OCAD U Thirdspace Masterclasses: Staging Narratives with Erdem Taşdelen

THIRDSPACE Masterclasses and Artist Talk with Erdem Taşdelen at OCAD University

Masterclasses: Saturday, July 4, 11 and 18, 2026 | 1 – 4pm
Free Artist Talk: Wednesday, July 29, 2026 | 5 – 7pm
Register & RSVP here

This July, join OCAD University’s THIRDSPACE Summer Artist and Mentor-in-Residence Erdem Taşdelen for Staging Narratives, a three-part master class series exploring graphic design, moving image, and sound as tools for reimagined storytelling.

Each session draws from a project in Taşdelen’s own practice, using it as a springboard for hands-on work in Adobe Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and Audition. Through hands-on exercises, participants will develop skills in writing, image-making and sound design, while approaching narrative as a flexible and experimental process.

All workshops and the artist talk are open to all ages and experience levels.

Images (left to right): A Moving Target, Erdem Taşdelen, Computer-generated montage sequence with 100 silent UHD videos, approx. 100 mins. 2021-2022. Unmade Films, Erdem Taşdelen. 16 inkjet printed movie posters, 32″ x 45″ (81.3 x 114.3 cm) each, 2022

THIRDSPACE Masterclasses: Staging Narratives with Erdem Taşdelen
Saturday, July 4, 11 and 18, 2026 | 1 – 4pm
Register here

Workshop 1:
Drawing inspiration from Taşdelen’s project Unmade Films, which includes posters for imaginary movies. Using Adoble Illustrator and Photoshop to design posters for films that they will never make, participants will learn how writing and image can articulate narratives that remain speculative, fragmentary and provisional. Participants will be introduced to techniques for using text to create narrative frameworks, employing the ready-made form of a movie poster to “stage” their narratives.

Workshop 2:
Drawing inspiration from Taşdelen’s work A Moving Target, inviting participants to use their cell phone cameras to record short video fragments around campus, and will edit them on Adobe Premiere Pro. Focusing on light, texture, colour, and movement rather than plot, the exercise cultivates attentiveness to the world around us, and skills for intentional framing. Selected clips will be reviewed together and, exploring how fragments can carry narrative potential without resolution.

Workshop 3:
Drawing inspiration from the sound component of Taşdelen’s THIRDSPACE residency project, this session explores sound as a narrative device. Participants will learn basic recording and editing techniques in Adobe Audition, layering voice, found audio and ambient soundscapes to construct atmospheres that guide perception and emotion.

Images (left to right): Erdem Taşdelen, Apparitions: Plunge / Apparitions: Rush, inkjet-printed photographs, 45 x 60 cm each, 2025; photo by Kayhan Kaygusuz. Headshot of Erdem Taşdelen; photo by Sarah Bodri. Images courtesy of the artist.

Public Artist Talk: Erdem Taşdelen
Wednesday, July 29, 2026 | 5 – 7pm
RSVP here

Join us for an artist talk by Erdem Taşdelen, marking the culmination of his two-month residency at OCAD University. Working across video, performance, installation, and text, his practice explores narrative as a fluid, constructed form. During his residency, he led a month-long thematic program with emerging artists, alongside workshops and studio visits. This talk shares insights into his interdisciplinary approach, recent projects, and the ideas developed through collaboration, experimentation, and storytelling across media.

About the Artist

Erdem Taşdelen is an artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. Through the use of diverse materials and media, he constructs semi-fictional narratives that incorporate unique historical figures, events and texts to implicate contemporary sociopolitical realities. At the core of his artistic practice lies an exploration of how narrative interacts with its form, and how different forms “stage” narratives.

Taşdelen has exhibited at venues including The Power Plant, Aga Khan Museum and Mercer Union in Toronto; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; VOX, Montréal; Framer Framed, Amsterdam; Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg; and Pera Museum, Istanbul. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Delfina Foundation and Studio Voltaire, London; Hangar, Lisbon; Rupert, Vilnius; and KulturKontakt, Vienna. He was awarded the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Visual Arts by the Canada Council in 2016, the Charles Pachter Prize.

Got questions?
Get in touch with Meichen Waxer at mwaxer@ocadu.ca

OCAD University
100 McCaul Street
Toronto, ON M5T 1W1
Accessibility Level: This venue is accessible.