Maya Bal­cioglu

Maya Bal­cioglu was born in Istanbul in 1955 and moved to London in 1977. After graduating from Brighton in 1982, where she chose to study because it was near the sea, she attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London and graduated in 1984. While supporting her own education, she worked in factories, night shifts, and catering jobs. Balcioglu collaborated with Stuart Brisley on The Cenotaph Project (1987-1991) and edited the publication for the project. As an experimental space to test ideas in public with an immediate and unambiguous risk element, she decided to set up a shop that mirrored a business. This space was established within the commercial paradigm, and failure was real and meant serious losses. It had a core identity established by presenting certain "goods," but other than that, its purpose was kept deliberately unclear. The flexibility of the speculation proved to be a light-footed success. At the height of its success, the business was no longer relevant and became a model for others to follow, so it was closed. Balcioglu is currently part of the curatorial team of the Museum of Ordure.