SAHA supports Berlin Program for Artists within the scope of Umut Azad Akkel’s new project The Path between 6 December 2025 – 11 January 2026.

The Path explores the critical and often alienating relationship between self and city. It reflects on Umut Azad Akkel’s experience of Istanbul during a formative year that led to his migration to Berlin. The work addresses the tension between personal existence and the urban environment, focusing on how gentrification, political instability, and spatial transformation force individuals into a state of constant negotiation, often leading to self-alienation.

The BPA// Exhibition 2025 is the culminating public presentation of the BPA// Berlin program for artists, an independent mentoring program for emerging Berlin-based art- ists. The exhibition takes place at the renowned KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, providing a high-profile platform for ten early-career artists to present new, site-specific, or contextually expanded works developed during their two-year BPA// cycle.

Participating artists:Umut Azad Akkel, Felisha Carenage, Will Fredo, Tra My Nguyen, Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, Stanton Taylor, Rexy Tseng, Prateek Vijan, Hana Yoo, Julija Zaharijević

Umut Azad Akkel (1991) combines objects, drawings, collages, and video performances in a cyclical production process to develop participatory installations for both public and indoor spaces. Additionally, he creates small objects, drawings, and photography series inspired by his poetry. Akkel’s work focuses on vulnerabilities and dysfunctionalities at the intersection of identity politics, urban transformation, ownership of public space, and private and public relationships. He lives between Berlin and Istanbul, where he studied Fine Arts (Berlin) and Product Design (Istanbul).

About BPA

BPA// is an artist-led organization, founded in 2016 by Angela Bulloch, Simon Denny and Willem de Rooij. The program is centered around mutual studio-visits between participants and mentors. It is punctuated with a range of public events, organized together with both artist-run spaces and renowned institutions. BPA// is a partner of KW Institute for Contemporary Art, where a yearly exhibition of participants’ works takes place.
Participation in BPA// lasts two years and it is free of charge.