Yelta Köm (b.1986, Istanbul) is an artist who brings together architectural, artistic, and spatial practices to discuss social and political issues. Environmental perception, urban imagery, neoliberal transformations, tensions between nature and technology, collective movements and migration often inspire his work. Collaboration is a crucial part of Köm’s practice, which involves various methodologies and materials. His work is centered around landforms, technology, critical approaches to environment and communities, urban surveillance methodologies, data mapping systems, architectural technologies, oral and cinematographic storytelling, and the questioning of representation techniques. Köm received his undergraduate degree from the Department of Architecture at Yıldız Technical University and completed his master’s degree at the Städelschule Academy of Fine Arts. He is a co-founder of Herkes İçin Mimarlık (Architecture for All), a non-profit organization devoted to offering approaches to social problems in Turkey from an architectural perspective. He participated in Micro Residency (Athens) in 2018 and in SAHA Studio (as part of the Silent University Orientation Program) in 2022. Köm’s personal and collective works have been exhibited in several biennials, museums, galleries and art institutions such as Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Design Biennial, Venice Architecture Biennale, Istanbul Modern Museum, MAXXI Museum (Rome), Goethe-Institut (Athens, Ankara), SALT (Istanbul), V&A Museum (London), nGbK (Berlin), The Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery UM (Prague), transmediale vorspiel Silent Green (Berlin), Chicago Architecture Biennial, TOP e.V (Berlin), Venice Biennale of Architecture, Galerie UM (Prague), Venice Biennale of Art Versus Art Project (Istanbul). He will also give talks and presentations various institutions such as Deutsches Architektur Museum, Frankfurt, ACC Galerie Weimar, HKW Berlin. He is based in Berlin.

Yelta Köm is a resident at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from February until May 2024.