THROUGH THE EYES OF: Rozelin Akgün, Episode 18

Discover Rozelin Akgün in this new episode of our series *In The Eyes Of*, and immerse yourself in an artist residency centered on experimentation, the long-term, and an encounter with living matter.

Originally from Diyarbakır, Rozelin Akgün is an artist and researcher whose work is rooted in biological cycles and biomaterials. In Cascais, she first had to unlearn her old ways: her habits no longer applied, her tools changed, and she had to observe before she could create. From this constraint, a method emerged: she chose cyanotype, a technique she was experimenting with for the first time, working between the sunlight and the darkness of the studio, which she transformed into a darkroom.

Her residency was also marked by her meeting with two curators who invited her to join the Résidences Croisées “ programme ,” opening up an artistic world she had never experienced before. Added to this was another first: the ocean, which she discovered for the first time in Cascais. There, she worked with seaweed collected from its natural habitat—organic, unpredictable materials that she refused to dominate. This attention to living things is something she also claims as a political act.

Between her studio and the shore, Rozelin Akgün uses this residency as a time to refocus on herself: to observe other cultures, learn new techniques, and let these new colors shine through—like a prism—to illuminate the work she continues at home.