Ayşe Erkmen: I still insist

Dirimart’s new London gallery opens on 9 September with I still insist by Ayşe Erkmen.

Istanbul-based gallery Dirimart announces that its new gallery space in the heart of London’s Mayfair district will open on 9 September 2025 with the inaugural exhibition I still insist, a presentation by Ayşe Erkmen, one of Turkey’s foremost contemporary artists. The opening of the new London gallery marks Dirimart’s first international gallery expansion. This prime location in Mayfair, renowned for its rich concentration of globally acclaimed art galleries, places Dirimart at the centre of London’s dynamic art scene.

Running from 9 September – 4 October, 2025, the inaugural exhibition, I still insist, brings together seven new and recent works by Erkmen, conceived in response to the gallery’s new space in London. Marking a significant moment in the gallery’s international trajectory, the exhibition explores both the physical move and the conceptual shift involved in entering a new cultural context. The featured works explore the experience of transitioning between spaces and the process of reorienting oneself within unfamiliar environments and in front of new audiences.

In her practice, Ayşe Erkmen takes the physical environment as a point of departure. By repositioning existing architectural structures in her own distinctive style, Erkmen prompts viewers to reflect on the gallery space itself. The contemporaneity of her work stems from its ability to reveal what already exists—encouraging audiences to see the space anew through subtle shifts in form and context. Discussing her practice, Erkmen explains, “I want everything I do to be considered sculpture”. However, her practice is not defined by a search for specific materials or forms. Instead, it evolves in direct response to the spaces she engages with as she notes, “I feel most successful when I bring as little as possible to the space.” For Erkmen, the exhibition space becomes both subject and medium, shaped by its social history and architectural character.

The titular work, I still insist (2025), is an installation relocating the wooden structure once hidden behind the plaster walls of Dirimart’s Istanbul gallery into its new London space. These wall pieces—constructional elements once used to support displayed artworks—are transformed by Erkmen into the artworks themselves. Furthermore, referencing the gallery’s broader role in both influencing and being influenced by its surroundings, Erkmen presents Dolapdere (2017), a sound piece that faintly voices the names of the businesses around the gallery’s Istanbul space that have been displaced and transformed due to ongoing gentrification. This work is accompanied by Dolapdere, the movie (2025), a new short film that visually traces those same streets, revisiting the original setting of both the installation and the sound work. This gesture of remembering is echoed in Scrolling (2021), a video piece in which Erkmen scrolls through her digital archive of past works on a computer screen, as though preparing the ground for something new to emerge.

In I still insist, Erkmen also reprises one of her signature gestures in Ribbons (2025), wrapping one of the existing columns in the space with fabric ribbons inscribed with her name. In homage to her grandmother, a tailor, this gesture bridges the practices of garment making and sculpture. At the same time, it raises questions about the implications of the artist’s name becoming ubiquitous—once the symbol of authorship, now potentially diluted through repetition. Other works on show include Erkmen’s series Circles on Circles (2025) and Weight to Form (2025).

In I still insist, visitors are invited to experience Erkmen’s investigation of the sculptural object in dialogue with space, while also contemplating the gallery’s role and significance as a site for art.