ESRA GÜLMEN
TILE BY TILE, I EXIST

PLATAFORMA CONTEMPORARY ART, GUADALAJARA, MEXICO
22 JUNE – 7 SEPTEMBER 2025

TILE BY TILE, I EXIST, by Esra Gülmen, is presented on Plataforma’s second level as part of the ongoing collaboration with Ceramica Suro’s Collection and Project Production. Tile by Tile, I Exist, Esra Gülmen's first solo exhibition in Mexico, explores censorship, desire, and identity through ceramic works that reclaim presence, mosaic by mosaic.Drawing on her experiences in the Middle East and Europe, Gülmen challenges boundaries by embracing the tension between freedom and control of untamed bodies. The show includes an on-site mosaic floor, sculptures and wall pieces that combine pixelation with traditional craftsmanship, transforming repression into playful resistance. These works celebrate self-expression, sexual diversity, and bodily agency, inviting reflection on love, shame, and transformation.

Gülmen asks: What weights does the body carry and how can we rebuild ourselves, piece by piece?

© All images Registro. Foto de Obra.

FEATURED ARTIST

ESRA GÜLMEN
Esra Gülmen (b. 1986 in Istanbul) lives and works in Berlin. Gülmen has developed a playful, ironic practice by carving out and revealing “embedded notions” of social codes, and with it, torpedoing any vestige of the ideal in contemporary art. Text, image, and form operate democratically in Gülmen’s practice, which moves between painting and sculpture, translating the rawness of her reflections in an attempt to move as close as possible to “the Real.” Challenging oppressive forms, the fetishism of meaning, and the burden of reference, Gülmen calls on us to revisit our pieties regarding art and its functions.

Gülmen had her first inst...
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