Creative Futures Academy at the NCAD is honoured to announce the appointment of Banu Cennetoğlu and Lucia Pietroiusti as their 2024 Creative Fellows. 

Starting in Spring 2024, these leading figures of international creative practice will engage with NCAD’s community through workshops, curated talks, student-led projects and public facing activities.

They will take a leading role in expanding our conversations about the place of art and creative practice in today’s world.

In her practice, the Istanbul-based visual artist Banu Cennetoğlu, filters the acts of collecting, archiving and distributing information through the lens of psychology and ethics. Using an ever-growing range of media and materials – from golden helium balloons to raw stone and ATM stickers – she interrogates what transforms data and images into political action or inaction. 

Her new work, reflecting on long-term impacts of nation building, can be viewed in Dublin at IMMA’s major museum wide exhibition, Self-Determination: A Global Perspective (running now until 21 Apr 2024).

On Saturday 24th February, Banu Cennetoğlu will be in conversation in IMMA with Dr Başak Ertür, research fellow at Forensic Architecture. All are welcome to register for this talk on the IMMA website here.

Curator Lucia Pietroiusti, Head of Ecologies at Serpentine, London inserts systemic, ecological thinking into her collaborations (festivals, screenings, podcasts and research projects) with hundreds of institutions worldwide. In 2019, Pietroiusti curated Sun & Sea (Marina), an environmental opera for 24 performers which was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, and has gone on to tour the globe.

She recently discussed with the students of CFA’s Professional Certificate in Sustainable Exhibition Making practical solutions that artists should consider in face of climate breakdown. 

Banu Cennetoğlu’s and Lucia Pietroiusti are redefining the way artists approach sustainability, collaborative practice and social justice. The NCAD couldn’t be more excited to welcome these engaged artists-citizens who will  inspire and challenge us as an institution and as makers. 

For more information, and updates on upcoming events, please continue to check out the CFA website and our various socials.

Banu Cennetoğlu is an Istanbul-based artist engaged in a wide range of cross-disciplinary practices. Her practice incorporates methods of archiving in order to question and challenge the politics of memory, as well as the production, distribution and consumption of information. Cennetoglu had solo exhibitions at institutions including Void, Derry; K21 Ständehaus, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Sculpture Center, New York; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Bonner Kunstverein; Rodeo Gallery, London; Salonul de proiecte, Bucharest; Kunsthalle Basel. Along many group shows, she has participated in the Berlin, Istanbul, Liverpool, Gwangju, Athens and Venice Biennials, as well as Manifesta 8, Murcia; documenta14, Athens/Kassel and 58th Carnegie International, Pittsburg. 

She is the founder of BAS, an, artist-run space in Istanbul dedicated to artists’ books and printed matter. Cennetoglu is currently an advisor at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam.

Lucia Pietroiusti is Head of Ecologies at Serpentine, London. As a curator, Pietroiusti works at the intersection of art, ecology and systems, often outside of the exhibition space. She was the founder of Serpentine’s General Ecology project (2018-ongoing) and the curator of Sun & Sea (Lithuanian Pavilion, 2019 Venice Biennale and 2019-25 tour), 8th Biennale Gherdeïna (with Filipa Ramos), Back to Earth (Serpentine, 2020-2022), The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish (also with Filipa Ramos) and Infinite Ecologies Marathon (2023-2024). Recent publications include More-than-Human (with Andrés Jaque and Marina Otero Verzier) and Microhabitable (with Fernando García-Dory).