Nil Yalter

Nil Yalter (born 1938) is a Turkish contemporary feminist artist. She attended Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey and currently lives and works in Paris. Her work, which is included in many collections and museums, includes not only drawings and photographs, but also videos and performance art.

Nil Yalter was born in 1938 in Cairo, Egypt. She is of Turkish descent. She received her education from Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey.

Yalter took part in the French counterculture and revolutionary movements in the late 1960s. Her artwork focused on gender and the conditions faced by Turkish migrant workers. In the 1970s, she led the beginning of the French art feminist movement. In 1973, Yalter made a piece of art on Turkish immigrants about nomads living around Niğde, called A Nomad’s Tent: A Study of Private, Public, and Feminine Spaces. Yalter was involved in the feminist art movement. She made art focused on women and identity. In 1974, she created a video titled The Headless Woman (Belly Dance). The piece shows only the belly of a woman who writes a poem on her abdomen and then belly dances. This piece expresses the idea that women who are thought of as exotic, like belly dancers, are objectified. They are sexualized by focusing on simply one part of their bodies. This piece stands out in French contemporary art history and is one of the early feminist-art classics. For WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, Yalter created a piece with Judy Blum and Nicole Croiset in a women’s prison sometime in the 1960s or 1970s. Yalter was a member of Collectif Femmes/Art, which was a group of female artists in Paris from 1976 to 1980. In 1978, she worked on a piece of performance art, “Day of Actions,” which explored confinement. She acted out everyday life in a harem with furniture and utensils. From 1980 to 1995, Yalter acted as an associate at Sorbonne University.

Yalter has lived and worked in Paris, France since 1965 making drawings, photographs, videos, and performance art. She created a video focusing on shamanism in 2009 titled “Lord Byron Meets the Shaman Woman.” The Tate Modern, İstanbul Modern, Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Fonds national d'art contemporain hold her sculptures, videos, and installations in their permanent collections.

Her works are in the following collections:

• Fonds National d’Art Contemporain. La Roquette, Prison De Femmes. Paris. 1976
• Long Beach Museum. Rahime, Femme Kurde de Turquie. California. 1982
• Aksanat, Centre d’Art Contemporain. Le Serpent. Istanbul. 1994
• L’espace multimédia Gantner. “Histoire de Peau”. Bourogne. 2004
• Musée de Santralistanbul. "Topak Ev". Istanbul. 2007
• Fonds national d’art contemporain. "La Femme sans Tête ou La Danse du Ventre". Paris. 2008
• Sammlung Verbund. " La Femme sans Tête ou La Danse du Ventre ". Wien. 2008
• Istanbul Modern. " La Femme sans Tête ou La Danse du Ventre ". Istanbul. 2008
• Centre Pompidou. " La Femme sans Tête ou La Danse du Ventre ". Paris. 2011
• Tate Modern. "Temporary Dwellings". London. 2012
• Reydan Weiss Collection. "Turkish Immigrants". Essen, Germany. 2012
• Coleccion Olor Visual. "Temporary Dwellings 2". Barcelona. 2013
• Foto Colectania Foundation. "Temporary Dwellings". Barcelona. 2013
• Georges Centre Pompidou. "Ris-Orangis". Paris. 2013
• Koç Contemporary. "Harem". Istanbul. 2013
• Art Collection Telecom. Deutsche Telecom. "Madame Schmidt". Neuenkirchen. 1975

Her work has been shown at:

• F.I.A.C. 2011 Galerist. Paris.
• Artissima Torino Art Fair 2011. Galerie Hubert Winter. Torino.
• Arco Art Fair. 2012. Espaivisor Galeria Visor. Madrid.
• Volta 8 Basel. 2012. Espaivisor Galeria Visor. Basel.
• Arco Art Fair. 2013. Espaivisor Galeria Visor. Madrid.
• Armory Show New York. 2013. Espaivisor Galeria Visor. New York.
• Art Cologne. 2013. Espaivisor Galeria Visor. Cologne.
• Frieze Masters. Spotlight. 2013. Espaivisor Galeria Visor. London.
• Contemporary Istanbul. 2013. Galerist. Istanbul.
• Paris Photo. 2013. Espaivisor Galeria Visor. Paris.
• Arco Art Fair. 2014. Espaivisor Galeria Visor. Madrid.
• Art Cologne. 2014. Espaivisor Galeria Visor. Cologne.
• Art Brussels. 2014. Galerist. MOT International. Brussels.

Her work has been shown in 2014 at:

• Art Brussels. Solo. Galerist. Istanbul.
• Group exhibitions
• Clark House Initiative / Kadist Art Foundation. 2014. Mumbai.
• "Exile is a Hard Job VI". Posters on the walls in the streets of Mumbai. India.
• Istanbul Modern. " Neighbours "
• MAM. Rio de Janeiro. "Topak Ev". Curated by Adriano Pedrosa and Rodrigo Moura. (Catalogue).
• Gwangju Biennale. "Le Chevalier d'Eon". Curated by Jessica Morgan. (Catalogue).