INDEX 2026 — BB Born to Bloom, by Cemile Sahin

index: bb born to bloom, by cemile sahin • gnration

exhibition index 2026 — bb born to bloom, by cemile sahin

7 May 2026 to 8 Aug 2026 free gallery one m/6

Visual artist and writer, Cemile Sahin is an accomplished storyteller. Her work reflects the synchronicity of contemporary communication, strongly based on words and images. She works with cinema, photography, literature and sculpture, critically addressing structures of power, war and violence. The stories she creates are deliberately elliptical and fragmented, drawing inspiration from the episodic format of television series and internet videos. Sahin recognizes the subjectivity and coding of all narratives, as well as their instrumentalization by the media and politics for our understanding of History. Her works move at a dizzying pace by consciously using these media dynamics, drawing viewers into unexpected and, at times, uncomfortable conclusions.

Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, and of Kurdish-Alevi descent, her exhibition work has received wide recognition across Europe. Her works are part of the collections of the Ludwig Museum (Cologne), Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Kunsthaus Zürich, the Julia Stoschek Collection (Berlin/Düsseldorf), the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art (Turin), the Servais Family Collection (Brussels) and the Contemporary Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In dialogue with her exhibition practice, Cemile Sahin has published three novels. The first, *Taxi*, came out in 2019 and earned her the German Alfred Döblin literary prize. It was followed by *Alle Hunde Sterben* (*All Dogs Die*, 2020) and *Kommando Ajax* (2024), the latter selected for the Vienna Literature Prize. In 2025 she was awarded the Erich Fried literary prize.

The INDEX 2026 exhibition at gnration presents two recent works by the artist: *ROAD RUNNER* (2025) and *BB – Born to Bloom* (2025).

bb — born to bloom

In *BB — Born to Bloom*, Sahin continues to explore the intersection between war and nature, themes that have become part of her artistic language. The artist investigates how nature becomes not only a stage for armed conflict, but also a tool of military strategy: landscapes turn into barriers, natural resources become motives for war, and forests serve as camouflage. Nature itself also carries a collective identity, making it a target of psychological warfare.

In this group of works, Cemile Sahin represents different topographies, though historically linked — Switzerland and Kurdistan. On the LED screens, Sahin bombards us with bold, almost poster-like images that ultimately invert themselves: the Swiss Alps are revealed as a military apparatus full of bunkers and serving as an arena for tank exercises; on the other side, the Kurdish mountain ranges emerge as a country that sustains life, as well as cultural heritage, and embodies long-awaited freedom.

support

Portuguese Republic – Culture, Youth and Sport / Directorate-General for the Arts. Portuguese Network of Contemporary Art (RPAC). RTCP – Portuguese Network of Theatres and Cinema Theatres.