Melisa Yağmur Saydı

Melisa Yağmur Saydı (1998, Istanbul) is an experimental filmmaker and a video artist. Focusing on the material characteristics of video, her formal explorations revolve around pixelization, noise, low resolution videos, drawings, collage and 2D animation. Instead of seeking sharpness and visual closeness to reality, she focuses on creating a material poetics of image and aims to express specific emotions, thoughts and states through the manipulation of the graphics, light, movement and sound data. She often deals with overexposure to media, the urban experience, the political climate of Türkiye and the fluctuating states of mind of the contemporary individual under neoliberal circumstances.

While commenting on contemporary issues often through parody, she also activates the contemplative dimension of video using rhythmic audiovisual metamorphosis and musical composition. For her residency at MORPHO, Melisa will be preparing a live audiovisual performance using her video archive of over 150 videos. She will research how to turn her personal audiovisual language into a toolbox that she can control live through programming. She will also compose the sound for her performance.

Melisa is part of QAZ (Queer Autonomous Zone), a network of queer artists exploring LGBTI+ politics beyond nation-state borders and geopolitical divisions, through art and community building. Melisa’s work has been shown at Festival OVNI where she received the Sud Emergence Award, at MAM Rio for Festival ECRÃ, MAC Marseille, Friche la Belle de Mai, Northwest Film Forum and at various other exhibitions.