Serkan Taycan (1978, Gaziantep, Turkey) is an artist/researcher and academic with an engineering and photojournalism background. He lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey.
In his research-based artistic practice, he focuses on the dynamics of ecological and urban transformations caused by human activity. Specifically, water-related topics have constituted the focus of his recent work, where he uses media such as photography, video, mapping, and walking. In 2013, he established the walking trail, Between Two Seas, aiming to facilitate a personal experience of the threatening transformation of Istanbul for the participants.
Between Two Seas and his other work have been exhibited in various venues including Venice Architectural Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, Helsinki Photography Biennial, Mardin Biennial, Sinop Biennial and Thessaloniki Photography Biennale as well as SALT, MAXXI, MuCEM, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, St.Petersburg Russian National Centre of Photography and Malmö Museum. Serkan Taycan completed his MFA degree in Visual Arts at Sabancı University, Istanbul and in Photography at Aalto University, Helsinki.
Currently, he is pursuing his PhD on architecture and urbanism at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. As well as, he is teaching as a part-time faculty member at Bilgi and Bahçeşehir Universities in Istanbul. In the past, he gave lectures, practice seminars, and led workshops at Iceland Academy of the Arts (Reykjavík), Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology (Bangalore) and Leeds Arts University. He held artist residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, in 2015 and at Delfina Foundation, London, in 2016.
