The lecture was unfortunately cancelled! 

Can Altay is an artist living in Istanbul whose practice traverses the fields of architecture, art, design and social commentary. Often taking the form of research projects or mixed-media installations, his work explores and delineates individuals’ relationship with their urban environments. Trained as as an architect, Altay studies improvise spaces in the city, as well as hidden structures of support, unauthorised systems of organisation and models of co-habitation.

Altay's recent solo exhibitions include: ‘COHAB: an assembly of spare parts’, Casco, Utrecht (2011); ‘The Church Street Partners’ Gazette’, The Showroom, London (2010) and ‘Setting a Setting / Forecasting a Broken Past’, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2008). Recent group exhibitions include: Taipei Biennial, Taiwan (2010). His work has been included in the Istanbul Biennial 2008; Havana Biennial 2003 and Gwangju Biennial 2008; and in museums and galleries such as the Walker Art Center (USA), VanAbbe Museum (Netherlands), ZKM (Germany), PS1 MoMA (USA), and Platform Garanti (Turkey). He is a co-founder of art, design and publishing collective Diplomacy in Reflex, editor of Ahali: A Journal for Setting a Setting and was a co-curator of the 'Refuge' section of the 4th Architecture Biennial of Rotterdam in 2009.

Altay holds a doctoral degree and is assistant professor at the Istanbul Bilgi University, Faculty of Architecture.