Sarah Szczesny is a visual artist and painter based in Cologne, Germany and a graduate of the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where she studied with Rosemarie Trockel. Painting forms the core of her practice, though her work often extends into video, animation, performance, sound, and collaborative formats. Her approach to painting is deeply connected to questions of material transformation, cultural hierarchies, and alternative forms of production and circulation.

During her recent stay in Istanbul at Culture Academy Tarabya Szczesny continued developing an ongoing series of textile-based works in collaboration with designer Sapna Raji / White Canvas. Raji works with sustainable, primarily handwoven textiles and combines extensive knowledge of Turkish and Indian fabric traditions.

The collaboration began during Szczesny’s previous residency in Istanbul two years ago. The paintings from which the garments are made were initially produced in a process that functioned more like writing or note-taking than the conventional composition of a painting. Around 32 meters of painted material vom handwoven Sile fabric from the Black Sea were handed over to Raji and her team, who cut, reconstructed, and transformed them into a collection of different unique garments. The process unfolded largely outside of the artist’s control, opening up a space of deconstruction, reinterpretation, and collaborative authorship.

For Szczesny, garments and textiles function not only as objects but also as carriers of images, movement, memory, and social exchange. The collaboration reflects a shared interest in material transformation, sustainable production, and forms of artistic work that emerge through dialogue, improvisation, and exchange across different cultural and craft contexts.