Serkan Taycan is a researcher and artist with a background in engineering and documentary photography.
He holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from Yıldız Technical University (YTU), Istanbul, an MA in Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design from Sabancı University, Istanbul, and undertook graduate-level studies in Photography at Aalto University, Helsinki. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University in Ottawa, and lives and works in Istanbul.
Academic research and teaching
Taycan’s academic research focuses on urban transformation and infrastructure, as well as activist practices that creatively defend the right to the city, with particular attention to Istanbul. In his doctoral project, he examines Between Two Seas, a walking trail he initiated as an activist art project and a counterproposal to Kanal Istanbul, the mega-scale infrastructure project planned for Istanbul’s western periphery.
As a researcher, he has worked on various research projects at Carleton University’s Department of Geography, including collaborations with Dr. David Hugill. He has also served as a team lead at the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS).
Taycan has taught courses on urban culture and visual arts as a part-time faculty member at Bilgi University and Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul, as well as at Carleton University in Ottawa. He has also delivered lectures, seminars, and workshops at academic institutions including the European Institute at the London School of Economics (LSE), the Centre for Global Cooperation Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Koç University, the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at Sabancı University in Istanbul, the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, and Leeds Arts University.
Artistic practice and exhibitions
Alongside his academic work, Taycan develops a research-based artistic practice that explores ecological and urban transformations from spatial and socio-political perspectives. Working across photography, video, mapping, and walking, his projects examine the relationships between infrastructure, landscape, and everyday life.
His work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including MAXXI Rome, MuCEM Marseille, Malmö Museum, SALT Istanbul, Pera Museum, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, and the Sakıp Sabancı Museum. He has also participated in major contemporary exhibitions and biennials such as the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Istanbul Biennial, the Helsinki Photography Biennial, the Mardin Biennial, the Sinop Biennial, Cappadox, and the Thessaloniki Photography Biennale. In 2017, he published the experimental photography book Agora #04: Taksim.
Taycan has participated in artist residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (2015) and the Delfina Foundation in London (2016).
Curatorial and mentoring work
More recently, he curated Give Me Shelter at SAW Gallery, Ottawa. He has also served as a mentor for the SaDe Artist Support Fund, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), and for the Cultural & Artistic Responses to the Environmental Crisis (CAREC) mentorship program, organized by the Prince Claus Fund in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut.