Sarkis (born 1938 in Istanbul, Turkey) is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary artist known for his works that explore the relationship between memory, history, and spirituality. Working with a wide range of materials and techniques—from installations to sculptures, videos to drawings—Sarkis creates works with a powerful emotional impact that intertwine personal and universal elements.
In 2008, Sarkis participated in Art to Art VIII, creating the work La Fontana degli Acquerelli, a public fountain that reflects his aesthetic of color and transformation. The work, which remains an integral part of the city to this day, has become a symbol of the dialogue between contemporary art and urban space.
Sarkis has exhibited at prestigious institutions and international biennials, cementing his role as a central figure in the contemporary art scene. His work continues to inspire and engage audiences through profound reflections on the human condition and our connection to the past.
Born in Istanbul in 1938, Sarkis studied French, painting, and interior design before moving to Paris in 1964. In 1967, he won the painting prize at the Paris Biennale and presented his work *Connaissez-vous Joseph Beuys?* at the Salon de Mai, in a reference to the man he considered the most important artist of the time. In 1969, he was invited by the critic and curator Harald Szeemann to take part in the now-legendary exhibition *When Attitudes Become Form*. Teaching and sharing experiences are central to this artist’s practice. From 1980 to 1990, he served as director of the art department at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg, and from 1988 to 1995, he taught a seminar at the Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques, founded by Pontus Hulten. Since the 1980s, Sarkis has participated in numerous international exhibitions (including Documenta and the Venice, Sydney, Istanbul, and Moscow Biennales) and has exhibited his works in major museums around the world.
In the 2010 exhibition *Passages* at the Centre Pompidou, Sarkis’s works engaged in a dialogue with those of Kasimir Malevich,the wall of André Breton’s studio, and Joseph Beuys’s *Plight* —one of Sarkis’s sources of inspiration, along with Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, one of whose films he explored in the Brancusi studio. The “passages” evoked both the constant back-and-forth between an artist’s studio and the museum, and Walter Benjamin’s great unfinished work on the arcades of Paris. The exhibition featured a series of recent works or pieces created specifically for the Centre Pompidou. These works, standing like the artist’s KRIEGSSCHATZ (trophies), included found objects, works of art, and ethnographic artifacts from various civilizations.
In 2011, the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Geneva (MAMCO) dedicated a major retrospective to the artist, titled *Hôtel Sarkis*. The four-floor exhibition brought together 200 works created between 1971 and 2011 and explored the artist’s various media (video and sound installations, watercolors, photographs, and films), thereby amplifying the resonance of a body of work produced in response to other artists—whether musicians, architects, writers, philosophers, painters, sculptors, or filmmakers.
In 2012, Sarkis presented *Ballads* in the 5,000-square-meter Underwater Hangars, at the invitation of the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and the Port of Rotterdam, as well as *Ailleurs, Ici* at the Chaumont-sur-Loire estate, commissioned by the Centre Regional Council. He also participated in the group exhibition *La Triennale – Intense Proximité* at the Palais de Tokyo with his *Frise des Trésors de Guerre*, presented at *Néon: Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue?* at La Maison Rouge – Fondation Antoine de Galbert and Istanbul Modern at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
In 2013, Sarkis participated in the exhibition *When Attitudes Become Form, Bern 1969 / Venice 2013* at the Prada Foundation as part of the 55th Venice Biennale. He also exhibited at “Passages Croisés” at the Château d’Angers and was invited to present his “Frise de Guerre” at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania as part of the exhibition “The Red Queen.” Sarkis also participated in the exhibition “Ici, Ailleurs” as part of the Marseille–Provence European Capital of Culture program, and in the exhibition “Modernity? Perspectives from France and Turkey at Istanbul Modern and in his solo exhibition titled *Sarkis – Cage / Ryoanji Interpretation* at ARTER – Space for Art in Istanbul. In 2014, he exhibited his “ring portraits” at the Huis Marseille Museum of Photography in Amsterdam, and his work was presented at three venues: the CIAC, the MNAC, and the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest. A solo exhibition dedicated to his work was held at the Musée du Château des Ducs de Wurtemberg in Montbéliard.