Ali Kazma (Istanbul, Turkey, 1971) is a lens-based media artist living and working in Paris. He has a master of arts degree from the New School in New York City.
Questioning social organisation and the value of human activity, he highlights the relationship between the visible and the invisible aspects of reality by looking closely at the management of labour, time, bodies, gestures, space and processes. Kazma’s attentive eye collects specific activities in a broad range of economic, industrial, scientific, medical, social and artistic spheres.
He has an interest in spaces of social and cultural significance, places of production, in industries and handicraft, as well as in the details of machinery and ritualistic, repetitive daily tasks.
The artist, who represented Turkey at the 55th Venice Biennale - Pavilion of Turkey in 2013, had a comprehensive solo exhibition at Jeu de Paume, Paris in 2017. Ali Kazma’s other solo exhibitions include Istanbul Modern Museum (2025), The Image Center (Toronto, 2025), Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (2023), MUNTREF (Buenos Aires, 2018), Arter (Istanbul, 2015), Hirshhorn Museum (Washington, 2010).
Group exhibitions and biennials include Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris, 2024), Lenbachhaus Museum (Munich, 2024), 6th Kuandu Biennale (Taipei, 2018), 7th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2017), MAXXI (Rome, 2016), Musée d'Art Contemporaine de Lyon (Lyon, 2013), 30th Sao Paulo Biennial (Sao Paulo, 2012), Istanbul Biennial (Istanbul, 2001, 2007, 2011), Muzeum Sztuki Lodz (Lodz, 2012), Istanbul Modern (Istanbul, 2011), Museum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf, 2010) and New Museum (New York, 2010).
He has received the UNESCO Prize for Promotion of the Arts in 2001 and the Nam June Paik Award in 2010. The artist’s works have been included in a number of institutional collections including MoMA, New York, Tate Modern (London), CNAP (Paris), Istanbul Modern, MEP (Paris), Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, MONA (Tasmania), Sztuki Museum (Lodz), Fondation Cartier (Paris), TBA21 (Vienna), and VKV Foundation Collection (Istanbul).