- Title
İçe Dönüş II
- Artist
- Belkıs Balpınar
BELKIS BALPINAR: INTROSPECTION II Belkıs Balpınar’s “Introspection II” brings traditional kilim weaving into dialogue with void, volume and cosmic scale. Areas that remain unwoven become as active in the composition as the threads themselves.
After studying textiles at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, Belkıs Balpınar worked as a curator at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts and later as founding director of the Vakıflar Carpet and Kilim Museum. From the 1980s onward, she transformed her deep research into Anatolian weaving into a contemporary practice and became a pioneering figure in what is often described as artkilim. Balpınar treats weaving not simply as a patterned surface, but as a structure capable of thinking through time, space and the scale of the universe.
“Introspection II” combines kilim and pile weaving with areas that have intentionally been left unwoven. The void between black and pale curving forms creates spatial depth rather than a sense of absence. Loose fibres extending beyond the woven surface direct the eye outside the conventional boundaries of the kilim. “Introspection II” proposes introspection not as withdrawal, but as a way of repositioning the self within a larger spatial order.
