VUSLAT DOĞAN SABANCI

In 2020, Vuslat established Turkey’s first global philanthropic enterprise, called the Vuslat Foundation.

Early Years

Vuslat was born in Istanbul, Turkey. In 1996, Vuslat began working at Hürriyet Publishing, the leading newspaper-publishing group in Turkey. During her time at Hürriyet, Vuslat created an editorial policy that highlighted issues of gender equality and human rights. In 2004, she established the ‘No! To Domestic Violence’ campaign that aimed to empower women and generate positive social change in Turkey. To accompany the campaign, Vuslat launched Turkey’s first 24/7 domestic violence hotline, which still exists today.

Vuslat Foundation

In 2020, Vuslat established the Vuslat Foundation. The foundation was created to help support creative connections through ‘generous listening’, a term coined by Vuslat that proposes the questions: What if we deeply listened to ourselves? What if we genuinely listened to one another? What if we sincerely listened to nature?

The foundation encourages important connections among different communities—particularly young people—by working with artists, storytellers, and academic researchers. In 2021, the foundation was invited to be a project partner with the 17^th Architectural Biennale in Venice to represent artist Giuseppe Penone and his installation The Listener (2021).

Vuslat Artworks

Vuslat is a self-taught artist who has been practicing sculpture for the last two decades. For her solo exhibition Silence (2022), Vuslat presented sculptures made from different materials including marble, stone, and bronze. Each artwork varies in size and adopts unusual organic forms that often balance on a solid plinth.

Vuslat’s Silence (2020–2022) sculptures explore the idea that form and matter can create an artistic language that establishes a multi-sensory experience. The natural curved shapes of Vuslat’s sculptures mirror natural landscapes moved by wind or weathered by streams of water.

The exhibition is titled Silence because Vuslat is interested in the things we hold in silence: for instance, thoughts we decide not to share and keep in our subconscious. She believes that selective silence plays a large role in the connections we make. Vuslat’s sculptures capture the space in-between, depicting organic forms that hold the silence amid one another in an intimate balancing act.

Silence was developed in Vuslat’s studio in Turkey between 2020 and 2022.

Exhibitions

Vuslat publicly exhibited her work for the first time with her solo exhibition Silence (2022) at Pi Artworks Gallery in London.

Website and Instagram

Vuslat’s website can be found here and her Instagram can be found here.

Phoebe Bradford | Ocula | 2022