demagogues 3, 2021. Installation view at aka artist run. Courtesy of the artist. Credit Derek Sandbeck
3. Erdem Taşdelen, Score for A Long Dramatic Pause 1, 2025. Courtesy of the artist. Credit Kayhan Kaygusuz
4. Erdem Taşdelen, The Characters Act III, 2022. installation view at Art Gallery of Burlington Courtesy of the artist. Credit Yuula Benivolski
5. Erdem Taşdelen, Unmade Films. 2022. Installation view at BuroSarigedik. Courtesy of the artist. Credit Kayhan Kaygusuz