Pınar Öğrenci, 1973

Pınar Öğrenci was born in Türkiye in 1973. Trained as an architect, she lives and works in Berlin. She is the founder of the art initiative MARSistanbul.

Producing installations through film and video, Öğrenci focuses on universal themes such as migration, war, violence, and urban transformation. In her first documentary film, the artist draws on her own migration story to explore the impact of spatial and cultural differences on

human behavior. By using visual and auditory materials that can belong to any geography, she establishes new connections between different cultures, spaces, and histories.

The artist’s video installation, “LED Light City: Istanbul,” centers on the LED-lit versions of restaurant and market signs that have replaced traditional ones in Istanbul over recent years. Following the adoption of the Latin alphabet in 1928 through the Letter Reform, Arabic script had largely disappeared from public view – yet it became visible again on shop signs after the influx of Syrian migrants to Türkiye began in 2013, due to the Syrian Civil War. The eight video screens focusing on this process feature digital signage from different neighborhoods, stacked on top of one another as if to echo the city's density. Including districts such as Fatih, Karaköy, Laleli, and Nişantaşı, the artist uses these signs to question the relationship between architecture and the urban fabric through the lens of Istanbul, creating an archive of transformations in cities shaped by migration.