For Ahmet Albayrak, a member of the Cultural and Artistic Policies Board of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, the journey into art has been less about a singular moment and more about an accumulation of early experiences shaped by migration, family and imagination.

"I know it’s a cliche,” he begins, "but everything really did start at a very young age.” Born into a family that blended artistry and communication – his father an artist and long-time art educator, his mother employed by PTT and Türk Telekom – Albayrak grew up surrounded by "an atmosphere like a laboratory of creativity.”

"It was a family environment where painting, literature and art were discussed and produced, while at the same time the fascinating world of communication and technology surrounded us.”

His childhood was further enriched by the family’s migrant ties. His grandfather and relatives worked in coal mines and, serendipitously, in art material factories in Belgium and the Netherlands. Every summer, they returned to Türkiye bearing gifts: brushes, paints and captivating books that would become pivotal in shaping Albayrak’s artistic gaze.

"Even our first television and radio came from these migrant packages,” he recalls.

Before he could even read or write, he would stare into art books, mesmerized by images and scenes from art history. "I had a natural gift for drawing,” he says, "but those books – the visuals – completely enchanted me.”

Science, art

Despite his creative roots, Albayrak attended a science-focused high school, deeply immersed in chemistry, physics and analytical geometry. Yet even in that context, he was never far from art – drawing cartoons and infusing his scientific studies with visual narratives.

"Eventually, I realized where I truly belonged; the world of art, design and media.”

This shift, he explains, gave him what Slavoj Zizek calls "the intuition to look at art askew” – a perspective that enabled him to fuse scientific discipline with conceptual, emotionally driven art practices.

Istanbul, beyond

Albayrak’s relocation to Istanbul marked a critical rupture and a flourishing. He worked with sociologists, historians, critics, curators and artists, and was selected for major events and awards.

"But the most important transformation,” he says, "was understanding that art is more than an aesthetic condition – it’s a cultural and political field.”

In the early 2000s, as conversations about the Western-centric canon of art gained momentum, Albayrak was already interrogating these systems and proposing alternatives. His time in Europe and later in New York helped him refine his visual language, pushing his work toward a cleaner, more instinctual form.

"I’ve always seen sharing this accumulated knowledge – whether with students, colleagues, or institutions I’ve worked with – not as an individual act but as a political and public responsibility.”

Metaphor for displacement, hope

One of Albayrak’s most poetic and resonant works, "The Lost Ambassador," is part of his long-developing "Ambassadors” series. The piece explores a fragile space between alienation and belonging, fusing visual metaphors with socio-political themes.

"The concept of the envoy is taken in all its metaphorical dimensions. The work emerged in an ecosystem where ideas of space (digital or physical), home, architecture, compassion, environment, isolation, displacement, justice, innocence and human vulnerability intertwine.”

The work features astronaut figures – ambiguous and solitary. Are they occupied? Or merely shells? Alongside them are hoopoe birds, wind socks and reading flashcards, each a symbolic carrier of meaning. The reading cards, for example, connect directly to Albayrak’s early childhood memories of learning and language.

"They’re not just collage materials; they represent the bond we form with reading and understanding as children.”

Meanwhile, wind socks hint at measurement and science, while the hoopoe birds, drawn from Sufi and spiritual traditions, appear as guides or messengers. "The Lost Ambassador,” he says, "is a result of a tangential search – a point where meanings touch and cross.”

From concept to completion

Reflecting on his process, Albayrak describes it as both disciplined and intuitive. "I only realized years later how strong my work ethic was,” he says.

The conceptual development is often slow and rooted in lived experience. "If your relationship with life is organic, sensitive, and full of responsibility, the communication network between art and truth becomes stronger.” As he explains, this is followed by technical and formal stages that fluctuate between structure and spontaneity – eventually giving way to refinement and composition.

Some pieces take years to complete. "The Lost Ambassador" was one of them.

"I couldn’t touch the painting for seven months. That period marked one of the biggest changes in my life; the birth of my son. When I returned to it, the piece took a freer, more instinctual and emotionally resonant shape.”

Art born of crisis, witnessing

The emotional and political weight of "The Lost Ambassador" is inseparable from its historical context. "It’s impossible to think about this piece without acknowledging the place I was in, the geography, the events I witnessed.”

From the global climate crisis to forced migrations, devastating earthquakes, social media’s psychological grip and political unrest – each of these elements permeated the work’s spirit.

"Maybe more than anything, it’s a piece about grief for lost innocence – and, just as strongly, a hope for poetic justice.”

Sometimes these themes are overt, as in his "High Innocence" series or monochromatic flag installations. At other times, they surface through subtle animations or symbolic images. In "The Lost Ambassador," these layers form an emotional and intellectual tapestry.

Symbolic networks

Much of Albayrak’s iconography is rooted in personal, philosophical and literary sources. The reading cards, birds, wind socks, ideas of gravity and abandoned urban spaces point to broader reflections on time, memory and displacement.

"There’s a wide spectrum at play – from Deleuze and Derrida to Kamusi Türki, Pendname, ancient dictionaries, Sufi narratives and even artificial intelligence.”

He draws from Ottoman literature, folk art, Asian stories and French theory, merging ancient texts with contemporary questions.

Exhibiting in streets of Antwerp

Showing "The Lost Ambassador" at the Onboards Biennale in Antwerp was a deliberate choice. The biennial’s unorthodox model – eschewing gallery walls for public spaces – was a refreshing antidote to traditional art platforms.

"It doesn’t use standard exhibition methods. It meets the public, the streets, and everyday life in an unmediated and spontaneous way. That makes the encounter with the work more democratic, more genuine.”

The piece also resonated with Antwerp’s art history. "The wind socks in the work served as mapping devices, while the piece offered a contemporary response to the figurative traditions of Flemish Baroque painting.”

Representing Türkiye in this international, street-level format was both a personal and national honor.

Video of loss, memory

Another of Albayrak’s acclaimed works, "Ground Zero III," was born from a deeply personal moment. While mapping a piece of land in his ancestral village – long abandoned due to migration – he encountered a lack of modern tools. Improvised solutions followed.

"We used bundles of thread, cloth, wire – practical, Dadaist tools. But we were really there to say goodbye to the land, to pass it on. I wasn’t born or raised there, but I felt this strange ache, a mourning for a lost place, a lost memory.”

The resulting video, selected for the Videograma Festival in Bogota, uses digital storytelling to reconstruct cities, spaces and paths through memory. Thread and fabric become digital data lines. The work evolved not as a documentary, but as conceptual storytelling rooted in heritage and emotion.

Family collaboration

"Everything from the materials to the filming process, I did with my family,” says Albayrak. "My mother, father, grandmother, brother, even a few students were involved.” It was a deeply collaborative act – personal and collective.

"The video is not just a conceptual piece. It’s the result of a production process tied to roots, family, belonging and geography.”

With "Ground Zero III," Albayrak extends his practice beyond medium or format – into memory, diaspora and transformation.

Ahmet Albayrak’s art is not created in a vacuum. It is a dialogue with memory, place, philosophy and time. In works like "The Lost Ambassador" and "Ground Zero III," he invites us to explore what happens when identity becomes untethered, when memory slips into absence, and when imagination builds new maps of belonging.

"Art is the main actor in this never-ending, ever-layering process,” he reflects. And in Albayrak’s world, every image, every symbol, carries the weight of the past and the pulse of the present.