Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin (Ankara, 1957 - Istanbul, 2007) was an artist, writer, educator and curator. He studied aesthetics and the philosophy of art and sociology in Istanbul and Paris-I Sorbonne. Alptekin worked as a press photographer and an art, media and design critic. He also conducted workshops and seminars on contemporary art and design in Turkey and abroad; taught philosophy of art at Bilkent University in Ankara (1990–1994); and was the coordinator of exhibitions and cultural activities for the Habitat II NGO-City Summit, Istanbul. He taught at Istanbul Bilgi University from 2000 to 2004.
Beginning with his early co-authored work with artist Michael Morris, Alptekin was a determined collaborator interested in authorless production, and went on to form many groups throughout his career such as Grup Grip-in, the Sea Elephant Travel Agency (2000–2004) and the Bunker Research Group.[1] Working with a variety of media, Alptekin explored the underbelly of globalization through historical traces, travel, place, memory and time. His installations are composed of found, used and replicated items that came from, or were developed in response to, a vast archive of personal research material. These collections, which nearly always include intricate layers of repetition, are organized according to Altepkin's personal systems of visual narrative. In his series Incidents, disparate tales are woven together to present a touching impression of how an individual can control and organize one moment in space and time.
Alptekin's work has been exhibited extensively internationally. In 2007, under the curatorship of Vasif Kortun, Alptekin represented Turkey in the 52nd Venice Biennale with the installation Don’t Complain [1], which featured videos from the Incidents series shown in wooden dining cabins inspired by a style of public dining from West Asia.[2] Also in 2007, Alptekin was selected to present work in the exhibition Global Cities [2] at Tate Modern with the installation Incidents Mumbai and Istanbul; presented a major work in the exhibition This Then That at Rodeo [3], Istanbul; and participated in the inaugural exhibition Modern and Beyond at SantralIstanbul [4]. Amongst his participation in many other exhibitions and residencies, in 2005 Alptekin's work was included in the 3rd Tirana Biennial, in 2004 in Manifesta 5, in 1998 in the São Paulo Biennial, and in 1995 and 2005 in the International Istanbul Biennial.
Opened April 9, 2011 at SALT Beyoğlu, the exhibition "I am not a studio artist" brings together works from every period in Alptekin's career along with five new commissions that respond to his life and work by artists Can Altay, Gülsün Karamustafa, Gabriel Lester, Camila Rocha and Nedko Solakov.[3]