YBYTU

Brazil

The initial year of the SAHA and YBYTU curatorial program collaboration begins with two rising women curators, namely Canan Batur and Erica Bruni. Selected from among the applications made to open call made in June 2025, the curators are each to spend 8 weeks in São Paulo and Istanbul respectively, before travelling in the host countries for 2 weeks to familiarize with the cultural landscape and forge new connections.

Canan Batur is a curator and researcher whose practice is an ongoing investigation into radical emancipatory practices through the imaginative nexus of sonic and poetic practices. Her work brings forward alternative historiographies that ripple and excavate what made unseen and unheard. During her residency in Fall 2024, Canan intends to develop research probing the sonorities of the politics of air through artistic practices and imagination rooted in Brazil. Her investigation will focus on how breath – as a fundamental right, rhythmic pulse and collective resistance – is being considered in dealing with the colonial and their interrelated ecological-climatic legacies and ongoing conduct. Throughout the residency, Canan will delve into contemporary artistic practices as well as sonic archives and collections to unearth the sonorities of resistance, by way of air and breath, and examine how these practices are accommodated within institutional frameworks. From 2021 to 2024, Canan served as the Curator of Live Programmes at Nottingham Contemporary, to bring forward a space for live research. She has developed independent curatorial projects for the Július Koller Society, Bratislava; Istanbul Biennale 2022; NTU CCA, Singapore; Shanghai Biennale XII; and Baltic Triennale XIII. She was in the jury for Frieze Artist Award 2024 and NAE OPEN Live Prize 2023. She is the initiator and founding member of the Museum for the Displaced (2018–2021) and clearview.ltd (2016–2019).

Érica Burini is an art historian, researcher and curator. Her curatorial approach is driven by a commitment to the amplification of narratives from the Global South. Her practice underlines the critical importance of independent and non-profit art spaces in providing platforms for underrepresented voices and innovative artistic practices. To that end, during her residency term in Spring 2025, Érica plans to explore particularly the artist-run spaces across Türkiye. She currently mediates support groups for artists called Clínica Geral and participates in the management of Ateliê397, an independent art space in São Paulo, where she created programs such as Recepção397, aimed at emerging artists. Previously, she held a Research Training Grant at the Institute of Contemporary Art, IAC (2024). 

About the Collaboration:

Initiated in early 2024, the residency collaboration between SAHA in Istanbul, Türkiye and YBYTU in São Paulo, Brazil, is designed to foster vibrant cultural dialogue between these two nations through innovative curatorial mediation that emerges from immersive experiences and shared curatorial practices of the participants. This initiative aims to bridge geographical and cultural distances by facilitating artistic exchanges and collaborative projects that explore and reflect the unique artistic landscapes of Turkey and Brazil. By engaging artists, curators and actors of contemporary art in respective countries, the program seeks to enrich the global art conversation and promote cross-cultural understanding.

About YBYTU

The YBYTU artist residency was born from a growing want of collectors Georgiana Rothier and Bernardo Faria to create an international and multidisciplinary artistic residency program in São Paulo. With a long history of collaborating with several public and private institutions, the two decided to use the know-how accumulated over the years to create a project that mirrored their ideas.

This initiative has as its main goal promote a new opportunity for artists who seek time to think and explore their artistic practice in the context of a studio, and their relationship with the artistic and cultural environment.