Ayşe Emre (1997, Leiden) is an installation artist based in The Hague. Her work emerges from a desire to stay close to the fleeting, the elemental and the ungraspable. Drawing on a background in photography, Ayşe creates immersive environments centred around physical processes such as projection, reflection, heat and movement. These works do not aim to represent the world, but to spend time with it.
Emre often works with natural phenomena such as light, fire, and time, which she experiences as both overwhelming and consoling. Her installations offer space for quiet attention, inviting viewers into an encounter that is sensory, temporary and deeply human. Fire appears frequently in her work, not only as a visual event but as a force of transformation, something that illuminates, consumes and refuses to be captured.
Her relationship with photography remains present throughout her practice, but the camera has been dismantled, stretched and expanded. Ayşe treats image-making not as documentation but as a living process. Lenses, mirrors and analogue projection techniques are used to create images that move, shift and disappear, never entirely fixed, never entirely still.
Inspired by early optical technologies such as the magic lantern, she draws connections between pre-cinematic image-making and contemporary experience. Her installations respond to the environments they inhabit, often shaped by changing light, weather or the viewer’s movement. Control gives way to observation, and structure makes room for presence.
At the core of her work is a quiet urgency to share something that cannot be held but can be witnessed. In a world that is both brutal and magnificent, Ayşe creates environments where fleeting moments are not captured, but shared.
EDUCATION
Ayşe graduated cum laude at St. Joost School of Art & Design (BR) with a bachelor in Photography, Film & the Digital.
EXHIBITIONS (latest)
2026 Vilnius Light Festival (Vilnius, LT)
2025 Museumnacht Alkmaar, Podium Victorie (Alkmaar, NL)
2025 Emergence Festival, Onderzeebootloods (Rotterdam, NL)
2025 Cinemachine, Het Werkwarenhuis (‘s-Hertogenbosch, NL)
2025 Scenography E-Live Nicolaïkerk (Utrecht, NL)
2024 Guest curator Lichtkunstfestival LUNA (Leeuwarden, NL)
2024 Group exhibition, Patch Studios (Den Haag, NL)
2024 The New Current, Brutus (Rotterdam, NL)
2024 Young Masters Lichtkunstfestival LUNA (Leeuwarden, NL)
2023 The Funniest Festival Ever, Chassé Theater (Breda, NL)
2023 Self organised group exhibition, COHEISA, Pier15 (Breda, NL)
2023 Theaterfestival Boulevard (‘s-Hertogenbosch, NL)
2023 Solo exhibition, Weelde (Rotterdam, NL)
2023 Weelde festival (Rotterdam, NL)
CONTACT
Studio@AyseEmre.com
Instagram @StudioAyseEmre