Deniz Önlü – Overlapping Flows

Deniz Önlü – Overlapping Flows   

Studio Mustanapa 01.08 – 23.08.2026

Transience produces a state of uncertainty in which relationships, surroundings, and familiarity are unstable. This project explores how artistic process can become a way of learning to inhabit an unfamiliar place without seeking permanence. Weaving together fragments gathered through everyday encounters within a temporary live–work environment, the work unfolds as a provisional zone of belonging. 

Overlapping Flows grew out of a stay in Joutsa, Finland. It draws parallels between a roadside water ditch and dining tables where conversations unfold. Just as a flowing ditch is glimpsed through small openings in the snow-covered ground, shared meals lift the cover of unfamiliar surroundings. Taking a seat hesitantly becomes an act of inhabiting a temporary space and draws one closer to the hidden flows of life around it. Around the table, conversations reveal personal stories shaped by memories and imagined futures. They also uncover uncertainties related to one’s profession, legal status, or age, while offering ways to adapt to the fleeting conditions of the present. 

The installation gives physical form to an attempt to draw boundaries around uncertainty by weaving its elements into a spatial narrative. Rather than resolving the tensions between ambiguity and confidence, familiarity and the unknown, intimacy and distance, it sustains them. The work is situated in an in-between state where belonging is held only momentarily. 

Deniz Önlü is a visual artist working primarily with installations. Her practice centers on spatial experience, belonging, and the subtle relationships between individuals and their environments.  

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