IMAGES

NIL YALTER

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Cairo in 1938 to Turkish parents, Nil Yalter grew up in Istanbul. In 1965, she moved to Paris, where she currently lives and works.

Beginning in the 1970s, she developed multimedia projects addressing feminist issues, immigration, and class relations, infusing her work with Turkish traditions and the new ideological challenges of the post-1968 era.

In 1973, she created Topak-Ev, a life-size felt tent inspired by Bektashi traditions. On the exterior, Nil Yalter inscribed information about the living conditions of nomadic populations in Turkey. The installation was first exhibited at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris that same year.

She was one of the first to use video, which she combined with performances, drawings, photographs, and texts, notably in her performance La femme sans tête ou La danse du ventre (The Headless Woman or The Belly Dance). Produced in 1974, this video shows Nil Yalter writing on her stomach a passage from René Nelli’s book, Érotique et civilisations, which addresses men’s fear of female pleasure and denounces religious mutilations.

During the 1970s, she was a member of several feminist collectives in Paris, such as Femmes en Lutte and Femmes/Art, which focused on socially engaged issues and women’s struggle for visibility in the arts.

In 2018, Nil Yalter was awarded the AWARE Honorary Prize, shared ex aequo with Vera Molnár by unanimous decision of the jury. She was honored with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

EXHIBITIONS

2026

- The gallery celebrates its 40th anniversary. Carte blanche to Pierre Wat, Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France

- Sans contrefaçon — Anatomie d'un vêtement : première séquence, Frac-Artothèque Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Limoges, France

- Par-delà les Mille et Une Nuits. Histoires des orientalismes, Musée du Louvre-Lens, France

2025

- Engagées, Fondation Villa Datris, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France

2024

- Foreigners Everywhere / Stranieri Ovunque, Venice Biennale, Italy

- Présences arabes - Art moderne et décolonisation - Paris 1908-1988, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, France

- Exils. Regards d'artistes, Musée du Louvre-Lens, Lens, France

2023

Exile is a hard job, Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France

Signals: How Video Transformed the World, MoMA, New York, United States

2022

Convivencia, 1 Mira Madrid, Madrid, Spain

2019

Exile is a Hard Job 1973 / 2018. Retrospective, Museum Ludwig, Koln, Germany

Exile is a Hard Job. Retrospective, Hessel Museum of Art, New York, United States

TRANS / HUMANCE. Retrospective, MAC VAL, Paris, France

2018

Outstanding Merit Award, Prix Aware, France

2017

D'Après Stimmung 1973, Museum Ludwig, Koln, Germany

2016

Nil Yalter. Retrospective, 49 Nord 6 Est. Frac Lorraine, Metz, France

Off The Record, ARTER Space for art, Istanbul, Turkey

Solo show, Espaivisor, F.I.A.C. 2016, Paris, France

2015

Topak Ev 1973. Orient Express 1976, La Verrière-Fondation d'entreprise Hermès, Brussels, Belgium

2014

Paris Ville Lumière 1974. Neunkirchen 1975, Vienna, Austria

2012

C'est un Dur Métier que l'Exil, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

2010

La Femme Sans Tête, ou La Danse du Ventre, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

2009

Vidéo performance, Festival, Garajistanbul, Istanbul, Turkey

C'est Un Dur Métier Que L'Exil III, Musée de l'immigration, Paris, France
Hommage a Nil Yalter, 20e Festival de Cinema International d'Ankara, Ankara, Turkey

2008

Le centenaire de la naissance de Simone de Beauvoir, Studio des Ursulines, Paris, France

2006

C'est un dur métier que l'exil 2, French Institute of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey

2004

Hommage à Nil Yalter, 26th Mediterranean Film Festival, Montpellier, France

1998

Terra Nomade, Aksanat Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, Turkey

1996

Télévision, La lune, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Nice, France

1995

Photographie Contemporaine en Bretagne, Lanion, France
Télévision, La Lune, College Marcel Duchamp, Chateauroux, France