ABSTRACT EXPRESSION: Floating Between Worlds – Ilos Ilyas Elias Kirkan

I was born a Kurd in central Anatolia, Turkey – a minority before I ever understood what that word meant. I grew up in a suburb of Copenhagen, where I learned quickly how to adapt, to translate myself constantly, and to carry a name and identity that didn’t quite fit the mold.

After returning from the summer holidays one summer when I was a child, I told my teacher in Denmark what had happened at Ankara airport. The policeman asked me what language I spoke with my mum! The minute I said Kurdish, he slapped me so hard telling me there isn’t such a language. My mum then got upset with me for upsetting the policeman.

I was confused and my world had turned upside down. Thankfully my lovely Danish teacher then explained the history of my people and for being born a Kurd – for being a minority.

Later in life, I moved to London, where I lived for nearly twenty years, and then to Lisbon, where I’ve spent the last decade. Despite these diverse and vibrant cities, I’ve remained a minority everywhere I’ve lived. This experience of being a minority in every place I’ve lived, each time in a different way – of never fully blending in, never fully belonging – has shaped me in profound ways.

Being a minority is not just about numbers. It’s about feeling unseen even when you’re right there. It’s about speaking, but having your voice filtered through someone else’s expectations, worldview or borders. It’s about constantly code-switching, not just in language but in behavior, in emotion, even in presence. These aren’t things you can easily explain – but you can express them.

Hence why I create art.

Art, for me, is a space where I don’t have to translate or justify myself. It’s where I can be whole. Where complexity is not only allowed, it’s necessary. My work is often based on personal journeys, but it also speaks to a broader human condition: the feeling of being in-between, of belonging nowhere and everywhere at once. My art is not an answer; it’s a reflection, a question, an offering.

I carry multiple homes within me, multiple versions of self shaped by borders, languages, and histories. And in my art, I try to make space for all of them to exist together. Because for those of us who live and float between worlds, visibility is radical. Like smiling is resistance so is expression.

Conceptual Danish-Kurdish Artist KIRKAN, Ilos Ilyas Elias is a Mental Ideas ambassador and cover artist for The Apostrophe’s 10th issue: ‘PASSION’.