Mehmet Ali Uysal was born in 1976 in Mersin. He graduated from the Middle East Technical University Faculty of Architecture Department of City and Regional Planning in 1998. In the same year, he started working as a part-time lecturer in the Elective Sculpture Course. In 2003, he became a research assistant in the same department. After completing his master’s degree in the Department of Sculpture at Hacettepe University Faculty of Fine Arts in 2005, he completed his doctorate with competence in art in 2009.

During this period, the artist began working on space, the perception and the memory of space. In the early 2000s, he developed metaphors related to the idea of architectural space becoming a body. The first space of a person is the mother’s womb; the first room is, in fact, the uterus. Therefore, walls can be described as skin, water pipes passing through them as veins, and cables as nerve endings. The artist emphasizes that he records the memories of space as a living entity in his memory. We can illustrate the memory of space with sound waves. While speaking in a space, the sound waves we emit never leave that space; thus, conversations form the memory of that space. The artist also associates the perception of space with sensation. What our eyes perceive as two-dimensional becomes three-dimensional when we move and feel it.

Two examples of his site-specific installations are the “Capadox” exhibition held in Cappadocia in 2017 and the ”SU” exhibition held at Le Bon Marché in 2022. His installation, which would simply be placed paper boat anywhere else, turned into the legendary Noah’s Ark on the hill of Üçhisar Castle during the Capadox exhibition, adding a mythical atmosphere to the site. The artist’s works transform the spaces in which they are placed.

As a second example, the ”SU” exhibition is a critically adresses to consumer society and draws attention to the climate crisis. The artist submerges Le Bon Marché, the first modern department store in history, underwater. Two icebergs installation on the ceiling of the shopping center, as if to say that as you consume, these icebergs melt further. The installation, like the artist’s other works, blends with and complements the space. If displayed in a museum, it would not have the same impact as when displayed in a shopping center; the exhibition completes the space.

The idea of submerging Le Bon Marché underwater can also be seen in the ”Coule” exhibition, displayed in the garden of the French Embassy in Ankara. The artist transforms the garden into an water image. In the garden, you can see ten sunken boats, each measuring six meters.