Artist
Defne Ayas
Via Rotterdam, Netherlands
Defne Ayas is the Director and Curator of Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, where she has recently launched two new programs: a research and exchange initiative titled “The World Turned Inside Out”; and WdW Review, an online platform that will host framed debates, critical essays and speculative image readings from international editors. Ayas also commissioned The Humans, a theatrical work by artist and writer Alexandre Singh that will premiere in Rotterdam and travel to New York this fall.
After attending the 2013 Venice Biennale, Ayas then traveled to Istanbul, her hometown, observing protests in each city. Of the movement, she writes: “[I] know very well that all this is a marathon, and not a sprint.”
